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Another arrest has been made amid a years-long investigation into the alleged massive theft of funds from the Hammocks Home Owners Association, while two people who were previously arrested have pleaded guilty and are cooperating, prosecutors said.
Ivan Dario Diez, 58, was arrested Thursday on charges including grand theft, organized fraud, fabricating physical evidence and perjury, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the arrest at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
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Diez's arrest is at least the seventh involving Hammocks HOA board members and their relatives dating back to 2022.
Five were arrested in November 2022 after they were accused of stealing millions from the HOA in a scheme dating back years.
The first arrest made was Marglli Gallego, the former president and treasurer of the HOA, who Fernandez Rundle said was the ringleader and is facing charges including racketeering and organized fraud in two separate cases.
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Gallego's husband, Jose Gonzalez, and cousin, Kevin Leonardo Alzate, were also arrested, along with board member and former treasurer Myriam Rodgers and Yoleidis Lopez.
The board's president after Gallego, Monica Ghilardi, was also arrested and charged with racketeering and grand theft.
According to Fernandez Rundle, the board members and relatives used shell companies to funnel HOA funds under the guise that they were vendor payments.
The fake vendors were paid for performing little or no work, Fernandez Rundle said.
Diez, who Fernandez Rundle said is related to Gallego through marriage, is alleged to have bought the rights to an existing company for a few thousand dollars just a few weeks before the company started billing the HOA.
From June 15, 2022 to Nov. 9, 2022, Diez's company received almost $172,000 from a Hammocks HOA account that was used to pay vendors, Fernandez Rundle said.
Among the phony bills the company sent the HOA were for hurricane cleanup for a hurricane that didn't exist, and holiday decorations that records showed were put up and taken down the same day, Fernandez Rundle said.
Ghilardi, who Fernandez Rundle said was a "puppet president" for Gallego, took a plea deal and is cooperating with prosecutors.
She surrendered Thursday and pleaded guilty to grand theft and perjury charges, and will serve a year and a day in state prison followed by 12 years of probation, along with paying over $291,000 in restitution to the HOA under the deal, Fernandez Rundle said.
Rodgers also took a plea deal and agreed to cooperate in exchange for pleading guilty to grand theft and serving five years of probation and paying $1,700 in restitution.
Fernandez Rundle said around $6 million has been recovered from what was misappropriated through waste, fraud and abuse, but there's millions of dollars of additional questionable expenditures that are being investigated.
"We are going to continue this investigation," Fernandez Rundle said. "It has been a methodical, dedicated commitment to those homeowners to hold those accountable for putting them through so much angst and stealing from them."
The Hammocks HOA oversees about 40 communities with more than 6,500 units and around 18,000 residents, and is one of the largest homeowners associations in the state and the largest in Miami-Dade.
The HOA theft scandal led to the creation of a new state law meant to protect homeowners.
