Article Courtesy of The Real
Deal
By Lidia Dinkova
Published May 30, 2023
|
Less than a year after four ex-board members of the Hammocks homeowners
association were charged with massive fraud, a new lawsuit takes aim at other
former HOA leaders who allegedly did nothing to stop the scheme that siphoned
millions of dollars from residents.
The Hammocks Community Association and David Gersten, the court-appointed
receiver overseeing the HOA, sued Ligia Capielo, Merlene Kopec, Madeline Maceda
and Luz Ordonez in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
The four were not criminally charged in the fraud, but played a role by
“allowing or failing to stop the ongoing misappropriation of funds by former
board members,” according to the civil complaint filed late last month.
The lawsuit comes as the Hammocks is working to rebuild its financials and daily
operations after years of alleged mismanagement, theft and harassment of
residents by former board members.
The community ranks as South Florida’s biggest HOA with more than 18,000
residents. It spans 3,800 acres between Southwest 120th and 88th streets and
between Southwest 147th and 162nd avenues in south Miami-Dade County.
In November, police arrested Marglli Gallego, Myriam Rodgers, Yoleidis Lopez
Garcia and Monica Isabel Ghilardi, all of whom served on the board, as well as
Gallego’s husband, Jose Antonio Gonzalez. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s
office’s investigation alleges that with Gallego as the ringleader, the five
played a role in looting $2 million from association coffers. They hired bogus
contractors and paid them for no work, with much of the money kicked back to the
pockets of Gallego and Gonzalez, according to charging documents. Gonzalez led
many of the purported vendors. All five have pleaded not guilty.
Gersten was appointed as HOA receiver shortly after the arrests. He has been
working with a team of attorneys and forensic accountants, who have determined
that the alleged fraud actually topped $3 million.
In his lawsuit against Capielo, Kopec, Maceda and Ordonez, Gersten claims that
they allowed the association to pay nearly $9 million from 2019 to 2022 and
another $4.6 million last year to 17 vendors without even checking if any work
was done.
They also did nothing about the employment of “insiders,” or family members of
the arrested board members, at “inflated” salaries, often for no work and
sometimes without invoices for payments, according to the complaint. The
“insiders” received a combined salary of $1.7 million from 2019 to 2022.
In particular, the suit takes aim at Maceda, who as former treasurer of the
board was responsible for the financial books, including signing for association
accounts and approving hiring and paying vendors.
Issues at the Hammocks spanned beyond an alleged kickback scheme. For years, the
association paid legal fees in court to fight off investigators’ subpoenas of
financial and other records. It also paid Gallego’s criminal defense fees for
her initial arrest in 2021 over allegedly misappropriating $60,000 of funds.
In total, the association improperly paid more than $2 million in legal fees
“against its own interests,” all while Maceda, Capielo, Kopec and Ordonez still
served on the board, according to the complaint.
The four “had all of the information necessary to determine that those legal
services were in a direct conflict of interest with the association,” the
complaint says.
Capielo and Kopec served on the board last year as vice president and secretary,
respectively, and Ordonez served in 2021 and 2022 as director.
Maceda, who served from 2017 to last year, also is accused of not directing the
board secretary to keep meeting minutes as associations are required to do,
including a 2020 budget meeting, the complaint says.
The lawsuit is for breach of fiduciary duties. The complaint does not allege
that Maceda, Capielo, Kopec and Ordonez participated in the scheme. But it does
claim that, in the very least, it was their responsibility to keep oversight of
daily operations to ensure the board was acting in the best interest of
residents.
An attorney for Maceda, Capielo, Kopec and Ordonez declined comment.
Since becoming the receiver, Gersten has worked to claw back money for the
association, including from law firms that the association paid for the criminal
defense of Gallego, and a vendor who allegedly participated in the scheme but
later cooperated with investigators.
|