His 2009 tax return, from before his tenure as mayor, listed his profession as “councilman and investor.”
A matter of time
Under Florida law, a “loan shark” is defined as someone who lends money at an annual interest rate higher than 25 percent. An annual interest rate over 18 percent is considered “usury,” which is not a criminal offense.
But it’s too late for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle’s office to charge Hernandez with loan-sharking, a second-degree misdemeanor, because of the lapsed one-year statute of limitations.
With that time restriction, prosecutors would have been unable to make a case even when the Herald first reported Hernandez’s loans to Perez in 2011. At the time, Hernandez, who was seeking reelection, bashed the newspaper and claimed Perez had swindled him. Hernandez, the former city council president, had ascended to the mayor’s seat a few months earlier, taking over after Robaina resigned to run for county mayor.
An earlier version of this story mischaracterized how Hernandez ascended to the mayor’s seat.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/19/4068771/hialeah-mayors-testimony-highlights.html#storylink=cpy