Article
and Video Courtesy of Local 10 News
By Bob NormanBy
Published
August 11, 2015
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Watch
VIDEO
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NORTH MIAMI BEACH -- When you walk into Peter and
Debbie Orlowsky's home, it seems a perfectly fine condo, until you look
outside and see the balcony to nowhere. It's just a slab of concrete
jutting from the building with no railing six stories above the parking
lot.
It's one of dozens of condos at Jade
Winds in North Miami Beach that have unusable sealed-off
balconies for years, and it's just the beginning. The place
seems to be going to seed, with large cracks in some
buildings, a general state of disrepair, and the historic
office tower that has been the pride and joy of the
community empty and condemned from neglect and failure to
pay rent. Recently, the condo association filed for
bankruptcy in federal court claiming more than $1.5 million
in debt. "They ran it down to
the ground," said Debbie Orlowsky. "It's all full of mold
because they didn't pay the rent there. We're bankrupt. I
don't know what we're going to do. There's people here with
children, and there's families. There's 916 apartments here
and they didn't care. They had no heart, no soul." |
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Former Broward Sheriff's Office Deputy Santiago Perez now lives in a
$630,000 home in Boca Raton.
Orlowsky is referring to former board president and former Broward
Sheriff's Office Deputy Santiago Perez, his wife Revital Sharony and
former condo manager Donna Mantin, whom current board members claim
drove the condo into bankruptcy. Criminal complaints have been filed
against them alleging that hundreds of thousands of dollars in
controversial all-cash parking fees levied on guests that were collected
under their leadership have vanished.
"There wasn't deposits made into the
bank," said Peter Orlowsky, a member of the board who filed
a criminal complaint in the case.
Records also show that at the end of Perez's time as
president last fall, he began writing large checks on the
Jade Winds account to cash, adding up to more than $800,000.
Perez claimed to pay major condo bills with the money, but
now the board is facing the difficult task of trying to
account for all the money.
Former Broward Sheriff's Office Deputy Santiago Perez now
lives in a $630,000 home in Boca Raton. |
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In a statement to Local 10 News, BB&T Vice President
David White confirmed the bank was conducting an internal investigation
into what he called a "very unfortunate situation for all those
involved."
When Santiago and Mantin left their positions last fall, board members
were able to obtain emails and credit card statements of Sharony,
Perez's wife, who is a former Margate police officer. What they found
shocked them. The credit card bills, according to criminal complaints,
showed that more than $170,000 had been deposited into Sharony's account
in an 11-month period, indicating a lavish lifestyle some board members
believed couldn't be sustained by two retired police officers. Nearly
$20,000 in cash was deposited in the account in one 12-day period, the
billings show.
Also in those credit card billings was nearly $60,000 paid in dental
bills apparently not for Sharony or Perez, but for Donna Mantin, the
condo manager who at the time was employed by FirstService Residential.
The emails showed that Sharony was representing Mantin in negotiations
with the Gentle Dental Group of Pembroke Pines over the billings.
"I'd like to resolve this so Donna's treatment can resume, since her
condition is deteriorating due to this delay and it is urgent that she
receives care," Sharony wrote to the dental office.
In another email, the dental office manager complains to Mantin that she
has "been trying to reach Revi for weeks now since she take care of you
finances to give both of you information on your account." These
findings outraged several residents, one of whom confronted Mantin in a
parking lot on videtape.
"Do you know how much damage you did?" the resident asked her. "Spending
thousands of dollars for a dentist, getting your teeth fixed with our
parking fees?"
While there may be a legitimate explanation for the large amount of
money going through Sharony's credit card account and her payment of
such a large sum of money on behalf of Mantin, it wasn't forthcoming.
Mantin refused to speak to Local 10. Perez and Sharony moved out of
their modest condo to buy a $630,000 home in a gated community in Boca
Raton. When Local 10 investigative reporter Bob Norman caught up with
Perez there, he shut the door without answering any questions that the
residents at Jade Winds so badly want answered.
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