Miami Man Gets Prison for Posing as Elderly Woman’s Son To Steal Her Home

A Miami man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after scheming to exploit a 94-year-old woman out of her home.

On Aug. 26, Alejandro Diaz Torriente, 67, was found guilty of the financial exploitation of a 94-year-old woman and sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation, according to the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office.

The victim was living on her own in her El Portal, FL, home, which she purchased in 1980 for $74,400, property records show. The three-bedroom home is currently valued at more than $888,000, according to automated valuation models.

In 2021, the victim was declared legally incompetent, according to WTVJ, and prosecutors say Diaz Torriente took advantage of her diminished capacity to financially exploit her.

Diaz Torriente, who was a local handyman and acquaintance of the victim, become increasingly involved in the elderly woman’s life. He referred to her as “mom” and identified himself as her son during doctor’s appointments, authorities said.

After a four-month investigation by the State Attorney's Office Elder and Vulnerable Adult Exploitation Task Force, Diaz Torriente was arrested on Nov. 17, 2023.

The investigation found that Diaz Torriente defrauded the victim out of around $20,000 in cash and her Social Security benefits were being redirected to an unknown bank account, WTVJ reported.

Additionally, he altered the title for her home at 188 NW 88 St., El Portal, FL, adding himself as a joint tenant with right of survivorship.

Diaz Torriente changed the title on the home by filing a quitclaim deed, which is a quick and low-cost way to transfer property in Florida. He then moved into the woman’s home and changed the locks, according to authorities.

Diaz Torriente was found guilty of financial exploitation at last week’s hearing.

“This case sends a clear message to those who seek to leave our elders destitute and discarded that we will not tolerate this type of heartless crime against our vulnerable residents,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement.

The ruling was a victory for the county’s Elder and Vulnerable Adult Exploitation Task Force, which has seen an increase in these cases, according to Ed Griffith, public information officer for the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office.

“This whole thing with defrauding the elderly, particularly out of their property, is really an ugly and increasing crime. It’s very sad,” Griffith tells Realtor.com®. “We have a large mature population here in Dade County, so that’s why we have a whole task force dealing with these kinds of problems coming in.”

This is not the only example of scammers taking advantage of elderly Florida residents. Last week, an alleged criminal ring was accused of scamming condominium and homeowners associations throughout Miami-Dade County out of $5.8 million.

Juan Awais, 60, and five associates were arrested last week on charges of racketeering, money laundering, organized fraud, grand theft, and solicitation of kickbacks.

The group allegedly targeted elderly, mostly Spanish-speaking HOA board members, tricking them into signing documents they didn’t fully understand, officials say.

The group would collect contracts for various tasks such as roof repairs and renovations, but would pocket the money instead of completing the jobs, said the Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz.

”Homeowners were dealing with the aftermath of a devastating hurricane and the insurance money was supposed to repair their homes," said Cordero-Stutz. "Instead, hundreds of thousands of dollars were siphoned through a network for the benefit of people who had no legitimate claim to it. 

“These associations and the board members, who are volunteers and mostly elderly people, entrusted the people they hired to do the right thing and, in fact, were schemed and stolen from,” she added.