In 2005, Republican Florida Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] purchased a home in West Miami for $550,000 from a “shell company” that paid $1 million for it 16 months before.
That shell company, a firm with a thin paper trail and no real employees, didn’t submit a financial report after selling the home to Rubio and dissolved nine months later.
Until now, the owners of the company, Sanval Boats LLC, have never been revealed. InterCreditReport records shows that SANVAL BOATS, LLC was incorporated on April 24, 2003, and that its managers were Richard Sanchez and Arnaldo Valdes. The former also served as its registered agent.
InterCreditReport notes that Sanval Boats was administratively dissolved on Sept. 16, 2005, but weeks before the sale to the Rubio family, that dissolution was revoked on Nov. 29, 2005, before it was administratively dissolved again on Sept. 16, 2006.
“Annual reports for all Florida entities are due to the Florida Secretary of State no later than May 1 of each year,” the Florida lawfirm HoughtonPA explains at its website. “If you do not file your annual report, a $400 fine is imposed. If the fine is not paid and the annual report is not filed by the third Friday in September, then the entity will be ‘administratively dissolved’ (F.S. 607.1420(1)(a)).”
Records show that Sanchez owned many other shady realty firms, operating from the same address, but appeared to make few on-the-record purchases. Sanval Boats’ principal address was 9570 SW 107 Ave, Suite 202 in Miami, an address also used for Sunset Villas LLC, which Sanchez incorporated on Jan. 7, 2004. Its last activity was on Sept. 15, 2006, and the only principal named is Sanchez.
Another firm tied to that address is Domestic for Profit R & M Investments of Miami Inc., owned by Richard and Magaly Sanchez, which was incorporated on May 8, 2001. That company’s last activity was on Sept. 23, 2011.
Other firms, now inactive, tied to Sanchez are: America’s Mortgage Choice, Inc, Designer Realty Inc., M & R, LLC, Estates at Leewood, Florida City 5.5., LLC, and A-Z Property Preservation Services, LLC.
Sanchez now operates a business in Moreno Valley, California called Craftsman Packaging Equipment Service, Inc. which was incorporated on Feb. 4, 2002.
Journalist Ken Silverstein tracked the house’s price fluctuations in a January article.
Arivify notes that it was worth $430,936 when Sanval Boats LLC paid a million dollars for it in 2004.
According to BlockShopper, Sanval Boats LLC purchased the house for $1,000,000 on Aug. 17, 2004 from B & H Dev Corp, B V Real Est Dev Inc., when the house was really worth $430,936. Rubio paid $550,000 on Dec. 14, 2005, which was the same price B & H Dev Corp, B V Real Est Dev Inc acquired it on June 11, 2003.
Rubio’s purchase was orchestrated by his brother-in-law Orlando Cicilia, who was convicted on Feb. 6, 1989 for his role in a drug smuggling ring. Cicilia was hit with a 35-year sentence, but only served a dozen years in prison.
The Washington Post reports that Rubio, while majority whip of the Florida House of Representatives, wrote a letter to state regulators urging them to approve a real estate license for Cicilia after he was released.
Three years later, Cicilia helped Rubio purchase his home.
A Rubio spokesman told The Daily Caller in 2013 that he was trying to sell his home and move his family to Washington, D.C., where he works as a senator. But the home was still listed as his primary address on Illinois State Board of Elections’ website, and the website Estately claims that the dwelling is “no longer on the market.”