DANIA BEACH, Fla. – A 37-year-old woman from Dania Beach is the fourth person to be arrested in connection with a real estate scheme in Broward County, authorities confirmed.
Inesa Florea was taken into custody Tuesday on charges of grand theft, filing false documents and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
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According to her arrest report, beginning in March 2020, “a series of events perpetuated by Tyrone Jones, Jeffrey Aronson and Michael Dupree, and later by Yury Domatov and Inesa Florea, occurred in order to fraudulently acquire a residence” located in the 4000 block of Southwest 44th Terrace in Dania Beach.
Detectives from the Broward Sheriff’s Office said the property, which had been in foreclosure, was owned by U.S. Bank and Trust, but the group filed a fraudulent deed and Jones and Aronson later “applied for and received money from a fraudulently obtained mortgage.”
Detectives said Jones also rented the home to a tenant.
According to Florea’s arrest report, the bank discovered that someone was living in the home on April 25, 2022, after an “unauthorized person” had filed a civil complaint to evict the tenants.
Detectives say multiple attempts were made to try to fraudulently obtain the property, including through a deed prepared by a “non-existent company,” which was signed by Aronson and witnessed by Florea, who is Domatov’s girlfriend.
The deed reflected that it was sold for $40,000 to “All Way Towing and Transportation LLC,” which is owned by Domatov, the report stated. Florea was added as an owner to the property on Feb. 24, 2023, authorities said.
According to the report, detectives went to the home on May 24, 2023, and spoke to Florea and Domatov, who both claimed to own the home and said they “were not leaving.”
Authorities said Florea told them they had purchased the home from Aronson for $40,000 and said, “I put $80,000 just to fix the outside of the house to make the house stand.”
According to her arrest report, Florea and All Way Towing filed a counterclaim against U.S. Bank, claiming they made $60,000 worth of repairs to the home and that the bank should reimburse them, claiming that the bank “defrauded them out of the house.”
Broward County Judge Jack Tuter, however, ruled that U.S. Bank was the rightful owner of the property and that the deed provided by the couple was fraudulent.
Local 10 News spoke with Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar earlier this year after the first arrests were made.
“It’s a terrible, devious, horrible scheme, but it’s a smart scheme,” he said, before explaining how it worked.
Kiar said Jones and 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 Dupree came 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.
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.