Mastermind in massive Hammocks HOA theft and her husband take plea deals

A former president of the Hammocks Home Owners Association and her husband have accepted plea deals in connection with the massive theft of funds from the HOA.

Former Hammocks HOA President Marglli Gallego and her husband, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, pled guilty and accepted the deals at a hearing on Thursday.

Under her deal, Gallego was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by seven years of probation.

Gonzalez was given seven years of probation and must pay a $50,000 restitution and forfeit a $1.2 million home.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle called the scheme “one of the largest homeowner association frauds in U.S. history” that bilked over 18,000 residents out of upwards of $11 million.

“For us it was important not only to get justice for the homeowners but to make sure that they were made whole as much as possible from this criminal case,” Fernandez Rundle said. “We believe that this is the longest prison sentence ever for an HOA board president in the United States.”

The husband and wife were among several arrested amid a years-long investigation into racketeering, money laundering and grand theft at the HOA.

Prosecutors said board members and relatives used shell companies to funnel HOA funds to themselves and their friends under the guise that they were vendor payments.

The fake vendors were paid for performing little or no work, prosecutors said.

Five suspects were arrested in November 2022 after they were accused of stealing millions from the HOA in the scheme dating back years.

When authorities searched the association office, they found a “bunker” and a trap door in a ballroom that were used to hide documents used in the scheme, Fernandez-Rundle said.

The first arrest made was Gallego, the former president and treasurer of the HOA, who prosecutors said was the ringleader.

Gallego ran the HOA “like an organized crime syndicate” to steal money from the residents to benefit themselves, their family, and their friends, Fernandez Rundle said.

“She intentionally targeted them, this particular homeowner’s association, because she purchased one percent share of a condominium in order to be eligible to be able to run for a position on the board,” Fernandez Rundle said. “This way, she was able to successfully infiltrate the HOA board which became her cash cow in her diabolical scheme.”

Gallego’s husband, Gonzalez, and cousin, Kevin Leonardo Alzate, were also arrested, along with board member and former treasurer Myriam Rodgers and Yoleidis Lopez.

Gonzalez, working as a vendor, received over $1 million in association funds for work never done or overbilled for, Fernandez Rundle said.

The board’s president after Gallego, Monica Ghilardi, was also arrested and charged with racketeering and grand theft.

Fernandez Rundle said four others have already pled guilty, while others have cases pending and one faces sentencing.

The Hammocks HOA oversees about 40 communities with more than 6,500 units and around 18,000 residents, and is one of the largest homeowners associations in the state and the largest in Miami-Dade.

The HOA theft scandal led to the creation of a new state law meant to protect homeowners.