The Miami 'Condo' in the US $ 1,200 Million Case of PDVSA Is a Retreat for the (very) Rich and (not so) Famous

As the first Porsche-branded building, and Miami probably being the place of the planet with the highest density of Porsche cars on the streets, the promoters of the work have endeavored to turn it into a synonym of ostentation and exclusivity.

New Yorker singer Alicia Keys performed at the opening gala of the residential tower in March 2017. The penthouse for sale has an asking price of 32 million dollars in the market; the other almost 800-square meter penthouse, PH1, was acquired on the same month of the opening of the condominium by Terry Taylor, a tycoon of car dealers of the neighboring city of Daytona, for 25 million dollars.

Each apartment terrace has a heated pool. A huge refrigerated wine storage cellar is available to tenants in the ground floor restaurant areas, which have an exclusive chef. When visitors leave the car to valet parking, they can take one of the many Norwegian-based brand Voss water bottles from a cooler of colossal dimensions, free of charge. But the most distinctive feature of the building, for which it has earned reviews in many media and almost amusement-park certificates, is its car lift. Through a refined installation of mechanical parking -the test of which alone had a cost of 40 million dollars in Germany - tenants can go with their luxurious cars right into the living room of their apartments.

Last May, its promoters were linked to a scheme of tax evasion and irregular payments uncovered by the Brazilian police. The Operation Miami Connection allowed the Brazilian authorities to detect the offshore structure whereby a group of investors from the State of Santa Catarina paid for the Porsche license to name a luxury residential project.

And then the condominium was mentioned again in a criminal complaint document filed on July 23 with the Federal Criminal Court of the Southern District of Florida. After more than two years of investigations, the agents of the Homeland Security Investigations Office (HSI) completed the Money Flight Operation, whereby they dismantled a network that laundered money illegally extracted from the coffers of the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, and circulated in part through bank accounts in the United States of America.

The mechanism revealed by the detectives included a collusion agreement between Pdvsa executives and Venezuelan financiers, whereby they offered loans in bolivars to Pdvsa to be reimbursed within strict time limit and in foreign currency, dollars or euros, at the official exchange rate. The exchange differential in each transaction gave profits of up to ten times the capital invested, from which the respective bids were paid to authorities of the state holding company and intermediaries that conceived and managed formulas to incorporate those funds into the banking system. According to the investigation, up to 1.2 billion dollars were thus legitimized.

In the midst of that plot appears apartment 2205 of the Porsche Design Tower, currently subject to seizure along with another 16 luxury properties in South Florida.

Based on the written statement of Special Agent George F. Fernandez on behalf of the HSI, in May 2016, Carmelo Urdaneta Aquí, identified in the testimony as legal adviser to the Minister of Energy and Mines of Venezuela, was negotiating the purchase of that residential unit. To close the business, he rushed agent Jose Vicente Chente Amparan Croquer, another Venezuelan who - posing as a real estate investor and through contracts for the fictitious purchase of financial papers - set in motion the structure that allowed washing the funds. Amparan would get the money to complete the purchase. In between, Urdaneta agreed to transfer the apartment to Amparan Croquer as part of the payment for his financial management services. Thus, apartment 2205 of the Porsche Design Tower, of almost 300 square meters (3230 sq ft), for sale at 5.3 million dollars, ended up in the hands of Paladium Real Estate Group LLC, ran by Carolina Croquer de González, a relative of Amparan.

The episode highlighted that the Porsche Design Tower its excess, is no place for ordinary tenants. In fact, it is for rich people, very rich people that love the most dramatic luxury, but at the same time require the necessary discretion to enjoy it.

Even the promoters of the residential complex have a controversial profile. Father and son, Michael and Gil Dezer - Dezertov is the original surname of the patriarch native of Israel - lead 18555 Developers Inc, the sales company of the tower. The Florida press calls them super developers. Their ventures are never modest. For years, Michael Dezer was partner of current US president Donald Trump. Gil has recognized that Trump is the model on which he has built his own business style. Very close to the Porsche Design Tower, on Sunny Island ?that section of the Atlantic coast between Miami Beach and the favorite adventure city of the Jewish community and the Russian oligarchs, where many store marquees are in Cyrillic?, both had developed the Trump Tower III project, another luxury condo. All in all, the Dezers do not trust Trump. According to reporter Jerry Lanelli of the Miami New Times (https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/michael-dezer-worried-trump-would-ask-him-for-money-10671517), Michael Dezer affirmed during a statement before the investigators of a case of corruption in 2016, that he learned never to speak of "personal matters" with Trump, because he always feared that he would ask for money.

In a recent interview with Pablo de Llano, correspondent in Miami of El País de Madrid newspaper (https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/07/29/estados_unidos/1532891182_409144.html), Gil Dezer tried to outline, without leaking many information, who were the residents of his exclusive project. "Great executives, celebrities, a singer that you hear all the time on the radio. There's a guy who is president of a drink you often drink, a video-poker mogul or a guy who had a Nike factory in Argentina, sold the company and retired." In case of the latter, Dezer apparently referred to Juan Pablo Verdiquio, owner of apartment 1205, who led the Extreme Gear sports shoes factory in Argentina. Another magnate, the Mexican Carlos Peralta Quintero, founder of the Iusa group, has a residence in the complex.

In the listing, typical of a sales flyer, there are noteworthy absences. In any case, it is understandable why Dezer failed to mention a few. Andrea Romanello, the daughter of an alleged New York mafia boss is also among the owners (https://therealdeal.com/miami/2017/01/04/daughter-of-alleged-mobster-and-her-husband-pay-5-2m-for-unit-at-porsche-design/); the founder of the telegenic Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil, Edir Macedo, El Obispo (https://therealdeal.com/miami/2016/12/05/brazilian-media-mogul-the-bishop-among-buyers-at-porsche-design/); Germán Rosete, the mysterious Mexican boyfriend of a former Puerto Rican Miss Universe; or René Gioia, a Brazilian lawyer finger-pointed in 1997 as part of a money laundering case.

Most units are owned by legal entities, many of them incorporated as Limited Liability Companies (LLC), a category created in Florida specifically to encourage the registration of companies with non-contributing foreign shareholders. Certainly, against the majority fraction of foreign investors, the US owners in the Porsche Design Tower are in a minority.

Of the 132 apartments listed in the online registry of the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, at least twelve are recognizable as property of Venezuelan customers (at least, because several units are controlled by offshore structures that refer to jurisdictions like Saint Kitts-Nevis, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands or Delaware, the beneficiaries of which could not be identified for this issue).

It is the second nationality with the greatest presence among the owners of this extreme luxury condominium, right before the Brazilians (19) and on par with the Russians (12). The finding is surprising, given the acute socio-economic crisis that the country is going through, which is throwing out hundreds or thousands of refugees abroad every day.

With the new exposure that the Money Flight case offered to this fantastic building, the question about what other Venezuelans own apartments is now on the spotlight. The attached infographic answers it.