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Investor accused of using loans to live on easy street - Business - MiamiHerald.com
By admin | May 18, 2010
Investor accused of using loans to live on easy street - Business - MiamiHerald.com
Investor accused of using loans to live on easy street
Guy Mitchell bounced onto the South Florida real estate scene with lots of cash and a big acquisition: the Royal Palm. That venture went badly, and now Mitchell faces federal charges of bank fraud.
BY DOUGLAS HANKS
dhanks@MiamiHerald.com
A reclusive Coral Gables investor whose deep pockets perplexed business associates was arraigned Friday on charges he looted an Atlanta bank of $80 million to fund a millionaire’s lifestyle.
Guy Mitchell vaulted to prominence in 2005 when he emerged as the primary investor behind a bold condo-hotel conversion of South Beach’s Royal Palm, a hotel slated for a foreclosure auction later this month. He and the chief developer, Robert Falor, paid a then-record $128 million for the oceanfront property, one in a string of acquisitions the two engineered across the country during the boom days of real estate.
That portfolio imploded in recent years, but Mitchell’s indictment marks a new chapter in one of the stormiest real estate sagas of South Florida’s latest boom-and-bust cycle.
Topics: REAL ESTATE FRAUD, Just Talk, good stuff |
