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A Cuban mother and her daughter were arrested this Wednesday in Doral, Florida, accused of defrauding the dental clinic where both worked for approximately a year, according to police reports.
Cynthia Joya, 53 years old and of Cuban nationality, and her daughter Kaylyn López, 24 years old and born in Puerto Rico, are each facing charges of third-degree grand theft and organized scheme to defraud, both considered felonies under Florida law.
The owner of the Doral Dentistry Specialty Center, located at 7902 NW 36th St., reported that two employees embezzled funds from the business from March 2025 until March 16, 2026.
On that last date, both women abruptly resigned from their positions without prior notice and became unreachable, prompting the owner to initiate an internal review of the clinic's business records and financial transactions.
During the verification, the victim found evidence indicating that Joya and López had been embezzling company funds during that time.
According to the police, the scheme involved two employees accepting cash payments and Zelle transfers from the clinic's clients and keeping those funds for personal use instead of recording them for the company.
Moreover, they did not properly schedule client appointments and failed to provide the required documentation and reports to the insurance companies, which contributed to financial discrepancies and operational issues for the company, as reported in the police records.
The case was assigned to the Economic Crimes Unit of the Doral Police Department. The investigators discovered the existence of a Bank of America account that "both defendants maintained and controlled." Subsequently, the bank provided documentation and correspondence detailing "multiple Zelle transactions made between the defendants and clients of the clinic" that had not been authorized by any of the business owners.
After their arrest, Joya and López were held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK), where they remained detained until Thursday afternoon, each with a bond set at $5,000.
Both are individually charged with third-degree grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. The latter charge involves a systematic pattern of fraudulent behavior and, combined with the grand theft charge, could result in significant prison sentences if the defendants are found guilty.
The case is part of a series of arrests of Cubans for fraud in South Florida recorded in recent months, some of which have involved employees with access to payment systems who have diverted funds to personal accounts.
Doral, a municipality in Miami-Dade County with a high concentration of Cuban and Latin American population, is a commercially active area with numerous clinics and health businesses where this type of internal fraud is difficult for the owners to detect immediately.
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