Rishi Kapoor paid former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez a $10,000-a-month consulting fee
Three years after being at the center of a scandal involving a since-disgraced developer headed to prison, Francis Suarez likely won’t face any serious consequences over his shady side hustle with Rishi Kapoor. And Suarez can thank the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office for not doing anything to hold him accountable.
While he was Miami mayor, Suarez received at least $170,000 while working as a $10,000-a-month private consultant for one of Kapoor’s defunct firms between 2021 and 2023. While Suarez was on the developer’s payroll, Kapoor sought assistance from the mayor to help him with permitting delays tied to a Coconut Grove mixed-use project.
At the time, the Miami-Dade ethics commission launched an investigation into Suarez’s business relationship with Kapoor, with Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle suggesting her public corruption unit was also reviewing the allegation of a quid pro quo between the mayor and the developer.
Rundle even took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging her office was looking into the matter, but stopped short of confirming she would open an investigation. In a press statement, Rundle said:
“We have consulted with the Executive Director of the Ethics Commission. We will coordinate our review of the allegations with them. At this early stage, it is premature for us to opine on the allegations.”
The ethics commission also expanded its inquiry into Suarez’s other side gigs, including consulting agreements with two financial advising firms run by associates of a Russian oligarch, a handful of technology companies, a real estate company and City National Bank, which issued the mortgage for Suarez’s residence.
Fast forward to today. Suarez left office in December with a net worth exceeding $5 million, building a fortune during his two terms as Miami mayor via his private jobs and real estate investments, according to financial disclosure forms. On his way out of MIami City Hall, Suarez gifted his police detail with Rolex watches. In 2018, when he was sworn in as mayor, Suarez’s net worth was $411,704.
Now, Suarez is president of Miami-based investment firm Alpha Wave Global, Of Counsel at Quinn Emmanuel and a Fox News contributor.
Kapoor, on the other hand, experienced one of the quickest developer downfalls in South Florida history. His real estate empire crumbled under an avalanche of lawsuits by investors, condo buyers and contractors. A separate investigation by federal law enforcement authorities ended with Kapoor being criminally charged with defrauding $85 million from investors for his failed real estate projects.
Kapoor is scheduled for sentencing in August after he pleaded guilty in May to two money laundering and payroll tax evasion conspiracy charges.
Meanwhile, the state attorney’s office never moved forward with opening a full investigation into Kapoor and Suarez. And the ethics commission is dragging out the completion of its probe into the former mayor.
On June 23, after I requested a copy of any closed investigative reports via Florida’s public records law, an ethics commission spokesperson told me via email:
In response to your public records request, we are prohibited by our rules of procedure from confirming or denying the existence of an ethics investigation before there is a probable cause finding by the Ethics Commission. Also, ethics investigations, pre-probable cause finding, are confidential matters exempt from public disclosure.
One would imagine that the ethics commission would be done with an investigation of a public official who returned to private life eight months ago. Apparently not.
As for Rundle, a public records custodian for the state attorney’s office informed me via email that there was no close-out memo, a document that prosecutors file when they don’t file any criminal charges:
“We have no responsive records. Per our Public Corruption Unit, there was no investigation ever open, nor was there a joint investigation with ethics.”
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