An uncle of former Hammocks board president Marglli Gallego, the alleged ringleader of a massive fraud that unfolded at the homeowners association, was charged in connection to the scheme.
Investigators say Ivan Dario Diez, 58, posed as a contractor and secured jobs at the Hammocks such as cleanup and putting up holiday decorations, but in reality did little to no work at the West Kendall property.
In total, Diez and his Deco Enterprises received $172,000 from HOA coffers –– with $124,000 of that withdrawn in cash –– from June 2022 to November 2022, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference on Thursday.
Diez, who is married to Gallego’s aunt, is charged with grand theft, organized scheme to defraud, fabricating physical evidence, perjury and false entries in books of business entity. Police arrested him at about 5 a.m. on Thursday, according to Fernandez Rundle. He is the seventh person charged in the case.
The charges against him came only after two former board members, who were originally charged two years ago for their role in the alleged scheme, pleaded guilty and started cooperating with investigators.
In November 2022, authorities charged Gallego and her husband Jose Gonzalez, another purported contractor to the HOA, as well as former board members Myriam Rodgers, Monica Ghilardi and Yoleidis Lopez Garcia. Gallego also was previously arrested in 2021 on charges of theft of association funds.
Their alleged scheme boiled down to hiring purported contractors such as Diez and Gonzalez who didn’t do much work on the property. When the HOA paid the vendors, the money was allegedly siphoned to the pockets of some of those arrested.
Ghilardi and Rodgers are the ones who pleaded guilty and are cooperating with investigators. The others have all pleaded not guilty. In past statements, Gonzalez’s attorney has called the claims against him “misplaced.”
Ghilardi, a former vice president, became president of the association, taking over Gallego’s post following her 2021 arrest. But Ghilardi was really “a puppet president” for Gallego, who continued to run the association through Ghilardi until they were both arrested in 2022, Fernandez Rundle said. Ghilardi signed vendor checks on behalf of the HOA and received $291,000 of HOA funds from the scheme, investigators allege.
Following her guilty plea, she surrendered and will serve a year and a day in prison followed by 12 years of probation, and is ordered to pay back the funds to the HOA that she received.
“Her testimony as part of this plea agreement is critical to our case against the real culprits and holding others not yet arrested accountable,” Fernandez Rundle said, emphasizing that the investigation is ongoing and more charges may be filed.
As former treasurer, 75-year-old Rodgers also signed vendor checks but only “at Gallego’s direction,” Fernandez Rundle said. Under her plea agreement, she will serve five years of probation and is ordered to pay nearly $1,700 in restitution.
Prosecutors claim that 25 days before he started billing the Hammocks, Diez bought the rights to Deco Enterprises for $3,000. State records show Diez and Deco Enterprises aren’t licensed contractors, prosecutors say.
Among his bogus bills to the Hammocks was an invoice for cleanup after a hurricane, Fernandez Rundle said.
But “there was no hurricane,” she said. “A lot of this work did not exist.”
The investigation has revealed that the alleged scheme was partly a family operation. Many of the purported contractors were controlled “by friends and family of Gallego,” who at the HOA were referred to as “los tios and las tias,” or Spanish for “uncles and aunts,” Diez’s arrest warrant says.
Read more
South Florida
“Running amok”: Florida lawmakers fall short with HOA, condo law
South Florida
‘Inherent conflict’: Inside attorneys, property managers’ roles at South Florida condo and homeowners associations
Aside from Gonzalez and Diez, Gallego’s cousin Kevin Leonardo Alzate was arrested and charged in November on allegations that he helped former HOA leaders fight against investigators’ record subpoenas. Alzate also has pleaded not guilty.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office says that more than $1 million was siphoned from Hammocks HOA coffers. But a court-appointed receiver overseeing the Hammocks since the 2022 arrests has claimed that a financial forensic investigation shows the theft was closer to $6 million.