![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/09092018-3.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Porsche Design \/ Courtesy: https:\/\/www.law.com<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/09092018-4.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Drone images of the Tower Porsche Design\/ Courtesy: https:\/\/miami.curbed.com<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nUnwanted Attention<\/h2>\n\n\n
Last \r\nMay, its promoters were linked to a scheme of tax evasion and irregular payments \r\nuncovered by the Brazilian police. The \r\nOperation Miami Connection <\/A>allowed \r\nthe Brazilian authorities to detect the offshore structure whereby a group of \r\ninvestors from the State of Santa Catarina paid for the Porsche license to name \r\na luxury residential project.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
And \r\nthen the condominium was mentioned again in a criminal complaint document filed \r\non July 23 with the Federal Criminal Court of the Southern District of Florida. \r\nAfter more than two years of investigations, the agents of the Homeland Security \r\nInvestigations Office (HSI) completed the Money \r\nFlight<\/A> \r\nOperation, whereby they dismantled a network that laundered money illegally \r\nextracted from the coffers of the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, and \r\ncirculated in part through bank accounts in the United States of \r\nAmerica.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nmechanism revealed by the detectives included a collusion agreement between \r\nPdvsa executives and Venezuelan financiers, whereby they offered loans in \r\nbolivars to Pdvsa to be reimbursed within strict time limit and in foreign \r\ncurrency, dollars or euros, at the official exchange rate. The exchange \r\ndifferential in each transaction gave profits of up to ten times the capital \r\ninvested, from which the respective bids were paid to authorities of the state \r\nholding company and intermediaries that conceived and managed formulas to \r\nincorporate those funds into the banking system. According to the investigation, \r\nup to 1.2 billion dollars were thus \r\nlegitimized.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/09092018-5.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\nIn \r\nthe midst of that plot appears apartment 2205 of the Porsche Design Tower, \r\ncurrently \r\nsubject to seizure along with another 16 luxury \r\nproperties<\/A> \r\nin South Florida.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Based \r\non the written statement of Special Agent George F. Fernandez on behalf of the \r\nHSI, in May 2016, Carmelo Urdaneta Aqu\u00ed, identified in the testimony as legal \r\nadviser to the Minister of Energy and Mines of Venezuela, was negotiating the \r\npurchase of that residential unit. To close the business, he rushed agent Jose \r\nVicente Chente Amparan Croquer, another Venezuelan who - posing as a real estate \r\ninvestor and through contracts for the fictitious purchase of financial papers - \r\nset in motion the structure that allowed washing the funds. Amparan would get \r\nthe money to complete the purchase. In between, Urdaneta agreed to transfer the \r\napartment to Amparan Croquer as part of the payment for his financial management \r\nservices. Thus, apartment 2205 of the Porsche Design Tower, of almost 300 square \r\nmeters (3230 sq ft), for sale at 5.3 million dollars, ended up in the hands of \r\nPaladium Real Estate Group LLC, ran by Carolina Croquer de Gonz\u00e1lez, a relative \r\nof Amparan.<\/p>\n\n\n
Bling Ring<\/h2>\n\n\n
The \r\nepisode highlighted that the Porsche Design Tower its excess, is no place for \r\nordinary tenants. In fact, it is for rich people, very rich people that love the \r\nmost dramatic luxury, but at the same time require the necessary discretion to \r\nenjoy it.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Even \r\nthe promoters of the residential complex have a controversial profile. Father \r\nand son, Michael and Gil Dezer - Dezertov is the original surname of the \r\npatriarch native of Israel - lead 18555 Developers Inc, the sales company of the \r\ntower. The Florida press calls them super developers. Their ventures are never \r\nmodest. For years, Michael Dezer was partner of current US president Donald \r\nTrump. Gil has recognized that Trump is the model on which he has built his own \r\nbusiness style. Very close to the Porsche Design Tower, on Sunny Island ?that \r\nsection of the Atlantic coast between Miami Beach and the favorite adventure \r\ncity of the Jewish community and the Russian oligarchs, where many store \r\nmarquees are in Cyrillic?, both had developed the Trump Tower III project, \r\nanother luxury condo. All in all, the Dezers do not trust Trump. According to \r\nreporter Jerry Lanelli of the Miami New Times (https:\/\/www.miaminewtimes.com\/news\/michael-dezer-worried-trump-would-ask-him-for-money-10671517<\/A>), \r\nMichael Dezer affirmed during a statement before the investigators of a case of \r\ncorruption in 2016, that he learned never to speak of \"personal matters\" with \r\nTrump, because he always feared that he would ask for \r\nmoney.<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/09092018-1.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Michael Dezer, Donald Trump, Gil Dezer \/ Courtesy: http:\/\/www.socialmiami.com<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/09092018-2.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Michael Dezer at his Penthouse in Trump Towers \/ Courtesy: https:\/\/sonyarevell.wordpress.com<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nIn \r\na recent interview with Pablo de Llano, correspondent in Miami of El Pa\u00eds de Madrid<\/I> newspaper \r\n(https:\/\/elpais.com\/internacional\/2018\/07\/29\/estados_unidos\/1532891182_409144.html<\/A>), \r\nGil Dezer tried to outline, without leaking many information, who were the \r\nresidents of his exclusive project. \"Great executives, celebrities, a singer \r\nthat you hear all the time on the radio. There's a guy who is president of a \r\ndrink you often drink, a video-poker mogul or a guy who had a Nike factory in \r\nArgentina, sold the company and retired.\" In case of the latter, Dezer \r\napparently referred to Juan Pablo Verdiquio, owner of apartment 1205, who led \r\nthe Extreme Gear sports shoes factory in Argentina. Another magnate, the Mexican \r\nCarlos Peralta Quintero, founder of the Iusa group, has a residence in the \r\ncomplex.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nthe listing, typical of a sales flyer, there are noteworthy absences. In any \r\ncase, it is understandable why Dezer failed to mention a few. Andrea Romanello, \r\nthe daughter of an alleged New York mafia boss is also among the owners \r\n(https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/miami\/2017\/01\/04\/daughter-of-alleged-mobster-and-her-husband-pay-5-2m-for-unit-at-porsche-design\/<\/A>); \r\nthe founder of the telegenic Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil, \r\nEdir Macedo, El Obispo (https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/miami\/2016\/12\/05\/brazilian-media-mogul-the-bishop-among-buyers-at-porsche-design\/<\/A>); \r\nGerm\u00e1n Rosete, the mysterious Mexican boyfriend of a former Puerto Rican Miss \r\nUniverse; or Ren\u00e9 Gioia, a Brazilian lawyer finger-pointed in 1997 as part of a \r\nmoney laundering case.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Most \r\nunits are owned by legal entities, many of them incorporated as Limited \r\nLiability Companies (LLC), a category created in Florida specifically to \r\nencourage the registration of companies with non-contributing foreign \r\nshareholders. Certainly, against the majority fraction of foreign investors, the \r\nUS owners in the Porsche Design Tower are in a minority.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Of \r\nthe 132 apartments listed in the online registry of the Miami-Dade Property \r\nAppraiser, at least twelve are recognizable as property of Venezuelan customers \r\n(at least, because several units are controlled by offshore structures that \r\nrefer to jurisdictions like Saint Kitts-Nevis, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands or \r\nDelaware, the beneficiaries of which could not be identified for this \r\nissue).<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
It \r\nis the second nationality with the greatest presence among the owners of this \r\nextreme luxury condominium, right before the Brazilians (19) and on par with the \r\nRussians (12). The finding is surprising, given the acute socio-economic crisis \r\nthat the country is going through, which is throwing out hundreds or thousands \r\nof refugees abroad every day.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
With \r\nthe new exposure that the Money Flight case offered to this fantastic building, \r\nthe question about what other Venezuelans own apartments is now on the \r\nspotlight. The attached infographic answers it.<\/p>\n\n