BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Authorities in Broward County arrested three people for gaming the legal system to take over properties, the sheriff’s office announced Tuesday.
One of those men was arrested Tuesday morning in Dania Beach at one of the homes he’s accused of stealing.
One of his accomplices has been jailed for months and another is expected to be extradited, soon.
Authorities say more arrests are coming.
“It’s a terrible, devious, horrible scheme, but it’s a smart scheme,” said Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar, before explaining how it worked.
Kiar says Tyrone Jones and Yuri Domatov, aka, Gino Zeto, used the civil court system to, essentially, steal people’s homes.
“They would basically say that a person who owned their property, or a bank that owned their property, no longer wanted their property,” Kiar said.
That’s where Michael Dupree comes in, Kiar explained.
“You would assume that the return of service would actually go to the bank, or to the individual, but it wasn’t,” Kiar said. “The return of service was going to this man.”
Authorities say Dupree, a convicted felon, pretended to represent the real property owners, allowing him to legally make the fraudulent transfers of ownership.
Dupree’s headquarters is not a corporate office, but rather, a run-down trailer near Tampa, where he was arrested last week.
Investigators say Jones was living in one of the stolen homes in Fort Lauderdale when he was arrested last October.
They say Domatov was arrested early Tuesday morning at another stolen home in Dania Beach.
“The people they try to pick on are seniors,” Kiar said. “Low income people, people they think they can best get away with it.”
The county appraiser’s property crimes unit launched last fall. Since then, investigations have gone up 300%.
Kiar says 14 properties valued at nearly $13 million are tied up in this latest case, including one owned by an elderly widow who has since passed away.
“I just want to make sure that at the end of the day, justice is served,” Kiar said. “The people of Broward County do not deserve to be preyed upon by these criminals.”
All three of the suspects from this case have served time in prison for fraud, or similar crimes.
They’re each facing grand theft, fraud and organized crime charges.
Nearly a dozen people are being investigated in connection to the suspects and the scheme.
In the meantime, Broward County property owners can sign up to get free alerts from the appraiser’s office should someone try to change the ownership of their property. For more information, click here.