The Bronx County clerk who was suspended amid a state criminal probe of a homeless services provider has been moonlighting as a paid consultant to the firm for years, The Post has learned.
Luis Diaz, who makes $210,900 as the county clerk, worked as a paid consultant for Aguila Inc. for at least six years, his annual financial statements filed with the state Office of Court Administration reveal.
Diaz, a former state assemblyman, was paid between $20,000 and $60,000 a year by Aguila from 2013 to 2019, records show.
Given his hefty pay, Diaz’s moonlighting is raising eyebrows in The Bronx.
“It seems to me he’s making plenty as a county clerk. I didn’t know that a county clerk could have outside income,” said one Bronx Democratic Party insider who requested anonymity.
“He’s making the same salary as a state Supreme Court justice!”
Diaz’s wife, Anna Diaz, also is employed as a management analyst for the court system, the financial reports show. She makes between $100,000 and $250,000 a year.
The financial connection provides a clue as to why investigators with state Attorney General Letitia James’ office raided Diaz’s government office as part of its criminal probe of Agulia Inc. and executive director Jenny Rivera, among others.
The investigation centers on alleged kickbacks, bribery and fraud, according to a search warrant of Rivera’ s property, reviewed by The Post last week.
The Office of Court Administration removed Diaz as the county clerk and is cooperating with the probe, a spokesman said. Diaz was suspended with pay.
An insider familiar with the probe said the AG’s office has also executed search warrants for other Agulia employees and at least one firm that did business with the company.
Agulia has been awarded $250 million in contracts with the city Department of Homeless Services since 2012, according to records filed with the city comptroller’s office.
Diaz’s name also surfaced in a recent lawsuit filed against Aguila by Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs, which sought to take over or merge the two organizations. Rivera backed out of the deal, the suit claims.
Diaz even provided a sworn affidavit in the case, acknowledging he was a consultant for Aguila.
In court papers, Diaz said he would also “benefit from a consultant agreement” with the new NAICA leadership.
Meanwhile one of the top executives with NAICA, chief operating officer Richard Izquierdo, has a checkered past. The grandson of Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, Izquierdo pleaded guilty a decade ago to swindling $115,000 from SBCC Management Corp., a firm in the South Bronx that received federal grants to assist low-income tenants.
Diaz is permitted to perform outside work because he is considered a “non-judicial employee” within the court system, according to a spokesman with the Office of Court Administration. By comparison, a judge is barred from receiving income from outside employment.
“As a non-judicial employee he can . And he does not need prior approval,” said OCA spokesman Lucian Chalfen.
The county clerk processes lawsuits and other court filing and oversees communications with jurors.
Diaz declined comment.