Several charges have been brought against a former City of Miami police officer, the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office said on Monday.
Djimy Joseph, 47, is accused of one count each of making false official statements, money laundering over $100,000, and organizing a plot to defraud over $50,000.
Yoa’s Café Inc., also known as Sabor Latino Bar & Grill, is located at 2350 NW Seventh St., and the Florida Department of Alcoholic Beverages and Tabaco (ABT) conducted a normal licensing inspection, according to the prosecution. Joseph was identified as the business’s proprietor.
Additionally, according to Joseph’s arrest report, he was the owner of Djimy Properties, LLC, DJ Motors Transportation and Logistics, LLC, and Fondation L.O.V.E. Corp.
The issue, however, is that, in accordance with an arrest warrant, Joseph was at the time the owner and/or operator of a business that sold or served alcoholic beverages, which is against Florida law as an active police enforcement official.
For that conduct, Joseph was first charged with a misdemeanor, according to the prosecution, and a public corruption investigation was launched.
In addition, Joseph had “fraudulently applied for and received over $246,000 in COVID Relief loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (‘PPP’) and other government programs provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (‘CARES Act’),” according to the State Attorney’s Office, which conducted the investigation.
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The warrant, according to the prosecution, details how Joseph’s claims on the PPP application conflict with bank records and the sworn evidence of former workers about their compensation.
The warrant also describes, according to the prosecution, how he made fraudulent claims, lying about “the number of employees he had and monthly payroll amounts, business revenues and expenses to receive a larger loan.”
“Public Corruption in any form cannot and must not be tolerated at any level of public service,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle stated in a statement. “Mr. Joseph’s actions show a deliberate and intentional pattern of behavior that was meant for his personal financial gain at the expense of breaking the law he had sworn to uphold as an officer and betraying the trust the public placed in him.”
Joseph’s total bond was set at $20,500 at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Tuesday.
