{"id":376077,"date":"2026-08-20T00:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376077\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T00:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:18:13","slug":"mom-and-son-arrested-in-620k-fraud-scheme-that-funded-luxury-lifestyle-medley-police-say-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376077\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom and son arrested in $620K fraud scheme that funded luxury lifestyle, Medley Police say \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A mother and her son are facing charges in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that ripped off a Medley company for over $620,000 to pay for their luxury lifestyle, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Maria Rodriguez and Miguel Antonio Perez are facing charges including grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, Medley Police said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The arrests are part of &#8220;Operation Iron Illusion,&#8221; begun in April 2025 after a report of financial fraud involving the company, Iron Container Holdings LLC, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators discovered Rodriguez, the company&#8217;s president, had used her position to benefit herself and her son, who was initially hired as a security guard at the company for $42,000 a year and later had his salary raised to $114,000 as he worked remotely, police said.<\/p>\n<p>But investigators found the company didn&#8217;t have office security guards, and witnesses didn&#8217;t see Perez performing security duties, police said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/081926-Operation-Iron-Illusion-Medley-Police.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\"From the Medley Police news release on &quot;Operation Iron Illusion.&quot;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tMedley PoliceMedley Police<\/p>\n<p>From the Medley Police news release on &#8220;Operation Iron Illusion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, his company access card and computer credentials hadn&#8217;t been used since 2022, and 49 separate conflicts were discovered showing him checked into a gym while he was also reported to be working, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Detectives also discovered company credit cards were used by Rodriguez to fund luxury vehicles, a Brickell apartment, yachts and designer clothing, as well as gym dues, auto insurance and criminal defense legal fees, police said.<\/p>\n<p>In total, it&#8217;s alleged they embezzled over $620,000 from the company, with the personal expenses listed as normal business expenses, police said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Medley Police Department remains committed to protecting our business<br \/>community. We will not tolerate individuals in positions of trust exploiting that trust for personal gain at the expense of local businesses, their employees, and our community,&#8221; the department said in a statement. &#8220;We will continue to use every resource available to identify, locate, and hold accountable those responsible for these crimes.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother and her son are facing charges in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that ripped off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226,373],"class_list":["post-376077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-miami-dade-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}