Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago also attended F1
It’s good to be the king.
That’s what Miami Mayor Francis Suarez looks like as he jet sets to Egypt for a star-studded billionaire’s wedding and takes in the Miami Grand Prix F1 races, all just days after he testifies in a Securities Exchange Commission investigation into developer Rishi Kapoor, who paid the mayor more than $10K a month as he pushed projects in the city.
Suarez, who is also being investigated for bribery (duh!) by the FBI and, likely, others, gave sworn testimony last month on his business dealings with Kapoor, according to a Miami Herald story by Jay Weaver, Sarah Blaskey, Tess Riski and Joey Flechas. The details are damning. There’s a “twilight meeting” at the Cocoplum Yacht Club and emails and calendar dates that indicate there’s no real fire wall between the mayor’s post at the city and his private job as an attorney and consultant.
Read related: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is all over the place — except leading the city
But Suarez looks like he’s got nothing to worry about when he posed with his wife days later in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza and its pyramids at the $3 million wedding reception of billionaire tech Ankur Jain and former WWE wrestler/star Erika Hammond. No lie. Suarez was in Cairo for the posh, celebrity-loaded fete April 26 along with Robin Thicke and Lance Bass. Entertainment Tonight called it an “over-the-top” affair.
No word on how many events of the four-day tour of Egypt, which included a safari dinner, the mayor attended. Or who paid for it. Ladra had to leave a voice mail message at the mayor’s office at 3 in the afternoon and couldn’t reach his chief of staff, Carlos Suarez. The word around City Hall is that it was a family wedding (?) and he only went for one or two days.
Photos were posted by Ryan Serhant, a real estate investor and Million Dollar Listing reality TV star who developed the Wind 27 condominiums and is developing the Mercedes-Benz Places Miami luxury tower, the one that the Brickell fire station had to be demolished for. Serhant called it a “trip of a lifetime,” and thanked the groom and bride.
“Belting Bye Bye Bye with Lance Bass, Robin Thicke, [DJ] Gryffin, [American violinist) Lindsey Stirling [Canadian businessman and Shark Tank investor] Kevin O’Leary and the Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez and so many more in front of the lit up pyramids was NOT on the bingo card,” Serhant posted on Instagram. “Now I have to sleep and prep to hard launch Mercedes-Benz Places Miami at F1 in Miami this week.”
Photos posted over the weekend of Suarez at the Miami Formula 1 races showed him on at least two different days, and once with his fundraiser Brian Goldmeier. Who paid for his entry this time? Suarez had an ethics complaint filed against him last year after Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin purchased at least some of his tickets to VIP F1. The complaint was dismissed because Baby X paid Griffin back — but it was only after the Miami Herald started asking questions.
Read related: Francis Suarez is the absent Mayor VIP of Miami — MIA at the worst time
Suarez can afford his own tickets, what with all his side gig money. He probably paid for Goldmeier’s admission, too, though Brian can also afford it.
The photos were not posted on the mayor’s extensive social media, where he last posted a video of his family enjoying the recently opened Phase 2 of The Underline. Instead, they were posted by Antonio Primo, his partner at Degrosa Capital Partners, which, by the way, just partnered with Delray Beach-based developer Kolter Group to buy two properties, a 1.4-acre development site, just east of the bustling Miami Design District for $33.8 million.
Ladra wonders how many zoning changes to permits they might need.
Goldmeier posted a photo of his own of the action, and then tagged a bunch of people on the Postalita Club who, one must assume, were there, including Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and Hispanic marketing guru and Lago lackey Manny Alfonso, one of the hosts for that fundraiser for the Lago commission plantidate in next year’s election.
Lago also had photos posted on social media, including one with Primo, Suarez’s business partner. Wonder who paid for his tickets. We know Lago’s not getting $10K a month to rent an empty space to Kapoor anymore.
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