Man charged with bilking homeowners out of thousands at state’s largest HOA, state says
A seventh person was arrested and charged with stealing from Hammocks homeowners, billing them $172,000 over five months for work that was never performed, including cleanup after a hurricane during a period when there were no hurricanes or tropical storms, building a haunted house for Halloween, putting up Christmas lights, repairing a roof, painting a pergola and changing swimming pool filters, according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who also announced two guilty pleas Thursday in her office’s investigation of fraud by board members of Florida’s largest HOA.
Ivan Dario Diez, 58, charged with grand theft, organized scheme to defraud, fabricating evidence and perjury, participated in a plot to divert homeowners’ monthly maintenance fees at the 3,800-acre West Kendall community to fake companies run by the relatives of ex- HOA president Marglli Gallego, “who was head of this criminal organization,” Fernandez Rundle said.
READ MORE: Fee increases of 300 to 400% stun residents of Florida’s largest homeowners association
Gallego and five others, including her husband, a cousin and three board officers, were previously charged in the scheme, which a court-appointed receiver estimates drained $6 million from HOA bank accounts with checks written to sham vendors — as well as through wasteful spending and mismanagement.
Gallego, charged with racketeering and money laundering, used some of the money to pay for surveillance of her rivals, her own legal fees, a house in Colombia and renovation of a house in Miami, her warrant stated. Her husband was paid $1.26 million even though investigators could find no evidence that his companies performed any tasks, had any employees or pulled any permits.
READ MORE: Leaders of Florida’s largest homeowners association charged in $2 million fraud scheme
Diez and other Gallego relatives were referred to by Hammocks employees as “los tios y las tias,” the uncles and aunts.
Homeowners rebelled after years of what they called tyrannical rule and tried to oust a board of directors that quadrupled monthly fees, neglected upkeep, harassed residents with foreclosure warnings and code violation fines, held secret meetings and conducted rigged elections. The annual budget in the development of 6,500 units and 25,000 residents inexplicably ballooned from $4 million to $13 million with no signs of how the money was being spent as amenities deteriorated.
“We are going to continue this investigation — a methodical, dedicated commitment to the homeowners, to hold those accountable for putting them through so much angst and stealing from them,” Fernandez Rundle said.
Diez got sloppy. He filed a series of invoices with different dates from June 15, 2022, through Nov. 9, 2022, but the invoice numbers are in sequential order and appear to be written with the same pen, the arrest warrant states. He misspelled the name of his company as Deco Interprises on all but one invoice.
“A staggering amount, almost $124,000, was withdrawn in cash,” Fernandez Rundle said. “He billed almost $5,000 for cleaning up after a hurricane. There was no hurricane. It was a phantom hurricane.”
Other guilty pleas at Hammocks
Monica Ghilardi, Gallego’s successor after Gallego was arrested — “a puppet, president in name only, because Gallego continued to run the HOA through her,” Fernandez Rundle said — pleaded guilty Thursday to grand theft and perjury and was sentenced to one year and a day in state prison, with 12 years’ probation. She must repay the $291,000 she paid herself via checks to shell companies.
Myriam Rodgers, treasurer under Gallego, pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree grand theft, was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to repay $1,650.
Fernandez Rundle said since they arrested Hammocks board members, her office has received 400-500 complaints from homeowners across the state who believe they are being deceived by their HOAs. Half of Florida’s population lives in a condominium or housing community governed by a HOA.
READ MORE: After arrests and 300% fee hikes, Florida’s largest homeowners association gets new board
“They ask, ‘Could you do something for us like you did for the Hammocks?’” Fernandez Rundle said. “’I don’t think our elections are fair or accurate. I can’t get access to board records. I think our assessments for painting or a new roof are fraudulent.’
“There are civil remedies, administrative remedies. Not all will result in criminal charges being lodged. But it’s important to step forward and ask for help.”
To the “criminals robbing people of their quality of life and their money,” Fernandez Rundle said, “our message is we’re coming to get you so it’s better to cooperate with us.”
Since 2016, Fernandez Rundle has worked with legislators to toughen state statute 720, which regulates HOAs and is supposed to protect homeowners from board malfeasance. There’s more progress to be made, she said, because “if you want to steal, it’s the perfect storm, it’s a big cash cow.”
She wants the state to give more enforcement power to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which is where Hammocks homeowners initially sought relief but were frustrated by their rogue board’s ability to deflect or delay orders from the state agency. The board also overturned the results of a recall election organized by homeowners.
“Surfside drew attention to the lack of enforcement. It’s sad that it took a tragedy to get people to wake up and listen,” Fernandez Rundle said of the 2021 condominium collapse that killed 98 people. “We rewrote a lot of language to put teeth into state law. The Hammocks case happened around the same time. It’s the largest and only HOA charged with RICO in Florida. But it took years for us, for law enforcement, to get the financial records and documents we needed. We can make an important step forward if we can get the enforceability piece up and running.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 7:00 PM.