A Miami-Dade man who moved into a 94-year-old woman’s El Portal home, called her “mom,” and filed paperwork trying to claim ownership of the property has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Alejandro Diaz Torriente was found guilty of financial exploitation after prosecutors said he targeted the woman’s cash and her $600,000 home, draining roughly $20,000 from her directly while attempting to seize the property itself.
Diaz Torriente, who knew the elderly woman as an acquaintance, was arrested in 2023 following a four-month investigation, according to NBC 6 South Florida. That investigation was carried out by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Elder and Vulnerable Adult Exploitation Task Force, a unit that works alongside the Florida Department of Children and Families and local police departments to investigate financial crimes and reverse fraudulent real estate transactions targeting impaired seniors, according to the Office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. Diaz Torriente was 65 years old at the time of his arrest, meaning he was himself a senior citizen when he set his sights on a woman nearly three decades his elder.
A Fake Son, Changed Locks, and a Forged Title
According to authorities, Diaz Torriente identified himself as the woman’s son during doctor’s visits and other interactions, and he referred to her as “mom” even though the two were only acquaintances. He moved into her home and changed the locks, cutting off her control of the property she had bought back in 1980. He also filed a fraudulent title adding himself as a joint tenant with right of survivorship on the house, a maneuver that would have entitled him to inherit or claim the property outright.
The scheme reportedly went further than the house itself. Diaz Torriente opened bank accounts used to defraud the victim, and her Social Security benefits were redirected to an unknown bank account. The woman had been declared legally incompetent in 2021, leaving her especially vulnerable to the kind of impersonation and paperwork manipulation prosecutors say Diaz Torriente carried out.
Judge Hands Down 20-Year Sentence Plus Decade of Probation
Diaz Torriente must serve 10 years of probation once his prison term ends, per the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. Fernandez Rundle said the sentence sends a message beyond this single case: “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.”…