Javier Estepa, 48, of Davie, and Diego Alejandro Estepa Vasquez, 37, of Boca Raton, are headed to federal prison after a Miami jury convicted them on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to a federal agency. The duo, former president and vice-president of Aaron Construction Group, Inc., ran a calculated scam targeting low-income housing funds meant for Miami-Dade’s most vulnerable communities.
U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro handed down justice on May 24, 2019, sentencing Estepa to 51 months behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release. Vasquez received 41 months, plus the same supervised release term. The sentences mark the end of a six-day trial that peeled back layers of deception tied to contracts awarded by Miami-Dade Public Housing and Community Development (PHCD).
From June 2014 to December 2016, Estepa and Vasquez rigged the system by falsely claiming their company would handle all labor in-house, pay Davis Bacon Act prevailing wages, and carry workers’ compensation insurance. In reality, they immediately hired subcontractors at rock-bottom fixed rates and forced them to hand over employee names to pad Aaron Construction’s certified payroll—shamming federal oversight.
The phony payrolls made it appear as though fewer workers were on-site and that hours matched contract terms. But the truth was workers weren’t paid overtime, weren’t covered by proper insurance, and weren’t even employees. Estepa and Vasquez submitted periodic payment requests packed with falsified records and sworn compliance statements—lies that cleared the way for over $3.9 million in fraudulent transfers.
Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor OIG, HUD-OIG, and Miami-Dade County OIG tore through the paper trail, exposing how the defendants disguised subcontractors as full-time staff and inflated labor compliance to steal federal funds. Every dollar diverted was meant for repairing homes for low-income families—cash now lost to greed.
“This was not a paperwork error—it was a full-blown fraud operation,” said U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan, who oversaw the prosecution. “They exploited a program built to uplift communities and turned it into a slush fund. Today, accountability has arrived.”
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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