Aventura condo association president arrested after being accused of stealing $1.5 million

By Jessica Holly, Michael Hudak, Julian Quintana, Chantal Cook, Alex Browning

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    AVENTURA, Florida (WSVN) — Police on Tuesday arrested the president of an Aventura condominium, who is accused of committing money laundering and grand theft, according to officials.

Cellphone video captured Gregori Arzumanov, board president of Turnberry on the Green Condominium, located at 19501 W. Country Club Drive, placed in handcuffs as Aventura Police took him away.

According to officials, Arzumanov, 62, is alleged to have stolen around $1.5 million from the association and to have taken all the top positions at the condominium so he could freely steal.

Arzumanov is also facing charges of racketeering, organized fraud and credit card fraud, according to the arrest report.

On the condo’s website, Arzumanov has been president of the board since 2008 and on it, he claims he saved the condo from bankruptcy.

7News spoke to one resident at the condo who was happy to find out Arzumanov was arrested.

“I don’t have a lot of details but what I can tell you is that we were living a daily nightmare, being persecuted daily by the board that was absolutely corrupted,” said Thais Penezri, a resident. “We are very happy. We are very happy and we hope the law is going to change after [what] we went through here in these last 15 years.”

With Arzumanov arrested, she can now feel justice will be served.

“I can say it’s a historical day,” said Penezri. “We’re very happy!”

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Aventura Police Chief Michael Bentolila and Aventura Mayor Howard S. Weinberg held a press conference Tuesday afternoon and released more details on Arzumanov’s arrest.

“This was a four-year investigation. He was committing these crimes much longer than that. I do have to say that to all the residents and victims of that building, we felt your pain the entire time,” said Bentolila. “I do apologize for taking so long but this was an intricate fraud case, where he took over not just the building, but all, everything going on around the building. Every asset used in and around the building. It was a complete takeover. I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire career.”

Officials said Arzumanov managed to hold three major positions at the property: HOA president, property manager and building chief engineer.

“It turns out that there was trouble in paradise,” said Rundle. “In those positions of trust, he had the ability to spend money for things, theoretically, that was for the association, but what he did was, he actually bought things that, we believe, were for himself.”

Officials said Arzumanov’s biggest money maker was creating a security company, then hiring that company and overcharging the condo association to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

“Racketeering, organized scheme to defraud, money laundering, among other charges,” said Rundle.

And as part of an alleged money laundering scheme, police said, Arzumanov is being accused of using stolen money to buy food, groceries, artwork, flight lessons to obtain his pilot license, and made payments to his mother labeled “rent,” but she’s been dead for years.

He was booked into jail Tuesday, and investigators said he may soon have some familiar company.

“For anybody who may have collaborated with him, you have a window of opportunity to reach out to our detectives or the state attorney’s office to work with us. But that is a very small window. If you don’t take it, we will be at your front door and we will be arresting you as well,” said Bentolila.

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