Alicia Garcia appeared to be a selfless, upstanding citizen on the surface. Her Cuban rights activism gained the attention of Miami-Dade county elected officials, but they had no idea about her shady past.

Garcia owns a real estate business in the Miami area, and used the business to make a living while also focusing a great deal of time on her philanthropic efforts. Just a couple of years ago she was featured on the Miami-Dade County government website as a leader commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1994 mass exodus of immigrants from Cuba.

All the while, Garcia had something else going on that should have landed her in Miami-Dade county jail. Garcia stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her real estate clients in a series of real estate fraud cases going back to 2010.

In each case, Garcia initially helped her clients make steps to complete real estate transactions including short sales and regular real estate purchases. In each of the reported cases, the deals fell through, but Garcia kept the down payments and earnest money intended for the transactions for her own personal spending.

In one such case, she took a $150,000 deposit for a property. When the deal didn’t go through, she sent the client a bad check and kept the funds for her own personal use.

The total $250,000 real estate fraud caught up with her. For the next four years, her Cuban rights activism will have to take place behind bars.

This is one agent who you surely shouldn’t trust. If you are looking for an upstanding agent for your next real estate purchase, look to AgentHarvest. AgentHarvest has a database of vetted, qualified, and trustworthy agents all over the country. Whether you want an agent in Miami or anywhere else, AgentHarvest can help you get there.

Read the entire story about Alicia Garcia at Miami’s ABC Local 10.