MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Two bail bondsmen working for a South Florida company are accused of bailing out a couple who never even hired them and then demanding that they pay up.
Alexander Michael Rispa, 43, of Homestead, and Juan Carlos Soto Arraga, 30, of southwest Miami-Dade, are each facing multiple felonies in Miami-Dade County after investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services arrested them on Wednesday.
Authorities said the two work for Paradise Bail Bonds at 100410 Overseas Highway in Key Largo.
They said it started over the weekend when the couple was arrested off the Overseas Highway.
According to an arrest report, when they were released from jail, the woman’s mother said “bail bond agents from Paradise Bail Bonds had contacted her and told her that they had bonded out her daughter and boyfriend but needed them also to also sign the contract and pay them.”
But authorities said the two never hired Paradise or the men and said the two kept calling and engaged in “coercion, harassment, extortion and threats escalated.”
Staff at Paradise Bail Bonds had no comment and an affiliated company in Homestead had no answer.
The two, facing charges of extortion, organized scheme to defraud and unlawful use of a communications device, were ordered to stay away from the victims.
DFS investigators said in the arrest report said they have received multiple complaints about the pair.
Officials with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which worked with the DFS, said since “the investigation is active and ongoing, further information will not be provided.”