Mayor Francis Suarez attended Miami’s Formula 1 Grand Prix with his private equity firm

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For the third year in a row, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez hobnobbed his way around the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix VIP scene and celebrity party circuit, chatting up billionaires and rubbing elbows with people who have business in Miami or with the mayor.

Throughout the weekend, Suarez dined at a private party in Surfside with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and a partner at the law firm that has paid Suarez more than $1 million in recent years, sported the city seal on his chest at an invite-only brunch with star athletes and then changed wardrobes to watch the race over two days from a VIP lounge with his political fundraiser and associates from DaGrosa Capital Partners, where the mayor says he receives a $360,000 salary and a share of the company’s profits.

In keeping with past practice, the mayor’s office refused to answer questions about who invited Suarez to each event or whether he attended any in his public capacity as mayor, saying instead that Suarez “will disclose all required information about his schedule when and if he is required to do so.” The mayor’s office has not yet provided Suarez’s calendar in response to a public records request.

What little information is publicly available suggests Suarez spent the weekend toggling back and forth between his roles as mayor and businessman, blurring what are supposed to be clear lines between his public office and private business under Florida’s ethics rules.

“It sounds to me that the mayor is a bit confused about what hat he’s wearing when he’s attending events like this,” said Michael Barfield, public access director for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. Barfield said the mayor should decline invitations to events where it might be difficult for the public to determine whether he’s acting in his official capacity or as a private businessman, so as to not accidentally conflate the two roles.

The mayor’s disinterest in discussing where he went or what he did over the weekend has left his business partners to fill in some of the gaps.

Antonio Primo, a senior partner at DaGrosa Capital, told the Miami Herald that Suarez attended the Formula 1 races this year “in his capacity as a partner at our firm.” DaGrosa Capital paid retail price for Suarez’s Saturday and Sunday Paddock Club passes, Primo said when a reporter reached him Monday by phone.

Suarez leads DaGrosa’s acquisition initiatives and runs the domestic and international investment platform, according to the firm’s website. Formula 1’s Paddock Club, where basic three-day passes sold this year for $13,999, gave Suarez access to a who’s-who of global businesspeople, celebrities and dozens of potential investors.

Photos posted to Instagram show Suarez spent his time at the track hanging out with a group that included Primo, Antonio Camarotti, CEO and publisher of Forbes Brazil, Ricardo Lanfranchi, an executive from the US division of a Brazilian technology company, C&M Software, and Brian Goldmeier, the mayor’s longtime campaign fundraising consultant.

Primo didn’t remember the ticket price, and said he did not know whether Suarez attended any after parties or dinners on behalf of the firm. He ended the call quickly without answering further questions.

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Ethics laws prohibit Suarez — who as mayor has promoted the race for years — from using the power he derives from his public office to influence his private business deals. The mayor’s spokeswoman declined to address questions about whether he spent any time over the weekend recruiting investors or clients.

While public officials are allowed to hold private jobs, Florida law requires a firewall between the two, according to Caroline Klancke, executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute. Determining whether Suarez has ever abused his public position while working for the DaGrosa Capital would come down to the specifics of how he introduced himself to potential business partners and whether his public position was mentioned as part of a deal, she said.

“The more a person uses their official moniker and expresses their ability to utilize it for a private entity, the more evidence there is of potential misuse of their public position,” said Klancke, who served as the general counsel and deputy executive director of the Florida ethics commission until 2022. She said Suarez should also “be cognizant about the potential conflict that arises from entering new contracts with businesses who are doing business with or are regulated by the city.”

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In March, property records show DCP Development Partners, a company owned by DaGrosa Capital, partnered with the Kolter Group to purchase two lots near the city’s Design District. In a statement, a spokesperson for DCP said the firm and Kolter Group plan to develop a project that aims to “enhance the area’s dynamic landscape and contribute positively to its growth.”

The company made a point of clarifying that Suarez “is not associated with the entity, DCP Development Partners” but did not address the Herald’s question about the mayor’s relationship to the planned development project as a senior partner of Dagrosa Capital, the holding company.

“At DCP Development Partners, we are committed to upholding the highest standards of ethics and compliance with all business and legal regulations,” DCP’s spokesperson said. “Our acquisitions and businesses are conducted transparently, adhering to all guidelines to ensure integrity and trust at every level of operation.”

Open questions

Following the last year’s Grand Prix, the mayor’s then-communications director Soledad Cedro said Suarez attended high-end sporting events “to advocate for our city and attract new jobs and opportunities for our residents.”

Suarez, a regular on the F1 circuit, has disclosed little voluntarily about his party-hopping since the race was launched two years ago.

This year, Suarez attended the exclusive Boardroom x Coinbase Miami Brunch, an event co-hosted by Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman and Groot Hospitality Founder David Grutman, who owns several of the Miami’s hottest restaurants.

The mayor was also spotted at an exclusive Formula 1 kick-off event hosted in Surfside by Sports Illustrated last Thursday evening where he dined with Bezos and former NFL star Tom Brady. The rendezvous, first reported by Page Six, included Authentic CEO Jamie Salter and Alex Spiro, celebrity attorney and partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the international law firm where Suarez works as a part-time attorney.

“It’s always nice to see the mayor, but he didn’t come with us and wasn’t my guest,” Spiro said in a statement to the Herald.

If Suarez was invited to the events by anyone outside of his immediate family other than his private employer, Klancke said Florida ethics laws require him to disclose the name of the person who invited him on his quarterly gift report if the per-person price of food, entertainment and other services adds up to more than $100. Florida gifts laws would also prohibit Suarez from accepting an invitation to one of these events from a person or company engaged in lobbying or doing business with the city where he serves.

County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also attended Formula 1 events this year. Her attendance was revealed in pictures posted online by the Arsht Center, which is currently seeking county approval for new jumbo digital billboards on the county-owned campus. Photos show Levine Cava posing with Adrienne Arsht, the business woman and major benefactor of the center.

“Mayor Levine Cava attended the Formula 1 Miami GP in her official capacity as Mayor of Miami-Dade County,” said county spokesperson Jennie Lopez in response to Herald questions. Lopez said Levine Cava presented a proclamation to Grand Prix partner Stephen Ross and “went on the track to represent Miami-Dade County in the national anthem and flag presentation,” but did not stay for the race.

Last year, Suarez’s attendance at Formula 1 events became the subject of an ethics investigation after the Herald reported that billionaire Ken Griffin had invited Suarez and his wife to view the races from the Paddock Club and attend an exclusive after party with a $3,000 cover charge. Suarez eventually repaid Griffin $14,000 in order to comply with ethics laws that prohibited the mayor from accepting the tickets as gifts because Griffin’s company was lobbying the city at the time.

The check Suarez wrote to Griffin was dated the same day reporters wrote to them about a planned story discussing the passes as a potential violation of state gifts laws.

The ethics commission dismissed the case without requiring Suarez to provide a full accounting of each exclusive invitation and expensive ticket he received last year, which would have cost him more than $30,000 over the course of the Grand Prix weekend. The mayor has never said whether he or someone else paid for his track-side VIP passes in 2022, the race’s inaugural year.

Miami Herald staff writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.