Miami – February 6, 2025 – Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announces the arrest and charging of 62-year-old Nilo Somoano after an investigation into the exploitation of an elderly neighbor at the Half Moon Towers Condominium, located at 5055 N.W. 7 Street in the City of Miami.

“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,” commented State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “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.”

The victim, an 89-year-old female who passed away on October 16, 2021, was suffering from severe mental and physical incapacities. As early as 2015, she had been rendered incapable of caring for herself and required assistance for all her daily needs, including bathing, preparing meals, medication management, as well as transportation to doctor appointments. Under unclear circumstances, Somoano became the victim’s caregiver. In January 2016, Somoano obtained a Durable Power of Attorney for the victim, giving him an access to her finances.

Using the legal authority obtained through the Power of Attorney, Somoano allegedly began looting the victim’s finances and later her estate beginning with the Quit Claim Deed transfer of her condominium unit to Somoano while she still was alive and residing there. Somoano lived at Half Moon Towers in several units from 2006 to the present owns multiple units in the building. According to bank records,
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 through such activities as Zelling his wife almost $14,000 to pay for cremation services for Somoano’s brother and godmother, payments for Costco purchases, hardware and home improvement purchases from Home Depot, various plumbing services, transactions at clothing stores, specialty stores, and vehicle supply stores. None of these services or items could have helped the victim who spent her last days residing in an adult living facility.