A Miami man bought a condominium, cremation services and a host of other items after looting the estate of his disabled elderly neighbor, prosecutors said.
Nilo Somoano, 62, was arrested on multiple charges including exploitation of elderly, organized scheme to defraud and theft from a person 65 or older, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said Thursday.
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Prosecutors said the victim was an 89-year-old woman who died in October of 2021 after suffering from severe mental and physical incapacities.
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Somoano and the woman had been neighbors at the Half Moon Towers Condominium on Northwest 7th Street in Miami.
The woman had become unable to care for herself as early as 2015, requiring help with daily tasks including bathing, preparing meals, medication management, and transportation to doctor appointments.
Prosecutors said Somoano became her caretaker under unclear circumstances and was able to obtain a power of attorney, which gave him access to her finances.
Somoano began looting the woman's finances and estate, and transfered her condo unit to himself while she was still alive and living there, prosecutors said.
Bank records showed Somoano used the victim’s financial accounts to buy another condo unit at Half Moon Towers and depleted the victim’s original $600,000 financial estate, prosecutors said.
He allegedly sent his wife almost $14,000 through Zelle to pay for cremation services for Somoano’s brother and godmother, made Costco purchases, bought hardware and home improvement items from Home Depot, paid for various plumbing services, and made purchases at clothing stores, specialty stores, and vehicle supply stores, prosecutors said.
None of the services or items purchased could have helped the woman, who spent her last days residing in an adult living facility, prosecutors said.
"The economic exploitation of our elder residents is almost always a cold-hearted
plot to deprive a person of the benefits of a lifetime of hard work and thoughtful financial planning," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Using a person’s mental and physical fragilities as a means to steal everything from them is the type of crime neither I nor the investigators and staff of the State Attorney’s Office Elder and Vulnerable Adult Unit will tolerate. Crimes like those outlined in our arrest warrant should be an alarm for all of us who are concerned for the well-being of our elder population."
Somoano booked into jail on Thursday and was being held on a $750,000 bond, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
