MIAMI – Nerelis Leiva — who investigators said was working as a receptionist at a doctor’s office when she met her fraud victims — appeared in court on Wednesday in Miami-Dade County, according to prosecutors.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle identified Leiva as “a predator” and Rita Benet as her co-conspirator in a plot to defraud two vulnerable senior residents of Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Fernandez Rundle said Leiva, 45, visited the home under the pretext of checking her victims’ blood sugar levels — and eventually moved in with an adult and a minor.
“Once Leiva began exercising dominion over her victim, the bank withdrawals went up,” Fernandez Rundle said adding that aside from access to a bank account, she also plotted to steal a $2 million house.
Leiva hired Benet, 59, a notary with American International Business and Associates, to work on the documents used to take ownership of all of the victims’ assets including the house at 3200 Calusa Street, according to Fernandez Rundle.
The 82-year-old victim who signed the documents giving everything to Leiva had dementia, was critically ill and his partner had died in 2021, according to Fernandez Rundle.
“Benet knew that our victim was incapable of understanding what these documents were, and what these documents meant for him and his property,” Fernandez Rundle said.
Leiva aimed to sell the $2 million house for $1.6 million, but an alert neighbor reported the fraud after the victim died in 2022, according to Fernandez Rundle. Police officers arrested Benet and Leiva on Tuesday.
Benet and Leiva were both facing charges of exploitation of the elderly, grand theft on a person over 65 or older and organized scheme to defraud. Benet was also facing two counts of notary fraud, and Leiva was also facing charges of criminal use of personal identification information and unlawfully filing a false document.
Corrections released Benet on a surety $110,000 bond on Wednesday, and Leiva remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center held on a $120,000 bond pending a Nebbia hearing to verify the bail source, records show. Benet’s arraignment hearing is set for Aug. 31. Circuit Judge Javier Enriquez is presiding over the cases.
Fernandez Rundle asked anyone who suspects elderly exploitation in Miami-Dade to call the task force at 786-804-6723, and she also asked property owners to use The Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts fraud alert registration program.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC
Watch the 12 p.m. report