Five current and former members of the Hammocks Home Owners Association Board are facing charges related to the theft of funds from the association, authorities said.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the arrests at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
"The individuals taken into custody today transformed the homeowners association into a criminal enterprise intended to benefit certain board members, their relatives and their relatives' businesses," Fernandez Rundle said.
Among those arrested was the board's president, Monica Ghilardi, 52, who faces seven charges including racketeering and grand theft and had a $575,000 bond, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
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Also arrested was former president and treasurer, 42-year-old Marglli Gallego, who faces 18 charges including racketeering and organized fraud and had a $1.06 million bond.
Gallego's husband, Jose Gonzalez, 45, faces four charges including racketeering and money laundering and was being held on a $630,000 bond, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
Board member Myriam Rodgers, 76, faces seven charges including grand theft and racketeering and had a $580,000 bond, while Yoleidis Lopez, 47, faces one grand theft charge and had a $10,000 bond, records showed.
Gallego had already been arrested last year. According to an arrest affidavit, she and her husband are accused of using HOA funds for their personal expenses, as well as receiving over $2 million through his five shell businesses as a vendor.
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Fernandez Rundle said there could be more possible suspects who haven't been charged yet.
The HOA oversees about 40 communities with more than 6,500 units, and is one of the largest homeowners associations in the state.
Residents in the southwest Miami-Dade community have been taking legal action against their homeowners association after a steep increase in fees. The action was done in March in an effort to stop a 400% increase in HOA fees.
“We’re gonna go to court to ask for help to put them out,” resident Ana Tanton said at the time. “We tried the election, it didn’t work…The Hammocks doesn’t deserve this. The people from The Hammocks, they don’t deserve this.”
Earlier this year, the lawyer representing the homeowners association told NBC 6 they hadn’t raised their fees in seven years.
“They’re catching up,” lawyer Hilton Napoleon said at the time.
Residents said the steep increase in HOA fees is forcing people to move away from the neighborhood, where some had lived for decades.
