Developer Rishi Kapoor is headed to prison for orchestrating an $89 million fraud scheme, with a ring and a car as the only valuable assets left to show for the grift.
The former Location Ventures and URBIN Companies CEO was sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to money laundering and payroll tax conspiracy charges, the Miami Herald reported.
After a years-long investigation, Kapoor was indicted in March on 37 criminal counts and was arrested at a Fort Lauderdale hotel that same month. He pleaded guilty in May to a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by failing to remit employees’ payroll taxes to the IRS between 2020 and 2022, the outlet reported. According to the indictment, he also failed to file personal income-tax returns for several years.
Kapoor also pleaded guilty to money laundering after transferring $820,559 from his personal bank account toward the purchase of a $5 million yacht in 2022. Prosecutors claimed the purchase of the yacht, as well as a $5.9 million home in Coral Gables, was made with misappropriated investor funds. His maximum sentence for those two counts was 15 years, the newspaper said.
As part of his plea, Kapoor agreed to forfeit $820,559 and give up a platinum ring with a $28,405 down payment that prosecutors say was also made with stolen investor money.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida wrote in a filing that the government asked Kapoor to forfeit the ring and a luxury car as “the only apparent assets left.”
Kapoor admitted to stealing condo deposits from 30 buyers in URBIN’s Coconut Grove condo project as part of his plea deal.
He owes more than $70 million to victims of his real estate investment schemes and to the IRS in restitution and outstanding taxes. Kapoor said in a letter to the judge before his sentencing hearing that he was ashamed of himself and accepted responsibility for his crimes “without hesitation or excuse.”
A restitution hearing is scheduled for November.
—Grace McClung
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