Francis Suarez got rich from Location Ventures gig and other side hustles
Miami mayor’s presidential candidate federal disclosure statement shows he made millions from law practice, Rishi Kapoor’s former company, cryptocurrency firms and a bank
Having a bunch of side hustles paid off handsomely for Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
In the past two years, Suarez’s income hit between $2.1 million and $12.9 million, according to a federal financial disclosure statement the mayor filed on Monday. Most of that money came from 14 private gigs, including a consulting arrangement with Coral Gables-based development firm Location Ventures that paid him between $100,000 to $1 million.
On Tuesday, Suarez suspended his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination after failing to make the cut for the first debate stage last week because he couldn’t muster 1 percent in various polls. The mayor abandoned his quixotic White House run after raising $2.2 million for his campaign, and employing unsuccessful gimmicks to drum up small donor support.
However, his federal financial disclosure statement shed more light on Suarez’s finances than previous disclosures at the city and state level. Specifically, Suarez finally revealed who’s been paying him aside from city taxpayers. Since being elected mayor in 2017, Suarez earns an annual compensation of $130,600 from the city, including benefits.
Yet since 2021, Saurez has leaned on the private sector to pump up his wealth, which now includes five investment properties in the city he serves, the federal financial statement shows. The document does not list addresses or other details about the real estate Suarez owns.
In recent months, Suarez’s sources of income have come under scrutiny, following a May lawsuit and a response to that complaint that revealed the mayor was earning $10,000 a month as a consultant for Urbin. It’s a subsidiary of Location Ventures, a company founded by embattled developer Rishi Kapoor. Since then, Location Ventures imploded under an avalanche of lawsuits, liens and criminal investigations into Kapoor’s dealings with Suarez. The mayor is also facing a state ethics complaint over his VIP access to exclusive sports events, including the Miami Grand Prix as a guest of hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. Suarez covered the costs of his and his wife’s attendance, Griffin said through a spokesperson.
Other real estate related companies also employed Suarez, the federal financial disclosure shows. He earned between $100,000 to $1 million with Redivider Edge, a developer of cryptocurrency-mining data centers, founded in 2021. Redivider Edge’s opportunity zone fund, which was created to seek out investors looking to reinvest their capital gains into building data centers in economically distressed neighborhoods, also paid Suarez between $100,000 to $1 million.
Suarez also made between $100,000 and $200,000 with The Schwartzberg Companies of New York and Two Bridge, two health care real estate investment firms, the federal disclosure shows.
City National Bank of Florida, which has provided construction financing to many commercial projects in Miami, paid Suarez between $50,000 and $100,000.
The mayor’s primary private employer is the Miami office of Los Angeles-based law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which paid him between $1 million and $5 million, the statement shows.