Paper Owners

Behind deeds and certificates that appear legitimate are fraudulent transactions that reveal a pattern of irregularities in the processes used to acquire public and private properties in Puerto Rico. This investigative series, produced in partnership by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo and Telemundo Puerto Rico's Rayos X program, gets to the bottom of the scheme.

Through a meticulous review of hundreds of transactions, court records and documents, along with interviews with those affected, the series documents cases in which properties belonging to the Puerto Rico government were transferred to individuals or companies through the submission of falsified documents.

The investigation also reveals that notaries authorized private property sales involving identity theft and even the purported appearance of deceased people to execute deeds.

The investigative series scrutinizes the mechanisms used to transfer properties and identifies the safeguards that should prevent this type of fraud from continuing.