Miami Condo Developer Kapoor Changes Plea to Guilty in $89 Million Fraud Case

A prominent Miami real estate developer who once hired the city’s mayor as a $10,000-a-month consultant has pleaded guilty to money laundering and payroll-tax charges in a $89 million fraud scheme.

Rishi Kapoor, who once led Location Ventures and URBIN development firms, now faces more than 10 years in federal prison and $70 million in restitution to former investors and the Internal Revenue Service, according to court documents and local news reports.

Kapoor was accused of raising millions of dollars from investors for major condominium and housing developments in the Miami area, then failing to build the projects and diverting much of the money for his personal use, Kapoor’s March 3 indictment shows.

Kapoor, for example, bought a $1.3 million house in Coconut Grove and a $2.3 million yacht. He financed most of those purchases through loans, which were paid in large part by his development ventures, the indictment reads.

The businessman, who holds a law degree, made headlines in 2023 when the Miami Herald reported that Kapoor had hired Francis Suarez, who was Miami mayor at the time, as a highly paid consultant. Suarez, whose term has ended, has denied wrongdoing, the Herald reported.

A civil suit brought against Kapoor by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is continuing in federal court in Miami. A receiver in that case has sold off some of the real estate assets of Kapoor’s former companies. But those sales have produced only a few million dollars, making it unlikely that Kapoor will be able to pay the full restitution, according to news reports and court records.

Related: Kapoor Indicted in Alleged Scheme