Two Downtown Miami lots sell for $80M after years of litigation

Google Maps street view of 300 Biscayne Boulevard
Google Maps street view of 300 Biscayne Boulevard

Two Downtown Miami lots have sold for $80 million following six years of legal battles that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The litigious brouhaha started in 2008, when CDR Creances SAS, a French government organization, was tasked with recovering assets from the failed French bank of the same name. Their targets were father-and-son developers Mauricio Cohen Assor and Leon Cohen-Levy, who used loan money from CDR to purchase 300 and 330 Biscayne Boulevard.

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The law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, representing CDR, filed suit against the Cohens for civil fraud, according to the Daily Business Review. The case didn’t make much progress until 2010 when the Cohens were arrested on U.S. tax fraud charges.

Despite a default judgment, the Cohens filed multiple appeals from jail, according to DBR. Once all avenues of appeal were exhausted, the sale was allowed to proceed. The deal closed Nov. 7. The buyer is an affiliate of developer Property Markets Group. [Daily Business Review]Chris Guanche