And Cuban from Hialeah was arrested for alleged exploitation of his 95-year-old mother, from whom he stole more than $50,000 and left him without funds to pay the rent, according to authorities.
Manuel C. Díaz Hernández72, is charged with several felonies, including exploitation of an elderly/disabled person in an amount over $50,000, grand theft from a person over 65 years of age, organized scheme to defraud and unlawful use of a two-way communication, announced a statement from the State Attorney’s Office in Miami-Dade.
According to authorities, the victim lived alone in her Miami apartment after the death of her 92-year-old husband, after 40 years of marriage. The man’s death was linked to a fall in the residential complex where they lived and, as a result of a lawsuit and settlement related to her death, The old woman charged more than $57,000.
The Prosecutor’s Office report emphasizes that the woman “was self-sufficient, independent and ambulatory, and carried out her normal activities of daily living” and, although she used a walker to walk, “she remained cognitively lucid and managed her own finances without assistance.”
She asked her late husband’s adopted son, Andrés Ramos, to help her with financial matters and the settlement money, and he traveled from Arizona, where he resides, to Miami, to help her open a bank account. The victim and Ramos appeared as authorized signatories.
Díaz, who had not had significant contact with her mother until her husband’s death, began to take an interest in her and convinced her that he could help her better than Ramos, because he was a “blood relative.”
Authorities said Diaz was added to his mother’s bank account and later helped her transfer the settlement money to a joint account.
By the time the money was moved, $7,000 was gone. From March to August 2022, the account balance dropped to zeroleaving the old woman without money to pay the rent.
“All the money was gone. The small fortune that her husband left behind was basically gone,” Ramos, the lady’s adopted son, told NBC6.
Faced with the imminent eviction, the Senior and Vulnerable Adults Unit of the State Prosecutor’s Office intervened and found emergency accommodation for the victim.
“It is always inconceivably sad when a son, daughter or other family member sees an elderly relative as an exploitable target,” the state attorney said. Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “Too many of our older residents are vulnerable to exploitation. In this case, our Senior and Vulnerable Adults Unit was able to intervene to keep the victim housed.”
Fernández stressed that Díaz’s arrest is “another strong statement from my office and our law enforcement community that we will not tolerate the victimization of our elderly and vulnerable residents”.
Díaz was arrested on March 27 and taken to prison.
