MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Alex Daoud, whose nearly six-year tenure as mayor of Miami Beach was cut short by a federal bribery conviction, has died. He was 81.
Born Arnold Alex Daoud to Lebanese-American parents in Miami Beach, he was an attorney first elected to the Miami Beach City Commission in 1979.
He became mayor in 1985. In 1991, during his third term in office, he was indicted on federal bribery charges and suspended from office.
Daoud admitted to receiving bribes from developers and free work from contractors seeking city business at his home.
He spent 17 months in prison. As a private citizen, he published a book called “Sins of South Beach: The True Story of Corruption, Violence, Murder and the Making of Miami Beach.”