The Hammocks settled a lawsuit from the householders association’s former law organization that was accused of enabling an alleged multimillion-dollar fraud plan at the south Miami-Dade County HOA.
Jauregui Law and principal Sabino Jauregui represented the Hammocks affiliation setting up in 2020, in accordance to court docket filings. But the Coral Gables-centered legislation firm in fact worked versus the HOA’s pursuits by pushing back versus investigators’ subpoenas for economical and other association data, in accordance to the fit the Hammocks receiver submitted against Jauregui Law and Jauregui previous 12 months. The legislation agency also forgotten “clear conflicts of interests” by representing both of those the affiliation and a previous Hammocks board president in a prison scenario accusing her of misappropriating HOA money for private fees, the fit claims.
The settlement with Jauregui Legislation and Jauregui marks the hottest chapter in the saga of the Hammocks, the biggest HOA in South Florida. In November of 2022, law enforcement arrested four previous board users in excess of costs that they ran a fraud plan making use of bogus distributors that did tiny to no perform, and then diverted seller payments to some of the ex-board users. Since the arrests, court docket-appointed receiver David Gersten has been overseeing the Hammocks’ affairs and investigating other folks who might have played a purpose in the alleged fraud.
Past 12 months, Gersten filed 4 lawsuits in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of the Hammocks from several regulation corporations and attorneys that represented the association in the course of the time of the fraud.
The Jauregui legislation business and its principal settled the case for $500,000, which will be paid by the law firm’s malpractice insurer, Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance coverage Firm. The $500,000 amount represents the full tender of the policy limit and exceeds the $475,000 in lawful expenses Jauregui Regulation and its principal obtained from the affiliation from 2019 to 2022, according to court docket filings.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court docket Choose Beatrice Butchko accredited the settlement in October.
Sabino Jauregui and attorneys symbolizing him and his firm did not promptly return a ask for for comment. The business and its principal admitted no wrongdoing or liability underneath the settlement.
The Hammocks is dwelling to 40 communities and around 6,500 household units, consisting of solitary-household properties, condos and residences. The HOA spans about 3,800 acres concerning Southwest 120th and 88th streets and concerning Southwest 147th and 162nd avenues in West Kendall. The criminally billed board users are Marglli Gallego, Myriam Rodgers, Yoleidis Lopez Garcia and Monica Isabel Ghilardi. Also charged are Gallego’s partner, Jose Gonzalez, who prosecutors say led some of the bogus sellers that did minimal to no perform on the property, as effectively as Gallego’s cousin Kevin Leonardo Alzate. All have pleaded not responsible.
While prosecutors originally outlined a $1 million-plus fraud, Gersten and a crew of forensic accountants have been mining records and more recently mentioned that the plan was nearer to $3 million.
Gersten’s fits in opposition to former Hammocks attorneys elevate the query of the function and duty of HOAs’ lawful counsel when fraud is suspected. In the 4 issues Gersten filed final calendar year from ex-Hammocks legal professionals, he claims that in the quite least the lawyers unsuccessful the association by unintentionally allowing the alleged fraud to consider place. In the worst circumstance situation, lawyers could have knowingly performed some form of position in the alleged plan.
In the Jauregui scenario, the regulation firm had a conflict of fascination because it concurrently represented the Hammocks affiliation and Gallego in a 2021 legal cost from her around misappropriating association funds, in accordance to Gersten’s lawsuit.
Gallego was to start with arrested in 2021 on a grand theft cost alleging she misappropriated $60,000 of Hammocks money. Immediately after the arrest, investigators started poking all-around and subpoenaed the HOA for its meeting minutes dating back again to 2017, as perfectly as contracts and invoices for suppliers. Jauregui Legislation was component of a “campaign meant to hold off and frustrate the investigation” by pushing again in court docket on the subpoenas, according to Gersten’s accommodate.
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“They knowingly or unwittingly concealed the earlier and ongoing fraud, carried out and orchestrated by the then board of administrators,” the criticism says. “Rather than benefiting the association, [Jauregui Law’s] actions served solely to guard Gallego from felony culpability and retain bad actors in control of the affiliation.”
In earlier community statements, Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office environment investigators have said that the Hammocks’ lawsuits above the subpoenas led to key delays in unraveling the alleged plan. In general, it took authorities five many years to provide costs in the circumstance.
Gersten has settled 1 other lawsuit he submitted towards former Hammocks lawyers. The suit versus law corporations Elbert Radames Alfaro Berta, and Alfaro & Fernandez, as very well as lawyer Yudany Fernandez, was settled for $300,000. The quantity represents the complete tender of their lawful malpractice insurance insurance policies. The two law firms and Fernandez, all of which checklist the same Miami Lakes office environment, represented the Hammocks association from 2018 to late 2022.
