Housing director accused of stealing $1 million from Miami-Dade Homeless Trust

A nonprofit housing director is accused of stealing more than $1 million from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to buy himself luxury items, including Rolex watches and four cars, according to the state attorney’s office.

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Around a year ago, employees in the Citrus Health Network housing program started complaining that their chief operating officer, Thomas Jardon, was neglecting his duties and not responding to their emails, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Citrus provides social services, including programs that assist foster children, homeless people and those suffering from mental illness, according to an arrest warrant. It has a housing division that works with the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to find and pay for housing for the county’s homeless population.

As complaints were rolling in about Jardon, a senior accountant at Citrus was alerted to a $30,000 purchase of Apple products through the nonprofit’s Amazon account, the warrant said. Jardon didn’t get approval for the purchase and allocated the expense to a program that was no longer operational.

Citrus’ executives decided to fire Jardon after the incident, started an audit of the housing program and notified authorities. An extensive investigation by the Miami-Dade Office of the Inspector General and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office revealed that Jardon allegedly executed a scheme to steal money from Citrus by setting up several companies to funnel out money for fake goods or services.

For example, Jardon allegedly signed and approved fake leases between Citrus and the companies that he secretly controlled, falsely portraying that these companies were providing housing for homeless people.

In another instance, Jardon had Citrus cumulatively pay nearly $560,000 for purported furniture deliveries to homeless clients and submitted the bulk to the Homeless Trust for reimbursement, the warrant said. But only four out of 35 audited furniture transactions contained actual requests for furniture.

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One of the individuals who reportedly received furniture through the program was interviewed by authorities. They said “that never happened. I wish. I needed furniture. Around that time, we were sleeping on the floor. I had to beg my foster parents for their old furniture,” the warrant said.

Jardon, 42, of Homestead, is accused of stealing more than $1 million and making repeated luxury purchases for himself while he engaged in his scheme to defraud the nonprofits.

He bought two Rolex watches, a luxury item from Louis Vuitton, an estate 18K gold Cuban chain and a set of 12 lithographs from an online auction house in Switzerland, the warrant said. He spent at least $21,138 on hotels, Airbnb and airfare in addition to making cash withdrawals of at least $51,410.

Jardon also purchased four vehicles using some of the proceeds from this scheme — a 2024 Jeep Wrangler, a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado, a 2024 BMW 340 and a second 2024 Chevrolet Silverado, the warrant said.

He was arrested on charges of grand theft, organized scheme to defraud, engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity and identity theft and was being held Wednesday on a $695,000 bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Jardon didn’t have an attorney listed yet.

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