Voter-fraud accusations roil one of Miami’s largest condos

A voting fraud scandal is the talk of the tower at The Club at Brickell Bay, one of the largest condominiums in Miami.

In Monday’s annual Homeowners Association board election, president Karl de Borbon is running for a ninth consecutive term against opponents who accuse him of rigging last year’s election and a June 8 vote for a swimming pool deck refurbishment project and a bylaw amendment.

Six homeowners at the 43-story, 643-unit building told the Miami Herald their ballots were forged. Screenshots of dozens of ballots provided to the Herald show similar handwriting. In the case of one homeowner who said she never voted, her signature is different on two ballots, and on one of them her name is misspelled.

Residents have reported the irregularities to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which is sending an election monitor to Monday’s vote count at The Club, 1200 Brickell Bay Dr., according to a confirmation letter from the agency. Homeowners who are concerned about the integrity of the election and want to defeat de Borbon led a petition drive to request the monitor.

In total, 14 people, including four board incumbents, are running for five seats.

“It’s time for the regime of Karl de Borbon to end so that we can clean up the corruption and make this a truly great building,” said Victor Lozier, an owner and manager of rental units who is running for the board. He has devoted hours to auditing hundreds of ballots, collecting copies, calling owners for verification and organizing a slate of challengers. “People are getting ripped off. We want justice.”

For the past year, the Miami Herald has been digging into the clash between residents at Brickell Bay and tourists vacationing in short-term rental units owned by investors — units which violate the city of Miami’s ban on Airbnbs in multifamily residential buildings. The Herald investigated allegations of corruption and harassment by the board president, and how life has become miserable for the people who live there. Look for the Herald’s investigation shortly.

Lozier and other candidates running against de Borbon believe that a new board could balance the interests of residents, investors and guests, use Airbnb fees for the benefit of the building and create a model of coexistence.

De Borbon and the HOA attorney said proper procedures have been followed and no improprieties occurred during voting. De Borbon, president since 2018, said he has always run honest campaigns and never tampered with ballots. He said his challengers resent his popularity and his skill in keeping maintenance fees low, building a $6 million reserve fund and making improvements at the 22-year-old building, which he touted in a mass email to owners.

“Forgeries? How could that be done?” de Borbon said. “I have no idea. Prove it.”

Alleged ballot irregularities

Samar Handal, a Miami real estate broker, and her mother, Mirna, own two units at The Club, which they rent for investment income. Neither she nor her mother voted in the 2025 board election or the June 8 vote.

Yet when she asked to see their ballots, the Club’s property manager emailed her copies of what she says are four forged ballots. Their signatures don’t match and on one, on the line where the last name is to be printed, her mother’s name is written “HANDA.”

“Forgery of signatures and falsification of election documents are not minor administrative issues. These actions may constitute criminal conduct under Florida law. It is absolutely unacceptable that votes may have been submitted without the owners’ knowledge or authorization,” Handal wrote to The Club’s property manager, Deborah Gonzalez.

She asked who had handled or processed the ballots but got no answer.

“The Club is such an easy target for fraud because it is a huge cash cow and it’s mostly absentee investor owners who are oblivious and don’t participate in meetings,” said Handal, who serves on the board of her 36-unit Miami Beach condo. “It doesn’t shock me. Because it’s Miami. The No. 1 crime is fraud. We’re a melting pot of corrupt cultures.”

Handal and other owners are demanding an investigation of de Borbon and the board.

“Everyone can see he has an opulent lifestyle,” she said. “I know that if you have officers colluding, it would not be difficult to get kickbacks and steal. That’s why I chose to live in a small and trustworthy building. The state can’t regulate all these condos. The best way to stop it is to get involved. I tell my clients to get on their board.”

The same thing that happened to the Handals happened to Morgan Jones, who has owned an investment unit at The Club since 2022. He says he did not vote in the 2025 election.

Jones requested a copy of his ballot from Gonzalez. His signature is forged, he says. The ballot contains a line where the owner writes the name of the condo. But on dozens of ballots audited and photographed in The Club’s office by Lozier and others and shown to the Herald, the name is printed the same way – the club at BRiCKELL, and is missing the word Bay.

“I can confirm I’ve never voted and that’s not my handwriting,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t write in all caps, and some of the letters are printed, some are in cursive.”

Jones and others who emailed the HOA with complaints got the same response from the HOA attorney stating the HOA adhered to Florida law on the “distribution, collection and tabulation of ballots.” The HOA “remains committed to maintaining the accuracy and transparency of its election processes” and asked owners to notify management in writing with their concerns — which they already had.

Another anomaly with the June 8 vote was the historic high number of 489 ballots cast, say longtime homeowners who attended the meeting where the ballots were tallied. De Borbon and the board needed 75 percent of the 643 unit owners to approve the pool deck waterproofing project proposal, which did not contain a price tag or bid from a contractor.

“That’s a blank check for the board,” Handal said.

Added Lozier: “The board controls millions of dollars, Karl controls the board and can cut whatever deals he wants with vendors.”

Criticism comes with the job, de Borbon said.

“We are financially clear and healthy but some people are never happy,” he said.

Typical voter turnout is low at The Club, where only about 100 of the 643 units are occupied by homeowners or long-term tenants. The rest are owned by investors who live elsewhere and rent units by the night on short-term vacation rental sites such as Airbnb.

Katherin Fernandez, an original homeowner at The Club and former board member, is part of a group that has been fighting the condo’s transformation into an Airbnb hotspot. They want short-term rentals of less than 30 days to end. De Borbon runs six Airbnbs in the building under his host name Mr. Wonderful.

“I considered it an honor and privilege to serve my neighbors,” said Fernandez. “We pay fees in the expectation that the HOA board, HOA attorney and property management company will protect homeowners and the integrity of our elections.”

Owners have raised objections about a proxy vote called by De Borbon at a May 18 meeting on the pool project and bylaw change. They notified the board that the votes were cast without their authorization. De Borbon “was the chief proponent of a limited proxy vote marred by claims of widespread forgery,” Javier Zayas-Bazan, an attorney representing owners, wrote to the board on June 12.

He also requested voting and communications records, stating “this Board election scheduled for June 22, 2026, and the May 18, 2026 limited proxy vote will be the subject of intensive investigative and legal scrutiny.”

De Borbon dismisses the accusations as coming from a small group of disgruntled owners. The majority, he maintains, supports his leadership.

“I campaign, yes, but I campaign on my success,” de Borbon said. “It’s crazy to think I would hurt the building or kill investment because I’m an investor myself and I live here, too.”