The housing director of a South Florida non-profit is facing charges after authorities said he stole over $1.2 million from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to fund a lavish lifestyle that included designer clothes, artwork and multiple vehicles.
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Thomas Jardon, the director of housing for Citrus Health Network, is facing charges including organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference Wednesday.
Citrus Health, founded in 1979 by Jardon’s father, Mario Jardon, is a non-profit community mental health center that serves tens of thousands of patients annually and works with the Homeless Trust to find housing for community members and provides them with furniture.
The Homeless Trust refers clients to Citrus Health, which helps find housing and is reimbursed by the county, Fernandez Rundle said.
Fernandez Rundle said last year, Citrus Health employees began complaining that Thomas Jardon was derelict in his duties and not responding to emails.
The company performed an audit, discovered the thefts and reported it to authorities, officials said.
An investigation found Thomas Jardon had two separate schemes that defrauded the Homeless Trust out of over $1.2 million, Fernandez Rundle said.
In one scheme, he located properties then created bogus companies claiming to be the owner or rental agency for the property, authorities said.
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He hid his ownership, creating multiple shell companies within a shell company, then created fake leases and moved money through multiple accounts before Citrus Health sought reimbursement for the fake rentals from the Homeless Trust, Fernandez Rundle said.
The other scheme involved false furniture sales, in which Thomas Jardon set up a fake company, created invoices for furniture and authorized payments before Citrus Health sought reimbursement from the Homeless Trust, authorities said.
The furniture scheme alone netted him just under $600,000, Fernandez Rundle said.
Investigators discovered Thomas Jardon had purchased two $19,000 Rolex watches, an 18K gold Cuban chain, 12 lithographs from an art dealer in Switzerland, designer clothes, plane tickets, hotels as well as four new vehicles including a Jeep, a BMW, and two Chevy Silverados, Fernandez Rundle said.
Mario Jardon and other leadership at Citrus Health had no knowledge of or involvement in the thefts, and Citrus Health has already reimbursed the county over $1.2 million to cover the entire loss from the scheme, Fernandez Rundle said.
“This is a theft committed by a rogue employee,” she said.
Thomas Jardon was booked into jail and was being held on a bond of just under $700,000, Fernandez Rundle said.
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