Developer Raised $85 Million for a Project, But Bought a Yacht Instead

Rishi Kapoor promised Miami a skyline. Investors got renderings. He got a 68-foot yacht.

Miami has a type.

The visionary developer. The bold pitch. The renderings that make Coconut Grove look like Monaco. The press release. The handshakes. The city approvals.

And then — nothing gets built.

Rishi Kapoor, 42, former CEO of Location Ventures and its URBIN subsidiary, was arrested last Friday on his birthday. The feds picked him up at a Fort Lauderdale hotel on the actual day he turned 42. If that's not narrative, nothing is.

He's now facing a charge list that reads like a greatest hits of white-collar crime: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, bank fraud, failure to pay payroll taxes, and failure to file tax returns. The indictment alleges he raised roughly $85 million from investors for real estate projects across Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale.

Several of those projects were never built.

What did get built? His lifestyle.

A 68-foot yacht docked at Cocoplum Yacht Club. A waterfront estate in Coral Gables. A Rolex Daytona. A 2.5-carat platinum ring. More than $2 million allegedly diverted from company accounts for personal use — while investors waited for ground to break.

Federal prosecutors allege Kapoor misled investors about how much of his own money was actually in the deal, deceived escrow agents to unlock pre-construction condo deposits, then spent those funds on things that had nothing to do with construction. He also allegedly withheld payroll taxes from his own employees — and kept the money. Not a clerical error. A choice.

The SEC had already been circling. A civil case filed in late 2023 alleged he shuffled investor funds between projects and paid himself nearly $1.7 million in 2022 without board approval. He and the SEC reached a settlement in late 2024. A federal judge barred him from serving as an officer or director of any company that issues securities — for five years.

Then came the indictment.

Now, about the Mayor.

Here's where it gets cultural.

While Location Ventures was seeking city approvals for a project in Coconut Grove, Kapoor was also cutting a $10,000-a-month check to then-Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — as a paid consultant for URBIN.

Over the course of the arrangement, Suarez was paid more than $200,000.

Suarez has not been charged. He has denied any wrongdoing and says he disclosed the consulting arrangement in accordance with the law. He was subpoenaed and gave sworn testimony to the SEC about it.

Let's be precise: no one is saying Francis Suarez committed a crime.

What we are saying is this — a developer seeking city project approvals was simultaneously writing six-figure consulting checks to the sitting mayor of that city. Both things happened. Both things are documented. You're allowed to have thoughts about that.

Miami didn't build a reputation for political theater by accident. It refined it over decades, project by project, handshake by handshake.

Why It Matters

Because Miami keeps electing and appointing people who normalize this.

The consulting arrangement between a developer seeking city approvals and a sitting mayor isn't just ethically uncomfortable — it's a window into how power actually moves in this city. Not in chambers. Not in votes. In retainers.

The Takeaway

Kapoor's company collapsed. His employees had taxes withheld from their paychecks that never reached the IRS. Investors across South Florida are waiting to see what a receiver can recover from the rubble of his estate.

The yacht has been seized. The mayor has moved on. The buildings were never built.

Miami has a long memory — it just tends to forget on purpose.