Miami Mayor Suarez Reportedly Subpoenaed By SEC About $200K In Payments From Developer

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez provided testimony in April to the Securities and Exchange Commission about his consulting deal with embattled developer Rishi Kapoor as new details emerge about the contract. 

Suarez was compelled under subpoena to give a sworn statement to the SEC regarding his work for Urbin, an affiliate of Kapoor’s Location Ventures development firm, the Miami Herald reported, citing three anonymous sources. 

The questioning focused on Suarez’s $10K-per-month contract with Urbin for consulting services, which was first revealed as part of an unrelated lawsuit that eventually led to the dissolution of Location Ventures, which is liquidating assets to repay investors. 

New details of the contract and Suarez’s relationship with Kapoor were also uncovered by the Herald, which found that the Location Ventures affiliate had paid Suarez at least $200K over two years, during which the developer was seeking approval from the city for developments. 

The contract, which was executed in July 2021, also promised Suarez an equity stake in Kapoor’s firm if he stayed on as a consultant for a certain period and included additional commission payments if Suarez helped bring investors onto Kapoor’s projects, the Herald reported. 

The mayor ultimately didn’t receive either benefit, in part because he never delivered new investors to Kapoor’s firms, people familiar with the contract told the publication.

The SEC has charged Kapoor with seven violations of securities fraud, alleging he misappropriated at least $6M in investor funds to bankroll his lavish lifestyle. The SEC froze Kapoor’s assets in January, but the charging documents filed in federal court made no mention of his business relationship with the mayor. 

The Herald also revealed for the first time that in August 2021, Suarez met Kapoor for a meeting on his yacht, which has since been seized by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Suarez has maintained that his work for Kapoor was kept separate from his work as Miami’s mayor, but the two-hour yacht ​​rendezvous was organized through the mayoral office and listed on the official city calendar, the Herald reported. 

The mayor’s executive assistant sent an email invite for the meeting to the mayor, four of his sergeants-at-arms and Kapoor, all of whom confirmed, according to the Herald. 

The mayor’s office and Armando Rosquete, Suarez’s attorney, didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment. 

The role of mayor for the city of Miami is considered a part-time position, with a $97K annual salary and a stipend of around $33K, and the mayor is allowed to have other jobs while in office, although ethics rules dictate his private business and public office be kept separate.

During Suarez’s short-lived bid to be the Republican nominee for president, the mayor filed paperwork that indicated he had 14 consulting jobs in addition to his role at the top of the city government. 

The FBI and ethics officials in Miami-Dade County, in partnership with state prosecutors, have also opened separate investigations into whether Suarez misused his public office for private gain through his contract with Kapoor. 

The $10K monthly payments were being disbursed as Location Ventures’ Urbin affiliate was negotiating with city officials to resolve issues surrounding the approval of an apartment in Coconut Grove. The project needed several zoning variances and was ultimately approved.

The revelation that Suarez was on the developer’s payroll came out of a lawsuit filed by the company’s former chief financial officer Greg Brooks that alleged several “financial improprieties” at Location Ventures. 

Brooks reached a $150K settlement with the developer in June 2023, a month after he sued. But the media firestorm and scrutiny kicked off by the suit ultimately led to the collapse of Location Ventures. 

Kapoor stepped down from as the firm’s head in July, and Alan Fine, a former judge, was appointed to oversee the liquidation of the firm’s assets. Some of the development firm’s project sites have since been sold off, and others face foreclosure. 

Kapoor has maintained his innocence since the disclosure of the payments to Suarez, which he maintained was to provide “feedback on programming and the greater mission of the brand.” The mayor has said he was paid to introduce Kapoor to potential investors. 

In a January statement, Kapoor described the SEC charges as “the result of a select few actors weaponizing and manipulating a government agency for their own agendas,” calling the allegations “unfounded, twisted and/or flat out false” in a statement to Bisnow. He vowed to fight the charges in court.