Multiple victims of the sinking of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida, were allegedly robbed of their identities by a trio who went luxury shopping.
Betsy Alejandro Cacho-Medina, Kimberly Michelle Johnson and Rodney Choute face multiple charges related to identity theft, authorities reported Wednesday.
He is accused of stealing at least $ 45,000, not including the additional $ 67,000 they tried to steal.
Miami-Dade County Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle he said at a press conference that the actions of the thieves were first identified by a sister of a victim who died on July 9, about 16 days after the building collapsed.
The sister told the Surfside Police Department that she had noticed that the victim’s mailing address had changed and that replacement credit cards were requested after the collapse. There were also several bank transfers from the dead victim’s account and several fraudulent purchases to the replacement credit cards, authorities said.
Rundle said the suspects stole the identities of at least seven victims of the building’s collapse, two of whom have not died. There were also two more victims who were not part of the collapse of the building.
“These individuals look like very skilled identity thieves. They are professionals, “Rundle said.” Except for their names, almost nothing else of them seems to be true. “
The suspects are charged with an organized scheme of fraud, identity theft, credit card trafficking and use of forged and fictitious IDs. The bond for the defendants was set at $ 1 million for Cacho-Medina, $ 500,000 for Johnson and $ 430,000 for Choute.
To read 97 people died after the June 23 condominium collapse that sparked weeks of frantic search and rescue efforts.