A Delray Beach property manager has been arrested and is accused of stealing more than $102,827 from tenants, many of whom were immigrants or non-English speakers, in a years-long rental scheme, according to investigators.
Jessyka May Hernandez Ortega, 45, was arrested last Thursday and is facing felony charges of an organized scheme to defraud over $50,000 and grand theft of over $100,000.
The investigation began in May 2025 after a lease audit at the Lucaya Delray complex prompted Hernandez Ortega to resign abruptly, an arrest affidavit states.
Residents question suspicious charges
The arrest has left residents like Ursula Aguirre wondering if they were also victims. Aguirre, who has lived at Lucaya Delray with her family since 2019, said Hernandez Ortega once billed them over $800 for excessive water use without providing an itemized breakdown.
“We were afraid we would get kicked out because finding another apartment would be difficult, especially coming up with the money and the deposit — so we had to pay that amount,” Aguirre said.
She said her family always paid their rent and water bills together and was shocked by the sudden charge in 2024.
“Why does she have to take advantage of people? Making money is hard work,” Aguirre said.
How the alleged fraud worked
Investigators uncovered a complex system they say Hernandez Ortega used to cover her tracks. The affidavit details how she allegedly manipulated entries in the Yardi property management software to conceal stolen payments.
According to the report, her methods included:
- Depositing 764 money orders totaling over $284,000 into her personal accounts between December 2022 and May 2025.
- Altering money order numbers in the system to make payments difficult to trace.
- Allocating one tenant's payment to another's account to hide missing funds.
- Fabricating eviction proceedings to have delinquency balances written off, erasing the paper trail of stolen rent.
The affidavit explicitly states that Hernandez Ortega "relied on the fact that almost all of the residents in this community are immigrants who speak languages other than English and generally need assistance with understanding and completing paperwork and payments."
In one instance, a tenant told investigators she paid Hernandez Ortega for renter's insurance, only to discover it was never purchased after her apartment was destroyed by a fire, resulting in a total loss.
WPTV has reached out to the management at Lucaya Delray for comment and is awaiting a response.
“If she committed that fraud, she has to pay for it,” Aguirre said.
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