Three women were arrested last week for their roles in an affordable housing scam in Miami-Dade.
Manuela Leonor Levy, Azalia Isabel Garcia and Aurora Mercedes Gomez were arrested by Miami-Dade Police last week on charges of an organized scheme to defraud, public records show.
They allegedly took thousands of dollars from Section 8 housing applicants between October 2015 and July 2017 after promising to expedite the application process for affordable housing, according to NBC Miami.
The women, who range in age from 57-years-old to 74, were not employed by a government housing agency. One victim, Haydee Gutierrez, said she paid them about $3,000 for what she thought was a standard application fee. A year later, she realized it was a scam.
Fraud is rampant in the housing industry.
Earlier this year, nine people were arrested for their roles in a $600,000 residential insurance fraud scheme in Miami-Dade, and officials planned to arrest 25 homeowners who also allegedly participated in the plot.
In August, two Hialeah construction executives were sentenced by a federal judge after being convicted of hiding people on their payrolls and defrauding the low-income housing program.
[NBC Miami] – Katherine Kallergis