Coral Gables-based Florida Bar president accused of misappropriating $625,000
A complaint filed with the Florida Bar alleges that Bar President Roland Sanchez-Medina misappropriated $625,000 in a real estate transaction.
The Florida Bar acknowledged to the Miami Herald an open complaint regarding Sanchez-Medina, who denies any wrongdoing.
'I categorically and unequivocally deny misappropriating $625,000,' Sanchez-Medina said in an email to the Miami Herald. 'I have responded to the complaint denying the accusation.'
Sanchez-Medina's responses reference three different answers he has given about the money: paid to one company, sitting in his law firm's trust account, paid to another company.
Sanchez-Medina works out of SMGQ Law, a Coral Gables firm that gets its first two letters from 'Sanchez-Medina.' He joined the Bar in 1992, has served as Cuban American Bar Association president and, last June, was sworn in as Florida Bar president.
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Beyond stating the complaint was open, the Bar didn't disclose the status of the investigation. But, Sanchez-Medina has been asked for financial data and bank records.
Klip, Sherman Campbell, a place in the Keys and $625,000
The complaint filed Nov. 15, 2024, by Homestead's Christos 'Nicko' Christidis concerns Sanchez-Medina's conduct during a July 2018 commercial real estate deal between Klip, LLC and Robert Morgan III's Sherman Campbell, LLC. That led to a plethora of civil lawsuits in addition to the Bar complaint.
State records at the time listed Christidis' Somia LLC as Klip's manager and William Holly's TYG, LLC as an authorized member of KLIP.
KLIP was buying an insurance business, Underwriters Inc., as well as a two-story commercial building at 102481 Overseas Hwy. in Key Largo for $1.4 million from Morgan's company.
Christidis' complaint says Sanchez-Medina, while acting as KLIP's attorney, held $625,000 of the real estate deal's $1.4 million in his trust account, but never turned it over to Morgan. Christidis and Morgan, in a Miami-Dade lawsuit against Sanchez-Medina and Holly, said that money never made it to Morgan.
The lawsuit accused Sanchez-Medina and Holly of lying by 'stating verbally and in First Closing Statement, drafted by [Sanchez-Medina], on July 13, 2018 that the $625,000.00 was an escrow holdback that would be released to [Morgan] upon the closing of the sale of the asset purchase agreement...'
Christidis' complaint says Sanchez-Medina wired $539,021 of the $625,000 to Belgium's Bercom, a company owned by Holly partner Jacques Barrabi.
Sanchez-Medina's Jan. 7 response to the Bar complaint, authored by Smith, Tozian, Daniel & Davis' Gwendolyn Daniel, denied Sanchez-Medina represented KLIP in the transaction. Also, it says the $539,021 came from Berrebi's Actis Miami Corp (principal address: SMGQ's Alhambra Circle law office) and 'pertained to a separate transaction.'
'As Mr. Christidis well knows, the $539,021 is not related to the $625,000, which is still being held in trust.'
That was filed Jan. 7. That's not what Sanchez-Medina's side stated on Feb. 11.
Where does Sanchez-Medina say the money is?
A section of the Jan. 7 answer, headlined 'The $625,000 Buyer's Holdback remains safeguarded in SMGQ's Trust Account' discusses what Sanchez-Medina said during a 2023 deposition.
Pointing out the time gap between the 2018 original deal and the 2023 deposition, Sanchez-Medina's lawyer wrote he 'had not refreshed his recollection regarding the KLIP transaction that had occurred almost five years earlier, and when asked by Mr. Christidis' lawyer (Nathan Clark), Mr. Sanchez-Medina incorrectly believed that the $625,000 had been disbursed to KLIP.'
'Subsequently, Mr. Sanchez-Medina confirmed that the $625,000.00 has remained safeguarded in trust and has not been disbursed due to the ongoing disputes that are subject to active litigation.'
But, Morgan's amended lawsuit includes a Feb. 11 correction by Sanchez-Medina written by his attorney.
'Regrettably, after reviewing additional documentation, Mr. Sanchez-Medina has realized that the funds were disbursed shortly after the 2018 closing, at the direction of William Holly, a 50-50 member of KLIP,' the response says. 'On July 26, 2018, Mr. Holly, who had executed the closing documents on behalf of KLIP, directed Mr. Sanchez-Medina to issue a cashier's check in the amount of $687,130.71 to the Broward County Property Appraiser's Office for the benefit of JB Green.
'Mr. Holly's check in the amount of $62,130.71 was deposited into Mr. Sanchez-Medina's trust account on July 27, 2018,' the response continued. 'This amount was combined with the $625,000 hold back amount to cover the cashier's check in the amount of $687.130.71. Mr. Holly was a partial owner of JB Green and Mr. Christidis managed the building owned by JB Green.'
Also, the Feb. 11 response said, Sanchez-Medina looked at the asset purchase agreement again and that 'refreshed his recollection that six years ago his firm represented KLIP in the potential acquisition of the insurance assets.'
But, he says, 'he did not provide legal services involving KLIP' nor did he receive any attorney's fees 'related to the closing' from anyone.
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