MIAMI — Francis Suarez’s net worth ballooned to $3.4 million in the year following his re-election for a second term as mayor of Miami, according to newly released financial disclosures filed with the city detailing the mayor’s personal finances in 2022.
That makes 2022 the second year in a row that Suarez has more than doubled his net worth, which records show had been in the negative numbers in his early years in office. A part-time mayor, Suarez’s net worth reached seven figures for the first time in 2021 as he used his public office to court tech companies and other private investors while taking jobs in those same industries, raising ethics concerns that the mayor is using his public office for personal profit.
Although he is not required to disclose his income from outside work, the most recent city filing — which provides a snapshot of the mayor’s assets and liabilities as of the end of 2022 — suggests Suarez made enough money last year to pay off $1.7 million in previously disclosed debt. He also bought a condo on Flagler Street, and reported owning a $235,000 boat, which wasn’t listed on previous disclosures.
Suarez, a real estate attorney who recently joined a crowded field seeking the Republican presidential nomination, indicated that his only debt at the end of 2022 was $28,546 owed to American Express.
Unlike previous years, a portion of the spike in the mayor’s wealth can be attributed to a modest increase in the value of his five-bedroom home in Coconut Grove, and one of his three investment properties.
Anointed the “Bitcoin mayor”, Suarez began routing his city paychecks to a Strike wallet account in late 2021, which converts his $130,000 annual compensation into digital currency.
But records show Suarez’s crypto holdings were just $71,321 at the end of 2022 — suggesting the mayor either cashed out some of his Bitcoin or lost money as the value of the digital currency dropped by more than 65% over the course of the year.
Despite months of sustained downturn in value, on Jan. 20 2023, Suarez told CNBC that converting his salary to Bitcoin had been “a good investment.” Bitcoin has since regained some of its value.
Suarez did not immediately respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
Outside work
Suarez’s separate state disclosure, which lists some of the mayor’s side jobs, shows the mayor still draws his primary income from his legal work for the international litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and from DaGrosa Capital Partners, a Coral Gables-based private equity firm where he serves as a senior operating partner.
In 2022, Suarez also listed one new primary source of income — a board position at eMerge Americas, a local technology conference that hired Suarez in 2021 as the mayor championed Miami as a hub of innovation.
Budget records show the city of Miami allocated $150,000 between 2019 and 2020 to the eMerge conference, which is held in Miami Beach. The city commission approves the budgets, posing a potential conflict of interest for the mayor, who later took a job on the board.
The mayor does not have a vote on the commission, only a veto, but proposes the annual budget.
In a statement to the Herald, a spokesperson for eMerge said that Suarez was a founding partner of the conference and had been involved with the organization since 2013.
“He is uniquely qualified as an avid promoter of innovation in our ecosystem and extremely compatible with our mission at eMerge, which is to transform South Florida into a thriving global tech hub,” the statement said.
The spokesperson said the most recent grant from the city of Miami was $50,000 in January 2020 and that “eMerge has not received nor sought any funds from the City of Miami since Francis Suarez joined as a board member.”
Suarez has faced growing criticism for refusing to voluntarily disclose a comprehensive list of his clients or outside work, adding to concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
Suarez’s recent state filing did not disclose his work for at least three other companies where he is known to work — most notably, his consulting arrangement with real estate developer Rishi Kapoor, who internal documents show paid the mayor at least $110,000 in regular monthly payments in 2022 as he sought help overcoming permitting issues stalling his $70 million redevelopment project in Coconut Grove.
Suarez would have had to have earned over $2.2 million last year from jobs outside the government in order to avoid disclosing his work for Kapoor and still comply with state law, which requires him to report all income sources over 5% of his annual earnings.
Suarez’s work for the developer is currently the subject of both state and federal investigations following Miami Herald reporting that showed the mayor’s office intervened to help Kapoor sidestep a potentially costly zoning requirement.
“As mayor, I have never used and will never use my public position to benefit a private party,” Suarez told NBC6’s Jackie Nespral in an interview days before officially announcing his candidacy. He also promised he would make his tax returns public, but has not yet done so despite a request from the Herald.
Barbara Petersen, of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog organization, said, as mayor, Suarez should be accountable to the public and transparent about this outside work.
“We’re paying Suarez’s salary. He works for us,” said Petersen. “He ran for mayor not to represent his interests, but our interest. And we have a right to know what he’s doing and who he is doing it with.”
While state and local financial disclosures do not require an itemized breakdown of income and investments, as a presidential candidate, Suarez will be required to publicly disclose those details in a filing with the Federal Elections Commission due no later than July 14, unless he is granted an extension.
Disclosure delay
Suarez’s city and state disclosures are due annually on July 1, or by noon of the next business day if the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday as it did this year.
Timestamps on Suarez’s 2023 filings show they were received by the city clerk’s office on Monday morning, more than an hour before the noon deadline. But the city did not release the records publicly until Wednesday evening — after an attorney for the Herald intervened.
Following a request for the records from the Herald sent Monday morning, emails show the city clerk’s office sent copies of the disclosures to an assistant city attorney, who then passed the records on to City Attorney Victoria Mendez on Monday afternoon. Mendez sent the records to the Herald Wednesday at 6:30 pm, following a formal notice from the Herald’s attorney informing the city of its failure to comply with Florida’s open records law.
“You requested them Monday, yesterday was a holiday, you are getting them today,” Mendez said in response to Herald questions about the delay.
In previous instances, the city has provided copies of financial disclosures — which require no redactions — within hours of filing. The county elections department provided Suarez’s state disclosure Monday evening, the same day it received the records from the city clerk. The county does not collect the city disclosure.
