HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and Miami-Dade State Attorney said several people are facing fraud charged after a multi-year investigation found they stole millions in fraudulent payments.
According to MDSO, five condo associations across the county hired property managers to run the property. Instead of doing that, the managers wired approximately $5.8 million in payments to their personal accounts.
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said they created the elaborate scheme under the guise of legitimate work at the condos.
“The legitimate contracts and legitimate work were allegedly used as part of a larger system for extracting money from homeowners,” said Cordero-Stutz.
Over the course of the two-year investigation, authorities identified the mastermind who orchestrated the scheme as 60-year-old Juan Awais.
“He built a network designed to create opportunities to extract money from the associations he was supposed to serve,” said Cordero-Stutz.
MDSO says the property managers would submit contracts intended to pay for roofing, security or general renovations around the property.
In many of those instances, none of the work was done. Instead, the sheriff’s office says they created false invoices of the work being completed, which was then paid by the associations, and the payments were then diverted into each of their personal accounts.
“Homeowners were dealing with the aftermath of a devastating hurricane and the insurance money was supposed to repair their homes. Instead, hundreds of thousands of dollars were siphoned through a network for the benefit of people who had no legitimate claim to it,” said Cordero-Stutz.
Investigators also found alleged efforts by those involved to obstruct the investigation by submitting newly created or incomplete documents. They also reportedly discouraged board members from speaking with law enforcement.
Awais was arrested and faces a slew of charges, including organized fraud, money laundering and third-degree grand theft.
The judge set his bond at $3 million after his court appearance on Thursday.
The other five individuals involved in the scheme have also been arrested. Three of them, identified as Delma Alonso, Juliet Ramos, and Joana Barios Perez-Tapia, have already appeared before a judge.
“These associations and the board members, who are volunteers and mostly elderly people, entrusted on the people they hired to do the right thing and, in fact, were schemed and stolen from,” said Cordero-Stutz.
Cordero-Stutz added she’s hopeful that more arrests will be made in the case as deputies continue to investigate.
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