In March, shortly before his real estate development career unraveled, Rishi Kapoor obtained a $4.3 million boat loan from Unibank For Savings and splurged on a brand new yacht called M/Y Suneeta II.
Eight months later, Miami Federal Judge Donald Middlebrooks granted Unibank’s motion to seize the 68-foot 2023 Viking Princess sports cruiser, after the financial institution sued Kapoor and his wife, Jennie Frank, on Oct. 20 for allegedly defaulting on the loan, court records show.
On Nov. 1, the U.S. Marshals Service confiscated the vessel at a West Palm Beach marina, and turned over M/Y Suneeta II to a temporary custodian while the lawsuit is pending, court documents state.
The yacht’s seizure is the latest round of trouble for Kapoor, who in July stepped down as CEO of Location Ventures, the embattled Coral Gables development firm he founded in 2016. Coinciding with his departure, Location Ventures’ remaining investors brought in former judge Alan Fine to liquidate the firm’s assets to pay off creditors.
Since May, Kapoor and Location Ventures have been hit with a wave of lawsuits from investors, contractors and lenders alleging investment losses, nonpayment and missed mortgage payments.
Kapoor is also facing multiple investigations from law enforcement and regulatory agencies, including a criminal public corruption probe by the FBI.
Investigators are looking into a business arrangement between a Location Ventures subsidiary and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The mayor was being paid $10,000 a month as a private consultant while Kapoor sought city approvals for a co-living and co-working project the subsidiary was developing in Coconut Grove.
In September, a lender that provided Kapoor and his wife with a home mortgage to purchase their six-bedroom waterfront Cocoplum estate filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the couple. The complaint alleges that Kapoor and Frank owe $4.6 million in principal and interest on a loan.
In its federal lawsuit, Unibank cites misleading information Kapoor and Frank allegedly provided about the Cocoplum estate’s mortgage as one of the reasons for default. The complaint states that Kapoor and Frank claimed on boat loan documents that the principal owed on the home mortgage was $4.4 million.
But after acquiring the boat loan, Kapoor and Frank increased the principal amount owed on the home mortgage to $5.4 million. Unibank alleges the couple are in default because they made a “false or misleading statement” on their boat loan application.
Unibank’s lawsuit alleges that Kapoor and Frank are also in default because they are defendants in four Miami-Dade civil lawsuits, which puts them in danger of not being able to pay back the $4.2 million boat loan.