Federal, Local Governments Investigating Marlins' Ballpark
Not only is the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating the Miami Marlins' financing of their new ballpark, but the city of Miami is now looking into building-code violations.
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It's been pretty quiet in Miami since the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the financing of the Marlins' new ballpark. That might change soon.
The City of Miami is already under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for questions surrounding the financing of the new Marlins ballpark. There are questions about how the money was raised, and now there are questions with how well the contractors used the money. From CBS Miami:
Engineering specifications ignored. Contractors cutting corners to save time and money. He even caught a fellow inspector falsifying records and signing off on welds he never examined.
"If people knew what was going on there or how they did things, I mean, I won’t go to that stadium, I won’t take my kids to that place," (welder and building inspector Roy) Fastabend told CBS4’s Jim DeFede in an exclusive interview.
Well, I wouldn't take my kid there either, but for entirely different reasons.
Now Miami-Dade County’s inspector general is looking into the allegations from Fastabend, while the City of Miami is apparently satisfied after an internal investigation.
City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, a critic of the publicly financed stadium deal, said he was satisfied after reviewing the documents collected by the inspector general.
"The engineer of record has indicated it’s a structurally sound building,’’ Sarnoff said.
That might be the eventual resolution, but at the very least it's a bit of a public-relations nightmare for the Marlins. Not sure about the other 24 ballparks built within the past two decades, but I doubt any of them had a building inspector come out and say that he wouldn't take his kids there.
An investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission is serious business. Here's the skinny on how investigations work and how it might affect the Miami Marlins.
In a somewhat shocking twist, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating the Miami Marlins' efforts to garner political support for the financing of their new ballpark.
