Former Florida politician Carlos M. Lopez-Cantera is accused of conspiring with his father to cheat partners out of millions of dollars in a Miami-Dade County real estate deal, a suit says. 

The pair face a lawsuit that claims they misled investment partners about the value of an 8.3-acre vacant tract, inducing them to sell it to Quarry Real Estate Holdings, an entity led by the younger Lopez-Cantera, for $40,000 –– even though it potentially could be worth over 400 times more –– with the intention to then flip it, essentially depriving investors from a potentially higher profit, according to the complaint. 

The property, an L-shaped lot between Northwest 17th Street and Northwest 19th Lane, west of Northwest 131st Avenue, is within the Pan American West Business Park in Sweetwater, records show. 

One of the investors, Stephen Blumenthal, filed the suit derivatively on behalf of the investment partnership, Pan American West Limited, and general partner Pan American West L.C., against Lopez-Cantera, his father, Carlos C. Lopez-Cantera, and Quarry Real Estate. 

An amended complaint was filed last Thursday, expanding the original April suit from two counts to seven. The counts include injunctive relief, breach of fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy to commit fraud and breach fiduciary duties. 

Blumenthal is a South Florida developer and principal at Coral Gables-based Coral Rock Development, though the firm isn’t involved in the case. 

Lopez-Cantera, who served in the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican from 2004 to 2012, subsequently held a post as Miami-Dade’s property appraiser and then as lieutenant governor until 2019. He is listed as executive vice president of Coral Gables-based Pan American Companies, which is led by his father as president, according to the firm’s website.

The first line of the suit says this is “a classic case of corporate greed,” in which the elder Lopez-Cantera “surreptitiously snatches a business opportunity for himself and his family, rather than for his partners and fellow investors.”

At the crux of the complaint: The Lopez-Cantera father-son duo misled investors to sell the 8.3-acre lot for $40,000 to Quarry by presenting them with a Colliers appraisal deeming the land’s value at $33,000. The appraisal took into account a conservation easement on the land, which rendered it undevelopable. But the Lopez-Canteras allegedly didn’t disclose to partners that they already had negotiated with the South Florida Water Management District to have the easement lifted, which significantly would increase the property’s value, according to the suit. 

By the time Pan American West voted to sell the land for $40,000, the Lopez-Canteras allegedly already knew they had a letter of intent and/or offer to flip the land to a developer for millions of dollars, the suit says. 

“Behind our backs, they had already gone to the South Florida Water Management District. They knew they were having the easement lifted. The day they recorded the [$40,000] deed was the day they recorded the easement lifting,” said attorney Bruce Weil, who represents Blumenthal. “All behind our backs.” 

The Lopez-Canteras and Quarry denied wrongdoing. 

Each of the Lopez-Canteras filed motions to pause the litigation and enforce arbitration mandates under the Pan American West’s partnership and operating agreements, court records show. 

The elder Lopez-Cantera’s filing called Blumenthal a “disgruntled, minority partner,” who “exclusively covets money.”  

Blumenthal’s “malicious and public filing” levies “incendiary allegations that besmirch Mr. Lopez-Cantera Sr.’s personal and business reputation — all in the hopes of extracting a quick payment,” Lopez-Cantera Sr.’s attorneys wrote in the June 8 filing. 

According to the complaint, Blumenthal held a 30 percent interest in general partner Pan American West L.C. as one of its three members, while the elder Lopez-Cantera held a 45 percent interest and an entity he manages, Asia Minor, held the remaining 25 percent. Blumenthal also held a minority interest in the Pan American West Limited investment partnership. 

Neither the younger Lopez-Cantera nor Quarry were partners in either the limited or general Pan American West partnerships, Weil said. 

In the early 2000s, Pan American West bought about 140 acres just north of the Dolphin Expressway. Then it sold off portions of the land to companies that built warehouses on their parcels. The elder Lopez-Cantera, through affiliates, is the controlling limited partner of Pan American West and the controlling member of Pan American West L.C., the general partner, according to the complaint.  

In 2008, to obtain approvals to build out the land, Pan American West agreed to encumber the 8.3-acre portion of the larger tract with a conservation easement transferred to the South Florida Water Management District. Over the past decade, Pan American L.C. largely remained inactive, even failing to file corporate reports with the state, according to the complaint. 

Until January, when the younger Lopez-Cantera requested a meeting with Blumenthal to “urgently discuss a business transaction,” presented the Colliers appraisal and proposed for Quarry to buy the land, the suit says. 

“He claimed [the land] was virtually worthless and argued that Quarry had agreed to buy it for $7,000 more than its appraised value of $33,000,” according to the complaint. 

At a three-minute Feb. 10 meeting attended only by the elder Lopez-Cantera, he voted to approve the $40,000 sale on behalf of the partnership, the suit says. The complaint alleges he had sought the consent of all limited partners for the deal, though he didn’t obtain everyone’s approval. 

In his motion to compel arbitration, the elder Lopez-Cantera points out Blumenthal was notified about the meeting and that minutes and a recording of the Feb. 10 meeting exist. His filing goes on to say that in preceding years, while the Pan American West entities were inactive, Blumenthal was also “dormant.” 

Blumenthal’s complaint is devoid of any background on whether he tried to sell the property or expressed to the elder Lopez-Cantera that he wanted to try to lift the easement, the elder Lopez-Cantera’s court filing says. 

“Simply put, Mr. Blumenthal’s complaint reveals a wait-and-pounce strategy where he seeks to benefit from others’ efforts,” the filing says.

The sale to Quarry was contingent on the lifting of the conservation easement, according to Blumenthal’s suit. 

His attorney, Weil, said it’s “disheartening that something like this could happen with absolutely no regard to the relationship between the parties and partners.”

“These people think they are above the law. They think they can just defraud their partners and just walk away from it,” Weil added. “You would think when they were caught, they would just give it [the land] back.” 

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