Property manager arrested, accused of $1M-plus theft from Broward condo associations

A property manager for condo associations was hit with criminal charges, accused of misappropriating about $600,000 from a Pembroke Pines complex.

It was the third arrest on a theft charge against Michael Curtis, who also faces allegations in two cases filed last year of allegedly siphoning funds from two other Broward County condo associations.

Curtis, 38, has pleaded not guilty on the charges in all three cases, and his attorney denied any wrongdoing.

Curtis’ case comes as many South Florida residential communities governed by condo and homeowner associations for decades have struggled with their leadership. Residents have claimed wrongdoing, from fund misappropriation and lack of maintenance and transparency to high assessments, election fraud and bullying of those who speak out, against board members.

But some associations also have raised issues with their property managers, which are hired by boards and paid by the association.

The latest allegations accuse Curtis of forging the signatures of two former board members at the Windmill Lakes condo complex in Pembroke Pines to sign checks from the association accounts to his own companies BDM Property Management, Private Parking Managers and All Florida Rental Management, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Curtis, hired to manage Windmill Lakes, at 350 Southwest 88th Street, in 2017, allegedly signed over 350 checks to his companies, totaling about $1 million. Investigators determined his financial gain at about $600,000, the affidavit says.

The two former board members told investigators they neither knew nor consented to the use of their signatures on the checks, as well as on insurance settlement documents. The settlements from the insurer also yielded checks to BDM Property Management, even though the firm separately billed the association, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit consists of a 2023 Pembroke Pines police report. The Broward County State Attorney charged Curtis last month with grand theft and use of another person’s ID without their consent.

Curtis self-surrendered on Jan. 17, and posted a $22,500 bond, court records show.

Curtis previously was charged with grand theft in two separate state cases.

The Broward State Attorney’s office charged Curtis last year with theft in connection to his tenure as property manager at the Fairways of Sunrise homeowners association, at Northwest 80th Avenue and Northwest 28th Street in Sunrise, and at Colonies II condo association, between Middle River and Northwest 26th Street in Lauderdale Lakes.

In the Fairways case, prosecutors said Curtis in 2020 signed off on an $885,000 insurance settlement for the association for damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017, which would give the association $444,750 after payments to attorneys in the insurance claim and other fees.

But as $551,620, which included insurance settlement funds, was deposited to the association account, $439,000 was transferred from the association to BDM, according to the affidavit. Yet, in the years after the insurance settlement, Curtis told homeowners that the insurance litigation was “thrown out,” according to the affidavit.

Fairways sued its former board members and BDM in 2022, accusing BDM of failing to account for a substantial amount of Hurricane Irma insurance disbursements.

BDM won that case. A jury in October found the property management firm didn’t negligently breach its fiduciary duties to the association in connection to Hurricane Irma insurance proceeds and other funds.

The latest charges came after a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation investigation into alleged misappropriation of funds from Colonies II, again following hurricane insurance proceeds disbursements, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Curtis couldn’t be reached for comment, and his attorney, Elias Hilal, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

In a statement to the Miami Herald, Hilal said Curtis’ most recent arrest is tied to “personal vendettas.”

In other recent allegations involving condo associations, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged Yissely Herrouet, a former manager at The Club at Brickell Bay condo tower in Miami, over allegations she hired “phantom employees” to work at the building, who in reality were her family members and acquaintances, according to the arrest warrant. She is accused of diverting $142,000 from the association.

Unit owners at the Palm Bay Yacht Club Condominium won a $5.8 million jury verdict in December against South Florida Condominium Management and a $550,000 jury verdict against D&R Contracting in connection to a hefty 40-year recertification assessment for the building. In that case, considered one of the largest in South Florida concerning condo management, unit owners in part alleged some of the work was falsely presented as “emergency,” allowing for the circumvention of approval by unit owners.

Residential

South Florida

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