Ex-president of Edgewater condo association arrested over $33K theft in alleged kickback scheme

A former president of the Blue condominium board in Miami’s Midtown neighborhood was arrested over an alleged $33,000 theft tied to a kickback scheme. 

Ben Dvir, 47, is accused of having a vendor that sold tiles to the condo building for its common areas inflate invoices — and then Dvir allegedly siphoned the markup for himself, according to an arrest affidavit. Dvir served on the board at the bayfront 34-story building at 601 Northeast 36th Street, near the Julia Tuttle Causeway, from 2019 to January. 

Police arrested Dvir on Wednesday on a charge of grand theft. 

Dvir instructed Tile Empire to increase some of its invoices by roughly 50 percent and then transfer a commission equal to the markup to an entity tied to Dvir, according to the affidavit. From 2019 to 2021, he received $32,906 in commission checks. 

Dvir does not own the entity that received the funds, Jadore Cosmetics, but he is the authorized signatory for its business bank accounts, the affidavit says. While he told Tile Empire that his wife, Yaidira Rodriguez, owns Jadore, investigators determined the firm is owned by his mother-in-law, Aimee Figueroa.

This isn’t the first time Blue residents have taken issue with Dvir. 

In years past, residents have complained about his behavior, saying he bullies them as well as condo employees. A WPLG Local 10 report in 2021 showed footage of Dvir yelling at a resident in an elevator and at a valet in front of the building who had tried to explain the parking rules to Dvir. A video from 2018 shows him getting upset with a security guard eating lunch in his marked car and calling police on the staff member. 

Hyperion Development Group, based in Miami and New York, developed the 330-unit Blue condominium, completing it in 2006, according to records. The building has a distinctive curving design reminiscent of the Morris Lapidus-designed Fontainebleau Miami Beach. 

The issues at Blue mark the latest allegations of fraud and bullying against a leader of a South Florida residential community. For years, residents who live in communities governed by a condominium association or homeowners association have accused board members of various types of fraud, from misappropriating community funds for their own lavish spending to election fraud. 

The biggest case recently was at the Hammocks, a southwest Miami-Dade County community that is home to 18,000 residents. In November, police arrested former board president Marglli Gallego and three other board members for their part in allegedly siphoning over $1 million from homeowners association’s coffers by signing fake checks for bogus maintenance and repair work at the 3,800-acre property. 

Gallego is described as the ringleader in charging documents. Her husband, Jose Gonzalez, who also was arrested, led some of the purported vendors that were paid by the association, with much of the funds allegedly ending up in the pockets of Gallego and Gonzalez, according to an arrest affidavit.

All five of those charged have pleaded not guilty. 

A court-appointed receiver who is overseeing Hammocks financials has determined that the fraud was deeper than investigators originally found and exceeded $3 million. 

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