Identities of Surfside condo collapse victims stolen. Suspects have been arrested

Ana Ortiz was one of 98 people who died when Champlain Towers South collapsed in June. The night before the funeral, her sister noticed strange emails popping up on Ortiz’s iPad, detailing password changes to bank accounts and credit cards, new addresses and contact information.

“I was home writing the eulogy. I don’t know why, but I looked down. I saw notifications from Wells Fargo. I saw emails with money transfers. I didn’t even know she had a Wells Fargo account,” Nicole Ortiz told the Herald. “It was crazy. These people are professional. Who would do something like this?”

The answer, authorities say, was identity thieves who used Ana Ortiz’s name to make a slew of purchases — including a $374 pair of Medusa sandals, a Versace purse valued at nearly $1,700 and goods at Target.

Ana Ortiz was just one of at least seven Surfside victims, prosecutors announced Wednesday, who were targeted by a ring of identity thieves who brazenly exploited the tragedy to fraudulently open credit and bank cards. Five of the seven victims were killed in the collapse.

Arrested were Betsy Alexandra Cacho Medina, 30, Rodney Choute, 38, and Kimberly Michelle Johnson, 34, all of Northeast Miami-Dade. They are being charged with organized scheme to defraud and multiple counts of identity fraud, among other felonies.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, said the trio stole at least $45,000 using the identities of Surfside victims. They tried unsuccessfully to make an additional $67,000 worth of withdrawals and purchases, she said.

“We discussed that cyber-grave robbers move quickly after the collapse to grab what they could from deceased victims while families and friends were in emotional turmoil,” Fernandez Rundle said.

Each was to be booked in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Wednesday evening. Medina will be held on a $1 million bond, with Johnson and Choute to be held on $500,000 and $430,000 bonds, respectively. They are scheduled to appear in Miami-Dade bond court on Thursday.

“Today, they got what they deserved,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said of the suspects.

It was unclear if the three had retained defense attorneys.

Family member reported identity theft

The arrests came more than two months after Champlain Towers South suddenly collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people in one of the worst building failures in U.S. history. The cause of the June 24 collapse remains under federal and state investigation, although experts have pointed out that there appeared to be flaws in the structural integrity and design of the building.

The probe was conducted by detectives from Surfside and Aventura and Miami-Dade, as well as investigators from the U.S. Marshals, the U.S. Secret Service and the Postal Inspectors.

Exactly how the trio decided on their targets is unknown — but officials pointed out the identities of the victims were widely publicized in the media after the tragedy.

“It’s truly despicable,” Aventura Police Chief Bryan Pegues said of the crimes.

Arrest warrants for the trio released on Wednesday did not identify all of the victims from the Surfside tragedy whose identifies were stolen.

The case came to the attention of law enforcement when Nicole Ortiz reported the ID theft, only about two weeks after the condo collapse.

Ana Ortiz, 46, died in the collapse alongside her son, Luis Bermúdez, 26, and her husband, Frankie Kleiman, 55. Also killed in the collapse were Kleiman’s mother, Nancy Kress Levin, and his brother, Jay Kleiman, who was visiting from Puerto Rico.

The warrants detail a wide-ranging investigation that included investigators poring over surveillance footage, analyzing voluminous financial records and conducting covert stakeouts of the suspects’ homes.

How police got close

One of the key breaks came when Aventura Police Detective Andres Mendoza began investigating the purchase of the Medusa sandals with a Nordstrom credit card taken out in Ana Ortiz’s name. Surveillance footage showed the sandals were picked up by a slender woman wearing a hat and a face mask — and driving a black Mercedes-Benz registered to Medina, according to the warrants.

Medina is also believed to have called Barclays bank to order a replacement bank card in Ana Ortiz’s name.

In a recorded call released on Wednesday, the woman blatantly invokes the tragedy as she asks a bank security rep for a new replacement card.

“Yes, because I was a victim of the towers that just collapsed [in] Surfside,” she said. “All my personal belongings were in there.”

The security rep seemed stunned. “Oh, my gosh. Sorry about that,” she replied.

The card was sent to a Hallandale Beach apartment that, police said, was actually vacant and being used by the ring only to pick up mail, according to the warrant by Mendoza and Aventura Police Detective Kenneth Sealy.

The woman believed to be Medina was also seen on July 7 buying designer footwear for nearly $1,000 at the Christian Louboutin store in Miami’s Design District, and a distinct black purse at the Versace store nearby. The next day, the woman — toting the same bag — was captured on surveillance footage at a Target in Miami Gardens, police said.

Medina is the girlfriend of Choute and also claimed to be the sister of Johnson.

According to the warrant, Johnson and Medina also co-owned a BMW that was used by two women who bought Burberry merchandise at Aventura Mall, also with a fraudulently obtained credit card.

The trio, which relied on phony documents and names to register cars and addresses, also figured out how to navigate the system designed to help survivors, officials said.

One surviving victim, identified only as S.K., told police she applied for relief assistance from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. One of the thieves called FEMA’s customer assistance hotline and changed her address on file to the Hallandale one.

Fooling banks to get access

The thieves also used a system known as “porting,” which allows them to call banks using phone numbers registered to victims, according to the arrest warrant prepared by Assistant State Attorney Stewart Hedrick, the head of the cybercrimes unit. Porting allows identity thieves to access text messages sent by banks to victims’ true phone numbers — allowing them to authenticate their identities.

“These individuals appear to be very skilled identity thieves,” Fernandez Rundle said.

Detectives also conducted surveillance operations — and used GPS trackers — to monitor the comings and goings of the suspects at various condos in Northeast Miami-Dade where they stayed.

Johnson and Choute each have a slew of previous arrests in Miami-Dade. Her record shows she served probation or paid fines for misdemeanor battery, aggravated assault and petty theft. Choute has also been arrested on charges such as burglary, robbery and possessing false IDs.

In the ID case, he was arrested after being pulled over in 2017 outside the International Mall in Doral. According to an arrest report, inside the car police found credit applications — and receipts of purchases — in the names of other people. However, prosecutors declined to press charges because they could not prove if he, or a passenger, had actually filled out the applications.

This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 10:15 AM.