*Three people have been arrested on multiple counts of fraud for stealing the identities of victims in Florida’s condominium building collapse in June.
Per Complex, the trio’s fraud scheme began sometime in early July. They were busted after making calls to financial institutions claiming to be people who died in the collapse.
Here’s more from the outlet:
30-year-old Betsy Alejandra Cacho-Medina, 34-year-old Kimberly Michelle Johnson, and 38-year-old Rodney Choute were arrested on multiple counts of fraud and identity theft, Reuters reports. The trio have been accused of stealing the identities of at least seven people, five of whom died in the June 24 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo. The other two, it turns out, survived the collapse.
Utilizing the names of seven people who lived at the condo complex, they were able to obtain credit cards and make transactions of up to $50,000 in total. They allegedly used vacant residences as addresses for the delivery of these fraudulent credit cards.
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“Cyber grave robbers did move very quickly after the collapse to grab what they could while family and friends were in absolute emotional turmoil,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle at a news conference. “This investigation has also shown that these individuals appeared to be very skilled identity thieves and professionals. Except for their names, almost nothing else about seemed to be true.”
Per NPR: Before a large portion of Champlain Towers South came smashing down, the building’s condo board noted its significant deterioration and need for a $15 million overhaul, to be paid by its members.
“The concrete deterioration is accelerating. The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated,” read a letter from earlier in the year about the repairs.
The total death toll from the condo collapse is 98.
The building collapse is one of the deadliest structural building failures in U.S. history.
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