candidate for Miami-Dade circuit judge was permanently barred from the banking profession by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after running a bank acquired with drug money two decades ago.
Before he was a lawyer, Ricardo Corona was executive vice president and director of the now-defunct Sunshine State Bank, which his family acquired in 1978 with secret backing from Miami drug dealer Jose Antonio Fernandez, according to court documents.
Corona was not charged in the bank’s collapse, but his father and brother were. He is running for a vacant seat against Abby Cynamon, former Miami-Dade Circuit assistant general counsel.
“Everything that’s in the past, everything I’ve been through has made me a better person,” Corona said in an interview at his Coral Gables law office. “I’ve learned a lot from the experience. I’ve learned a lot about what makes a good judge.”
Palm Beach County judicial elections consultant Andre Fladell said Corona’s background shouldn’t affect his ability to serve on the bench, but it may produce an attack on his integrity.
“The argument of performance is not a fair one. Everybody’s got an incredible past, and it doesn’t stop them from being a fair judge,” he said. “A person who’s been involved with the sleaze can recognize it better than someone who hasn’t.”
But on the question of integrity, Fladell said Corona’s background “will make his campaign improbable if not impossible if the opposition plays it well,” he said.
A mailer questioning his background sent within days of the election would make his campaign difficult by pre-empting a response, Fladell said.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Bruce Rogow, who teaches legal ethics at Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center, said Corona’s campaign should not be penalized for something that happened 20 years ago.
“Being barred from the banking business doesn’t mean you can’t be a lawyer,” he said. “It would be a low blow to make that a feature of any campaign. It is something that’s relevant, but if everything else about him is positive, I think a voter could consider him.”
Sunshine State Bank made headlines in the 1980s after it became the target of a grand jury investigation centering on Fernandez’s role as a marijuana dealer and his relationship with the bank. Investigators said Fernandez was a silent partner who lent Ray Corona, Ricardo’s brother, the money to acquire the bank.
A U.S. District Court jury convicted both Ray and Rafael Corona of travel act offenses, mail fraud and racketeering charges under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization act. Ray Corona was also convicted of a RICO conspiracy charge.
In a startling twist, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an unrelated decision two days after the verdicts that caused a district judge to dismiss most of the Coronas’ convictions.
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the sole remaining travel act count against Rafael Corona, but upheld a travel act count and two RICO counts against Ray Corona. Ray Corona served seven years in prison and was released.
“Ray Corona helped Fernandez buy controlling interest in a bank under extremely dishonest circumstances with laundered drug money. Such a purchase is in reality part of the laundering process. For his role in the purchase and in running the bank for Fernandez, Ray received a percentage ownership without paying any of the purchase price,” the late Paul H. Roney, chief judge of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in 1989 after Ray Corona and his father Rafael appealed their criminal convictions. “In essence Fernandez bought the bank with drug proceeds and gave a portion of it to Ray.”
Fernandez was arrested in New Orleans and charged with drug crimes in 1981. Ray Corona visited him “ostensibly to help Fernandez make bail,” according to court documents. Ray Corona returned to Miami after Fernandez argued his presence would expose a connection between him and the bank. The late U.S. District Judge James Kehoe sentenced Fernandez to 50 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 17 drug counts in 1985.
In Ricardo Corona’s mind, there’s a bright-line distinction between the bank’s acquisition and its operations.
“There’ve never been allegations that we financed drug transactions at the bank,” he said. “The issues were that my brother allowed a marijuana smuggler to invest in the bank.”
Corona said his brother and Fernandez used Alma Robles, who comes from an influential Panamanian family, as the figurehead buyer.
Sunshine was founded in 1972 and wrote off losses of $165 million in the six years it operated before the Coronas arrived. The bank’s earnings then shot up — peaking at $818 million in 1981, according to court documents.
But it wasn’t long before the bank ran afoul of FDIC regulators, who spent the better part of a decade trying to shut it down, alleging it was making bad loans that threatened its solvency.
In 1983, the FDIC concluded 47 percent of Sunshine’s loans were misclassified, and its bad loans represented 581 percent of the bank’s capital reserves.
“Every time there were allegations of bad loans, I challenged them [the FDIC] in court,” Ricardo Corona said.
The bank’s fight raised eyebrows. The FDIC attempted several times in court to shutter the bank, but Corona’s lawyers managed to frustrate its efforts to close the bank for years through aggressive litigating and a series of creative court filings.
“It was fantastically unusual. It was probably the first time anyone had ever enjoined the federal government from closing a bank,” said Donald Bierman of Bierman Shohat & Loewy in Miami. He served as the bank’s co-counsel and represented Ray Corona in his criminal trial.
After a grand jury indicted Ray Corona and his father, Rafael, bank attorneys sued, claiming the FDIC was singling out the bank and the Coronas because they were Hispanic.
Sunshine State Bank became “the bank that wouldn’t die” in the words of author James Ring Adams, who devoted a chapter to the bank in “The Big Fix,” a book about the collapse of the savings and loan industry in the ’80s.
Sunshine finally shut its doors May 23, 1986. FDIC spokeswoman Lajuan Williams-Dickerson declined to comment on the bank saga.
Rafael and Ray Corona were tried in federal court twice in 1985. The first trial ended in a hung jury. The second trial resulted in convictions, most of which were short-lived.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down an unrelated decision two days later that caused the trial court to dismiss most of the Coronas’ convictions. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the sole remaining count against Rafael Corona and upheld three counts against Ray Corona, who was sentenced to seven years.
“It took a terrible toll on our family,” Ricardo Corona said of his brother’s conviction. “It was a decision he made to associate himself with people he shouldn’t have. It ended up costing my father his career and my family its bank.”
Then-U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen did not return calls seeking comment. The Coronas were prosecuted by Linda Hertz and Thomas Blair. Blair did not return calls seeking comment, and Hertz declined to comment.
Ricardo Corona has been a member of The Florida Bar in good standing since graduating from the University of Miami’s law school in 1996. Between his careers in banking and law, Corona owned and operated supermarkets in Miami.
Ray Corona did not return calls seeking comment for this article. Neither did 87-year-old Rafael Corona.
Click play to listen to Ricardo Corona talk about why people should vote for him
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Looking back on Sunshine, Ricardo Corona said the experience was a traumatic one that increased his appreciation for the justice system and the power of the judiciary.
“I’ve been in a seat where the federal government has come at me with their resources, pointed a barrel at me and put me in their sights,” Corona said. “We sometimes may not have had the success that we wanted, but I believe in the system.”
Cynamon, his judicial opponent, said it will be up to voters to assess Corona’s background.
“I am running my race independently of my opponent,” she wrote in a statement. “I am asking the public to elect me based on my longstanding relationship with the bar and the judicial community.”
Ricardo Corona photo by Richard M. Brooks
Billy Shields can be reached at bshields@alm.com or at (305) 347-6649.
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Reader's comments
Vivian Santoyo said:Congratulations to Ricardo Corona! He turned adversity into a positive experience and managed to obtain a law degree. He has my vote! June 19 at 2:05 p.m. | |
