How Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard got away with committing credit card fraud with $18,573.11 of your tax dollars in a single year! (UPDATED)

In P Card Madness, Part 1 and Part 2, we summarized the insane spending during the first half of Fiscal Year 2021-22 by North Miami Beach Criminal Commissioners Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, Paule Villard, and Daniela Jean, just on their taxpayer-funded credit cards alone!

The City’s Purchasing Cards (P Cards) are basically a “company credit card,” which elected officials and select City officals are given for the purpose of, um, uh, …

Honestly, we have no idea why public employees, much less part-time elected officials, are allowed to spend public money on a taxpayer-funded credit card for any reason whatsoever.

Budding career politicians like Paule Villard especially, were elected to legislate, not to go on personal shopping sprees and take lavish vacations on taxpayer money.

And yet, here we are.

We were finally able to wrestle from City Clerk Andrise Bernard’s tightly clenched fists, the remaining P Card statements for the final six months of the year.

As we expected, the the final tally of spending is absolutely horrifying!

As you can see, Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard stole a whopping $18,753.11 of your tax dollars, which was second only to McKenzie’s spending, almost all of which was for her personal use.

Let’s break it down.

On the statement dated October 4, 2021, the $274.99 charge was to Instant Promotion, Inc., the company that she bought her taxpayer-funded $999.86 campaign tent from on September 30, 2021.

That charge is not included in this total since she charged it on the last day of the previous fiscal year.  However, the charge of $274.99 was charged on October 1, 2021, on the first day of the 2021-22 fiscal year.

Since the City has so far refused to provide us with a copy of this new invoice, per our May 19, 2022 Public Records Request, we assume it was an additional item for the tent, perhaps the table you see in the photo.

In any event, Paule illegally used this taxpayer-funded tent as a campaign prop at her fundraiser on September 22, 2022.

The P Card statement dated November 4, 2021 reflects charges totaling $1,235.66.  This amount includes $1,075.66 for a taxpayer-funded vacation to Fort Myers, and $160.00 to Brunosky Studios, located at 1367 Northeast 163rd Street, for more customized taxpayer-funded campaign paraphernalia.

Brunosky Studios

What type of items she actually purchased is a complete mystery, of course, because our six-month old Public Records Request is still being held hostage by City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey, who is slow walking all of our requests to protect Paule and her fellow Criminals on the dais, and his own job, of course.

On November 11, 2021, Paule charged $300.00 for her membership in the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON) so she could travel to Chandler, Arizona to party with her friends.  The next “leadership retreat” is scheduled for January 27-29, 2023 in Weehawken, New Jersey.  Keep in mind that if she is re-elected, heaven forbid, you’ll be paying for that trip, too.

Miraculously, Paule did not charge anything on her P Card from December 5, 2021 to January 4, 2022, but she more than made up for it the next month when she charged a total of $2,580.81 on the statement dated February 4, 2022.

This amount included $953.06 for travel to Chandler, Arizona for the NHAEON party, including airfare, hotel, and a $97.00 limousine ride.

She also charged $125.40 to Ariole Music School in North Miami, which is allegedly a “recording studio,” and which may or may not exist.

Considering the address does not exist on the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s Office, we can’t imagine why “some users are reporting that this business does not exist.”

We googled the address, however, and came up with this street view of what may or may not be that property.

Seems legit.

That month, Paule also charge $460.00 to Casa Faroy Trophies located in North Miami.  Of course.

On her P Card statement dated March 4, 2022, Paule “only” charged $605.14, which included $175.00 to the Florida League of Cities, most likely for a conference, $79.18 at the Sashes For Love store at Etsy.com, and $350.96 at Discountmugs.com, which was most likely for the taxpayer-funded campaign mugs she hands out at events.

The next month, Paule really went to town (and everywhere else) on your dime, charging a grand total of $4,030.88.

According to the statement dated April 4, 2022, Paule decided that one taxpayer-funded campaign tent wasn’t enough, so she charged $1,817.00 at Instant Promotion, Inc. for another one, this time in pink.

Paule also spent $180.00 to Wristbandbros.com and another $280.77 to Discountmugs.com for even more self-promotional mugs and other taxpayer-funded campaign items.

She also spent $753.11 on a taxpayer-funded vacation to Orlando on March 16, 2022, including $387.00 for a hotel room, even though there were no government events scheduled during that time.

UPDATE:  Paule also charged $1,000.00 on March 29, 2022, to JMS Catering, which has no website of its own, but can be found on the Black Pages Miami site.  We’re guessing was the food invoice for the huge taxpayer-funded extravaganza she threw for her friends and family.  Since we have not received all the invoices in response to our April 7, 2022 Public Records Request PRR-2022-323 so we still can’t confirm this charge was for her party.

Paule managed not to whip out her P Card from April 5, 2022 to May 4, 2022, but by the very next month it was burning a hole in her pocket and she just couldn’t resist.

According to her statement dated June 4, 2022, Paule charged $611.82 for yet another trip to Orlando on Friday, May 27, 2022, including $294.90 to rent a car and $58.92 to fill the tank when she returned on Monday, May 30, 2022.

Again, since we still can’t get our Public Records Request fulfilled, we have no idea whether this travel was for a legitimate reason or a taxpayer-funded Memorial Day weekend vacation to Disney World.

We’re guessing the latter.

According to her July 4, 2022 P Card statement, Paule went hog wild with her P Card to the tune of $5,338.69, $5,109.72 of which was for her taxpayer-funded Las Vegas summer vacation, where she and her aide, Nadege Etienne, stayed in a two-bedroom suite at the ultra luxurious, and very expensive, Bellagio Resort and Casino.

Must be nice, huh?

The bigger mystery is the $145.50 Paule charged on June 13, 2022 to U-Haul of North Miami Beach, plus the seven “U-Haul Tolls and Citations” totaling $15.00 between July 1, 2022 and July 18, 2022.

Considering there are no toll booths in North Miami Beach, Paule must have taken her taxpayer-funded campaign circus on the road outside the City, but not before fueling up on June 14, 2022 when she charged $21.80 worth of gas at the Murphy Express gas station in NMB.

On the statement dated August 5, 2022, Paule continued on her spending spree by charging $2,073.21, of which $2,031.69 was for a taxpayer-funded vacation to her home country of Haiti.

The very next month, Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard and her three co-conspirators, Michael Joseph, McKenzie Fleurimond, and Daniela Jean, took off for a taxpayer-funded vacation in Denver.

Of course, the “official” reason for the trip, according to a memo from Duke Sorey, was to visit the South Adams County Pellet Ennis Water Softening Facility at the the South Adams County Water and Sanitation District in Commerce City, Colorado, for an onsite demonstration of the Pellet Softening System.”

The real reason the Criminal Commissioners went, however, was to present a Proclamation to Michael B. Hancock, the Mayor of Denver County, Colorado, for his “accomplishments as the second African American to hold the position.”

The real irony here is that at a March 16, 2021 Commission Meeting, McKenzie Fleurimond sponsored a Resolution “to establish a policy with guidelines for the Mayor and City Commission (collectively “City Commission”) to sponsor the awarding of Proclamations to individuals, organizations, and businesses.”

According to McKenzie’s Resolution, the criteria for receiving a Proclamation from the City of North Miami Beach is “when such proclamation positively impacts the community and conveys an affirmative message to city residents, businesses and visitors.”

When they decided to give a Proclamation to the mayor of a city on the other side of the country, who probably has never been to North Miami Beach, or even find it on a map, they violated their own legislation.

Denver County Mayor Hancock oversees a governmental agency serving an area of 154.726 square miles of real estate with a population of 715,522.  He receives hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors from all over the world every single year.

A visit from four insignificant elected officials representing a city of 5.37 square miles with a population of 42,507 souls is not even a blip on his radar.

Aside from Mayor Hancock’s lone perfunctory Tweet on August 30, 2022 simply thanking the @CityNMB commissioners for visiting, he never mentioned them again, and most likely never gave them a second thought.

As a matter of fact, on the same day of their visit, the Denver County Mayor was more interested in posting a matter of actual importance on his official Facebook page regarding a State Senate Bill.

I’m sure his North Miami Beach Proclamation is collecting dust in a storage closet somewhere in the basement of Denver County Hall.

Paule’s next monthly taxpayer-funded vacation took her to the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., to attend the 2022 Annual Legislative Conference of the Black Congressional Caucus Foundation.

While Paule is neither a member of Congress nor the Black Congressional Caucus, she thought nothing of charging $1,357.95 of your tax dollars, as evidenced by her P Card statement dated October 4, 2022, to traipse around The City on the Hill while pretending to be a Very Important Person.

In one fiscal year, Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard stole $18,573.11 of your hard-earned money by charging up a storm for her personal vacations and re-election campaign.  And that’s just the amount we know of based on her P Card statements alone.

We have no idea how many of her campaign expenses have been funneled through the Public Affairs or Parks & Rec Departments, or what checks were issued out of the City’s General Fund on her behalf — allegedly from her “Discretionary Fund Account.”

We do know, however, that she cost taxpayers nearly $13,000.00 by having North Miami Beach Police Department officers chauffeur her around on personal business.

You can send a loud and clear message to Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard that you emphatically disapprove of her stealing your hard-earned tax dollars by sending her back to political obscurity on November 22, 2022!

VOTE THIS FREELOADING CRIMINAL OUT OF CITY HALL FOREVER!

VOTE FOR JAY CHERNOFF ON NOVEMBER 22nd!

Stephanie

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10 thoughts on “How Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard got away with committing credit card fraud with $18,573.11 of your tax dollars in a single year! (UPDATED)

  1. If this is illegal, which it obviously should be, why hasn’t anybody been charged or indicted? The people of N Miami Beach and N Miami are screwed daily by their city councils.

    1. Ellen, you already know that corrupt politicians get away with everything short of murder. This crew is from the same circle of corruption that North Miami politicians belong to. In fact, they have the same “leader” in Andre Pierre. Need I say more?

      I remember your mantra, “WHERE ARE THE AUTHORITIES?”

      There are still no authorities in Miami-Dade County who give a crap.

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