Article
Courtesy of The Key Biscayne Independent
By John Pacenti
Published November 16, 2023
After a workshop on condo fraud and corruption ended on
Friday, dozens of residents of high-rises throughout South Florida swarmed
the podium. They wanted to tell their tale of woe about their condo board to
either State Sen. Jason Pizzo or Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney John
Perikles.
Some talked about how
condo boards got perks from vendors. Others spoke about how
elections were stolen. Many talked about how they could not
get financial records from boards.
Both Pizzo and Perikles listened patiently at the Aventura
event but they didn’t sugarcoat the situation during the
two-hour panel discussion. All leverage remains with boards,
the laws remain vague and weak, and the agency in charge of
protecting condo residents is worse than toothless – it’s
apathetic, they said.
“Guys it’s out of control,” said Pizzo, who represents
District 37 that runs mostly along the Broward County
coastline. At one point the state lawmaker name-dropped Key
Biscayne, referencing the recent arrest of the property
manager at EmeraldBay for allegedly stealing maintenance
fees from residents.
The seminar organized by MM Events Group and moderated by
former Sunny Isles mayor and real estate attorney Dana
Goldman hit many of the same notes of the town hall held on
Key Biscayne and anchored by State Rep. Vicki Lopez and
Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado.
The effort is also bi-partisan. Both Lopez and Regalado are
Republicans, while Pizzo is a Democrat.
“I don’t mean to curse, I’m sorry, but nobody in Tallahassee
up until now has given a shit about people who live in
condos,” Pizzo said. “It’s been the Wild Wild West and
they’ve (the boards) been doing whatever they want. And
that’s now finally changing.”
The panelists also included a representative from a property
management company, the CEO of a business helping
condominiums install electronic voting and an advocate for
the rights of condominium owners.
But the show belonged to Perikles and Pizzo.
At one point, Pizzo
asked the crowd if they knew of any board members who have
received free renovation work or other types of kickbacks
from vendors. “Try two condos and Caddy,” one woman
responded. |
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Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney John Perikles
addresses the audience at the Condo Fraud and Corruption Workshop in
Aventura on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023.
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Perikles was carrying the flag for his boss, Miami-Dade
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who on last
week’s episode of the Anti-Social podcast said the perfect
landing spot for any want-to-be thief is a condo board
because of the lack of accountability.
Perikles, as the head of the economics crime unit, built the
case against board members in the Hammocks in Kendall.
Prosecutors allege more than $2 million was stolen from
residents. He also oversaw the grand jury that wrote a
scathing report on condominium corruption.
But the seasoned prosecutor said large law firms who
represent condo boards have a huge sway in Tallahassee and
any reform is still an uphill battle. “There seems to be a
lot of resistance out there,” he said.
The proposed legislation is expected to be filed within days
and has been called “Condo 3.0,” following reforms during
the last two sessions the focused on making sure another
Surfside collapse never occurs again.
Lopez has said she expects the bill to seek to expand the
powers DBPR and create criminal penalties for boards who repeatedly won’t
turn over requested documents to residents.
Pizzo had nothing nice to say about DBPR, calling it “useless, worthless.”
“The same agency that licenses nail technicians should not also be
overseeing condominiums,” he said.
Pirekles says condo residents trying to press a complaint often find
themselves going to the DBPR with a complaint only for the agency to refer
them back to police, saying it’s a criminal matter. Yet, when those
residents go to police, they are told it’s civil and their options are
either try their luck with DBPR or file a civil lawsuit, a costly
proposition.
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