New Arrest Made At Florida’s Biggest HOA For A $2 Million Fraud Scheme

The authorities in Florida announced a new arrest on Friday, December 1, 2023. It involves a homeowner who played a key role in a $2 million fraud scam in the Hammocks Community Association.

New Arrest of Ex-President’s Cousin

Hammocks Community Association is the biggest homeowners association in the state. It has over 6,500 units in West Kendall and oversees over 40 communities. Kevin Leonardo Alzate, 32, is the cousin of the Hammocks Community Association’s former president Marglli Gallego.

According to a written statement by the state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office, Alzate was charged with perjury by contradictory statements, resisting an officer without violence, and fabricating physical evidence. The authorities arrested him, and he remains in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. This new arrest marks the 6th one in the Hammocks HOA money laundering case. Over several years, he played a vital role in the scheme to steal $2 million from the community’s bank accounts.

According to Rundle, “Not only did Mr. Alzate’s alleged activities allow our charged HOA Board members to continue their thefts, but the actions were a deliberate slap in the face to our Circuit Court Judges and our courts. Our laws and criminal procedures, created to facilitate justice, apply to everyone.”

An Ongoing Case

Before Alzate’s arrest, five other people, including Gallego, were first charged and arrested in November 2022 for multiple fraudulent activities and financial crimes within the homeowners association. The group’s leaders used the funds for personal use. Investigators accused Gallego of using the funds for personal use while serving as the HOA treasurer from 2015 to 2017. She was also accused of using HOA resources to harass association members, pursue her enemies, and sue those she felt were targeting her.

In court, prosecutors alleged in court documents that the five people accused fostered years of legal delays by the HOA’s employees, board of directors, and legal team. Moreover, the delays prevented the HOA from producing the required financial documents to facilitate the investigation, according to Rundle.

Rundle also states that Alzate played a part in it by supplying notarized affidavits demanding payments from law enforcement. The HOA used these to refuse to comply with law enforcement’s lawful production requests. As a result, he contributed to the investigation’s lengthy delays.

Don Kearns, 27, is the current president of Hammocks HOA’s Advisory Board of Directors. He states that this new arrest thoroughly elates him, and he considers it an early holiday gift for the residents. However, he says the complexity and depth of this criminal enterprise is still surprising. His hope for the HOA this holiday season is that this new arrest will be the first of many.