White-Collar Crime
FL Condo Fraud Squad Nabs Board Prez
Posted Aug 24, 2007, 11:22 am CST
By Martha Neil
Stealing $50,000 doesn't put the perpetrator on the FBI's Most-Wanted list. But an alleged embezzlement of that amount by a condominium board president is big news in South Florida.
That's because such crimes apparently aren't unusual among the state's many condominium associations, and fed-up condominium residents are hailing efforts to prosecute them. A new Miami-Dade County condo fraud squad's arrest of Ramon Perez, 57, president of Villa Grande Condominium, merited a lengthy article in the Miami Herald today. He is facing a charge of grand theft for allegedly stealing $50,000 in association funds.
State Rep. Julio Robaina (R-Miami), who helped establish the fraud squad, says his office gets 40 or 50 calls a day about the issue. ''When people would call we never really had [resources] to investigate the allegations,'' he says. "Now people have someone to turn to.'' Every police station in the county now has a Condo Crimes Screening Checklist form that residents can fill out to seek an investigation.
It is also possible, but not easy, for owners to jump-start an investigation by doing much of the legwork themselves.
With the help of an investigation by residents, including a retired U.S. Customs agent, authorities filed a $1.4 million fraud case concerning funds allegedly diverted from a Hallandale Beach condominium association's building projects. As discussed in an ABAJournal.com post, publicity over the case made the resident fraud squad local heroes among fellow condominium residents throughout South Florida.