A disgraced Venezuelan ex-banker identified in the Panama Papers joins a growing number of South Florida commercial real estate owners feeling the pinch of distress.
An entity managed by Eligio Cedeño in Coral Gables filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in Miami federal bankruptcy court on Saturday, two days before its four commercial units at Brickell House condominium at 1300 Brickell Bay Drive were scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction.
Cedeño’s entity, Ectul Holdings, listed $19 million in assets and $13.3 million in debts, the bankruptcy petition shows. Ectul’s largest creditor is Fort Lauderdale-based Fuse 10, which won a $7.5 million final judgment against the entity in January, Miami-Dade court records show.
Ectul’s bankruptcy attorney Diego Mendez did not respond to a request for comment.
In October of last year, Fuse 10 filed a foreclosure complaint against Ectul alleging that the borrower defaulted on a $6 million loan issued in 2023, by missing two monthly interest payments and a payment to its real estate taxes and insurance account that year. Ectul entered into a forbearance agreement that expired in February of last year, the lawsuit alleges. Cedeño’s entity paid $7.5 million for the three commercial units in 2021, records show.
Ectul’s second largest creditor is North Miami Beach-based Blue Waves Investment, which also has a pending foreclosure complaint against the entity. The lawsuit alleges Ectul defaulted on a $5 million loan secured by a Brickell House penthouse also owned by the Cedeño entity. In 2023, Ectul paid $5.2 million for the 3,860-square-foot unit at 1300 Brickell Bay Drive in Miami, records show.
The sale of the commercial units and the penthouse foreclosure complaint are stayed as a result of the bankruptcy filing.
Cedeño was among a half-dozen Venezuelan banking executives identified in the 2016 Panama Papers as controlling secret offshore accounts, published reports state. Nearly a decade earlier, in 2007, Cedeño was arrested and detained in Venezuela for allegedly breaking the country’s currency laws and allegedly engaging in illegal transactions to obtain U.S. dollars.
He was released two years later and fled to the U.S. In 2011, the U.S. government granted Cedeño asylum, according to published reports.
Across South Florida, commercial property owners are catching the brunt of market headwinds. This month, a lender slapped Don King with a foreclosure complaint that alleges the legendary boxing promoter defaulted on a $5 million mortgage secured by a Deerfield Beach warehouse he owns.
Brooklyn-based investor and Holocaust survivor Zipporah Goldstein is also feeling a lender’s heat. Recently, Troy, Michigan-based Flagstar Bank filed a foreclosure complaint in Miami-Dade County against Goldstein’s entity that owns nine ground-floor commercial units inside a three-story Art Deco building in Miami Beach. Flagstar alleges Goldstein and her entity defaulted on a $5.5 million loan.
Last month, a partnership among Miami-based builder Marlon Gomez and Coral Gables-based developers Fausto Callava and Antonio Pardo was hit with a foreclosure complaint alleging the joint venture defaulted on a $10 million loan secured by a 1.8-acre Miami River development site.
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