Broward RV dealership owner arrested, accused of not paying nearly $500K in sales tax

Grethel Aguila, Milena Malaver
·2 min read

A Broward County RV dealership owner was arrested Wednesday night after being accused of not payingnearly $500,000 in state taxes.

Gigi Stetler, 62, owns RV Sales of Broward in Dania Beach where she “collected and failed to pay a minimum of $471,447.35 in sales tax” to the Florida Department of Revenue from May 2019 to June 2023, court records show.

RV Sales of Broward is the parent company of Planet RV at 1820 NW 21 St. in Pompano Beach, according to state business records.

Stetler is listed as president, vice president, director, incorporator secretary and registered agent of RV Sales of Broward, records show.

Investigators allege that Stetler was fully aware of taxes owed, and failed to appear in any interviews.

She faces a first-degree felony charge for “theft of state fund.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Stetler was still booked into the North Broward Bureau detention center and has a $10,000 bond.

Mounting financial woes?

Stetler and her companies are no strangers to court battles, records show. Several filings offer a glimpse into the business’ finances.

Two days before the criminal case was filed, Stetler and the RV Sales of Broward sued 2051 Griffin Road LLC, from which she was renting a space to do business. The group, the filing states, had plans to remove piers and docks, but when the property was inspected, the City of Dania Beach found violations.

2051 Griffin Road LLC didn’t take action until fines related to the violations piled up in upwards of $88,000, leaving Stetler and RV Sales of Broward “damaged financially” and “unable to operate business,” according to the lawsuit.

In May, the Stetlers were sued by Leaf Capital Funding LLC, which claimed it hadn’t paid back a loan of more than $40,000. A month earlier, customer Daniel Carrazedo sued RV Sales of Broward, alleging Stetler breached a 2023 agreement to purchase his RV for $35,000.

The business, the suit says, later offered him $30,000, which he accepted. But he was never paid the full amount, despite calling for weeks. When he finally heard from the company, they informed him that RV Sales of Broward was filing for bankruptcy.

He then received a payment from RV Fun Club, which is also owned by Stetler and was a “stranger to the agreement,” court records state. The lawsuit also alleges that Stetler’s use of her various companies “in transactions like this to defraud customers... is nothing new.”

According to the document, a Broward court in 2023 found that Stetler has been “employing such schemes for years...” and has been sued “numerous times for identical conduct,” including defrauding and swindling customers.

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