An owner of a Hialeah car dealership who was previously accused of defrauding an elderly woman went back to jail less than a month later after police said he schemed to defraud a financial institution.
Christopher Mora, 24, the owner of Realeza Motors, was arrested Wednesday on multiple fraud charges and grand theft, according to an arrest form. NBC6 cameras were at the dealership as officers served a search warrant.
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WATCH HEREPolice said Mora had an agreement with the owner of Credit Flash Financial to sell vehicles for him on consignment. However, the victim said he never received payment for any of the vehicles sold and the cars are nowhere to be found.
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"This company gave Mora seven vehicles up front for him to sell," said Hialeah Police Lt. Eddie Rodriguez. "So once he would sell the vehicles, he had to pay the company back their money, but in this case, he kept the money to himself. Now the company is without the cars and the money."
According to the arrest report, police located some of the current owners of the vehicles and said they were not aware the cars were fraudulently sold.
The owner of Credit Flash Financial said Mora owes him more than $137,000.
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"Now, along with our investigation, the Department of Motor Vehicles is also going to have to investigate if there was any wrongdoing in transferring of the titles of these vehicles and registration of the vehicles,"
Mora's attorney Edward Tapanes said in a statement to NBC6 that the case involves allegations dating back to 2020 that are currently being litigated in civil court. He also said Mora surrendered Wednesday and should be out of custody soon.
In mid-March, Mora and a co-conspirator were arrested for allegedly filing for fraudulent loans and registering three cars under the name of an elderly woman, police said.
He was accused of identity theft and allegedly financed more than $100,000 under her name.
