Without a trace: strange disappearing act of Guma Aguiar 6-19-12 South Florida

[sharon]

Without a trace: the strange disappearing act of Guma Aguiar

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/30/2876678/without-a-trace-the-strange-disappearing.html#storylink=cpy


Posted on Saturday, 06.30.12

Guma Aguiar had it all: money, a mansion on the water, a beautiful family, 10 servants and a $2.1 million yacht. But he also had personal demons.

By Julie K. Brown
jbrown@MiamiHerald.com

In 2003, Guma Aguiar was a 26-year-old college dropout teaching tennis to wealthy Wall Street investors who wintered in South Florida.

Smart and charismatic, Aguiar inherited the model good looks and charm of his father, Otto de Souza Aguiar, a Brazilian artist whose colorful paintings graced the walls of Miami Beach’s City Hall.

The younger Aguiar, born in Brazil but raised mostly in South Florida, was a renaissance man like his father, but he had little interest in the art world.

Instead, he schooled himself on how to influence people and make money.

After a stint on Wall Street trading commodities, Aguiar joined his uncle, Thomas Kaplan, in Houston, where the two embarked on an ambitious venture. A geologist had steered them to some land in east Texas that contained large quantities of natural gas. They formed a company, Leor Energy, and began drilling, unearthing 2.4 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to Forbes magazine. In 2007, they sold their company for $2.55 billion.

 ::snipping2::

On June 19, Aguiar, 35 — anguished over his tenuous marriage, locked in a vicious court battle with his uncle and struggling to hold onto his sanity — vanished.

He took his 31-foot fishing boat out to sea from Port Everglades in choppy seas and inclement weather. More than five hours later, the boat ran aground on Fort Lauderdale beach. Its engine was running, its lights were on, but no one was aboard.

It’s not clear whether Aguiar was swallowed by the sea, staged his disappearance, was kidnapped or murdered.

Fort Lauderdale police so far have found no signs of foul play, and sources say there’s no evidence his passport was used to leave the country.

Travis Mandell, a police spokesman, told reporters the next day that Aguiar got into the boat alone, “but that’s not to say he didn’t meet up with anyone.”

His mother and wife immediately filed court motions to take control of his $100 million estate, and have accused each other of using the tragedy to their own advantage. At a Broward probate court hearing Thursday, attorneys representing Aguiar’s mother said that under a codicil to her son’s will, his mother had been given power of attorney and named personal representative over his affairs. They also claimed that because Jamie Aguiar had been suing her husband for a piece of his fortune, appointing her in charge of his money would be a conflict of interest.

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*edit to add date

[sharon]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-guma-aguiar-missing-folo-20120621,0,6848872.story

As the search ends for missing millionaire, mother seeks to protect his assets

By Linda Trischitta, Sun Sentinel

3:39 a.m. EDT, June 22, 2012

The second day of searches for missing Fort Lauderdale multimillionaire Guma Aguiar began Thursday with a sunrise flight over the Atlantic Ocean by aU.S. Coast Guard HC-144 plane.

The Coast Guard suspended its rescue mission around 9 p.m. Thursday.

While authorities investigate what happened to the 35-year-old investor who is believed to have gone boating Tuesday night, his mother filed documents Thursday in Broward County court seeking to become conservator or temporary guardian of his nearly $100 million fortune.

Aguiar's 31-foot fishing boat, the T.T. Zion, washed onto Fort Lauderdale beach about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, its lights on and twin outboard engines running.

Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Travis Mandell said Thursday investigators believe Aguiar got in the boat alone, "but that's not to say he didn't meet up with anyone."

Ellen Aguiar's petition says her son "disappeared as the result of mental derangement or other mental cause" or disappeared "under circumstances indicating that he may have died, either naturally, accidentally or at the hands of another." It further states that he suffers from "severe bipolar disorder."

The missing man's cellphone and wallet were found on the boat by police, the 59-year-old Ellen Aguiar, of Pompano Beach, says in her filing.

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[sharon]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-guma-aguiar-court-fight-20120627,0,1836268.story

Mother and wife of missing Lauderdale millionaire battle for control of his assets


By Linda Trischitta, Sun Sentinel

9:09 p.m. EDT, June 27, 2012
FORT LAUDERDALE —

Two of the most important women in the life of missing Fort Lauderdale multi-millionaire Guma Aguiar will meet in Broward County court Thursday to fight for control of his $100 million fortune.

Aguiar, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, is believed to have left the dock of his Rio Vista Isles home in his fishing boat an hour or so before sunset on June 19, when the National Weather Service had issued a small craft advisory for high waves, fast winds and sporadic thunderstorms.

About six hours later, his 31-foot, center-console vessel was found unmanned on Fort Lauderdale beach, its lights on and twin outboard engines running.

Before the U.S. Coast Guard had ended its 48-hour search the night of June 21, his mother, Ellen Aguiar filed a court document earlier that day, seeking to have herself named conservator of her son's substantial assets.

"It's not a power grab," Ellen Aguiar, 59, of Pompano Beach and Jerusalem, said Wednesday from her lawyer's office in Miami.

She said she made the filing based on legal advice, and said there are substantial assets to protect for his family as well as bills, salaries and business operations to fund. Investments include Israeli real estate and majority ownership of a pro basketball team there, a Fort Lauderdale mansion and a fleet of automobiles.

Also looming are legal deadlines in a 2008 lawsuit over distribution of proceeds from the 2007 sale of an oil and gas company co-founded with his maternal uncle, Thomas Kaplan.

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[texasmom]

Thanks Sharon, I don't remember now what it was on but I saw some clips from the court hearing where the mother and wife were fighting for control of the money. IIRC neither got control, an outside person was appointed to handle it.

Wonder what happened to him?

[sharon]

 

Not sure what to think TM. Part of me thinks his disappearance is staged. Part of me thinks that his mental illness got the best of him - the divorce filing pushing him over the edge. Part of me thinks his mom is just trying to protect his assets (doesn't like/trust the dil) and part of me thinks that her behavior is peculiar and that she is part of the 'staging'.

lol

So I'm all over the map. That's why I posted it   Need smart monkeys 

[MuffyBee]

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/06/22/exp-point-missing-millionaire-mom.cnn
Mom of Millionaire:  "He Was Struggling"
Video
Added On June 22, 2012
Ellen Aguiar, mother of missing FL. millionaire Guma Aguiar, discusses her son's mental state before his disappearance.

[texasmom]

Not sure what to think TM. Part of me thinks his disappearance is staged. Part of me thinks that his mental illness got the best of him - the divorce filing pushing him over the edge. Part of me thinks his mom is just trying to protect his assets (doesn't like/trust the dil) and part of me thinks that her behavior is peculiar and that she is part of the 'staging'.

lol

So I'm all over the map. That's why I posted it   Need smart monkeys 

You're not alone, I've had all the same thoughts!   

[sharon]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2012/07/02/billionaire-tom-kaplan-thinks-his-nephew-guma-aguiar-might-be-alive/

7/02/2012 @ 1:24PM

Billionaire Tom Kaplan Thinks His Nephew Guma Aguiar Might Be Alive

Lawyers for Thomas Kaplan, the New York billionaire who made a nearly $2 billion fortune in an East Texas natural gas field, recently filed legal papers indicating they think Guma Aguiar, the tycoon who went missing last month, might be alive.

A company and a lawyer for trusts associated with Kaplan asked a federal judge last week to order electronic data and communications associated with email accounts, cell phones and computers belonging to Aguiar and his mother, Ellen Aguiar, be preserved because the trusts “have an interest in determining Aguiar’s whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.” Judge Patricia Seitz on Friday granted the request to preserve data created on or after April 1, which extends to telecommunication service providers AT&T and AOL.

According to a court filing made last week in federal court in Florida, Kaplan’s lawyers said “Aguiar disappeared under suspicious circumstance after taking his boat out into the Atlantic Ocean” and that “Aguiar’s mother, Ellen Aguiar, has indicated that she believes he may be alive but in a psychotic state.” Kaplan’s camp has indicated in legal papers that they remain hopeful Aguiar is alive and specifically emphasized the preservation of “any electronic data related to Aguiar’s disappearance, including any electronic communications between Aguiar and Ellen Aguiar.”

“I don’t believe Ellen knows where Guma is,” Robert Baron, Ellen Aguiar’s lawyer, said in a statement. “She is hopeful he’s alive, but her hope is diminishing daily.”

Ellen has been locked in litigation with Kaplan, her brother, alleging that Kaplan had her and her family improperly removed as contingent and potential beneficiaries of trusts that held about $2 billion from the East Texas gas bonanza. Kaplan has denied wrongdoing and won the only ruling in the case so far, much like he has overwhelming won his legal battles with Aguiar, his nephew who worked with him on the East Texas gas find. Kaplan and Aguiar have been fighting each other in nasty litigation for years.

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[Amys Sister]

From the comment section:


David Weiss 3 comments collapsed
Collapse Expand Julie Brown should do a little more research before writing her flowery prose. Guma was (is??) not smart nor charismatic. He was more like pedantic and abrasive. He did not join his uncle, Thomas Kaplan, in Houston. Kaplan is in New York. A quintessential New Yorker, big time businessman and investor (with a track record to prove it) and billionaire in his own right. Kaplan sent Guma to Houston as his point man. Kaplan was after John Amoruso, the geologist with his own theory about big deposits in east Texas/Lousiana. What ensued was totally orchestrated by Kaplan from New York. Guma was his errand boy. After the gas field prospect panned out Kaplan awarded a $200 million pay out to Guma (Nice for somebody who did not invest a penny or contributed with knowledge). The geology knowledge was contributed by John Amoruso and financial muscle and acumen by Kaplan. But Guma in his delusions thought he was entitled to $1.2 billion (as if he were an equal partner). While running his uncle's company Guma misappropriated (stole?) millions of dollars (a businessman?) . See DE-1 in case No. 09-60136, federal district court. He got his hands on $200 mil four years ago and already squandered more than $100 mil (smart?). Also, read the court documents. They have some of Guma's e-mails. His writings only shows his crudeness and lack of intelligence. The sad part of this story is that Kaplan reached out to help his sister and his nephew (they were struggling economically most of their life and more so around 2003 when Otto developed ALS) and even set up two GRAT trusts for them. Little did he know he would dragged to the private hell inhabited by these to deranged creatures.
A Like Reply 07/01/2012 06:14 PM 5 Likes Report Abuse
Edit to add date of article publication.  MB June 30, 2012
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/30/2876678_p3/without-a-trace-the-strange-disappearing.html#storylink=cpy

[sharon]

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Judge-Appoints-2-Attorneys-To-Oversee-Guma-Aguiars-Estate-Pending-Litigation-161296935.html


Judge Appoints 2 Attorneys To Oversee Guma Aguiar's Estate, Pending Litigation

The ruling is not exactly what the missing millionaire's wife or mother were after initially
By Justin Finch
|  Tuesday, Jul 3, 2012  |  Updated 9:28 PM EDT

A Broward County judge has appointed two lawyers to oversee missing millionaire Guma Aguiar's estate and pending litigation.

Judge Mark Speiser named Tom Panza as conservator of Aguiar's financial assets and properties in the U.S. on Tuesday. Panza will also have the court's permission to act as conservator in dealings involving Aguiar's millions of dollars in holdings in Israel, pending any challenges or other requirements by Israeli courts.

"At some point, the case will be resolved and the assets had to be maintained during that period, that's what the conservator does," Panza explained.

Spesier named a second attorney, Jack Siler, as conservator of Aguiar's lawsuits. He will act in the 35-year-old's best interest in a host of suits filed in county and federal courts involving both business and domestic matters.

Spesier’s ruling is not exactly what Aguiar's wife, Jamie, or mother, Ellen, were after initially.

"There is a conflict," said Ellen Aguiar's attorney Ilene Lieberman. "There is clearly a conflict between Ellen Aguiar and Jamie Aguiar."

Click here to watch a video of the court battle.

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[Nut44x4]

Aug. 2009 photo of oil tycoon Guma Aguiar in Jerusalem. Aguiar disappeared in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when his fishing boat washed ashore uninhabited with the engine running Tuesday night, June 19, 2012

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57460423-504083/guma-aguiar-oil-tycoon-was-discovered-missing-after-his-boat-washed-ashore-with-engines-running-police-say/

[sharon]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2173096/Guma-Aguiar-GPS-data-suggests-philanthropists-turnaround-miles-Atlantic-Ocean-means-switched-ships.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Did missing millionaire jump to another boat? GPS data suggests philanthropist's abrupt turnaround miles out to sea during storm means he could have switched ships

    Millionaire Guma Aguiar turned on GPS on June 19, night he went missing
    Data shows him travelling fast across high waves for half an hour before vessel makes abrupt turn
    Independent experts speculate Aguiar could have jumped onto another ship that was out at sea
    Sold lucrative energy company in 2006 for reported $2.55billion and is said to be in bitter legal battle with wife

By Beth Stebner

PUBLISHED: 08:54 EST, 13 July 2012 | UPDATED: 12:51 EST, 13 July 2012


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[sharon]

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/state/guma-aguiar-missing-millionaires-fishing-boat-followed-strange-course-during-final-voyage

Guma Aguiar: Missing millionaire's fishing boat followed strange course during final voyage

Posted: 07/13/2012

    By: Linda Trischitta, Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Images of missing millionaire Guma Aguiar's last known voyage:

A boat captain assisting with a nighttime ocean burial sees a 31-foot boat speeding out of Port Everglades Inlet so fast it goes airborne over the waves.

The boat follows a mysterious, shark fin-shaped course – it travels northeast to 4 miles offshore, then turns abruptly and begins to drift back to shore.

Workers at the Elbo Room watch with increasing wonder as they realize that the boat moving slowly toward the beach is a ghost ship with no one aboard.

Police on Thursday released these details from witness accounts and a U.S. Coast Guard analysis of the T.T. Zion's GPS trail.

Police still can't say whether they believe the flamboyant Aguiar is dead or alive.

"No one can say what happened," said Fort Lauderdale Police Sgt. Steven Novak. "He is still considered a missing person."

Aguiar struggled with mental health, was plagued by massive lawsuits that threatened his $100 million fortune and had a turbulent marriage.

"If he did stage his disappearance, someone with his means could be difficult to find," Novak said. "And that's a big if."

Though there have been local sightings of Aguiar reported to police, none was confirmed, the homicide sergeant said.

"We're getting a lot fewer calls on this one than we typically do in a case like this," Novak said.

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[sharon]

http://global.christianpost.com/news/missing-millionaire-case-guma-aguiars-boat-never-stopped-didnt-fake-death-78249/

Missing Millionaire Case, Guma Aguiar's Boat Never Stopped: Didn't Fake Death?

By Brittney R. Villalva , Christian Post Reporter
July 15, 2012|10:08 am
People believe that a man who had once been valued at over $180 million, faked his own death to avoid having to split his fortune in a messy divorce.

Guma Aguiar disappeared on June 19th. The man was last spotted riding his boat in Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida. Due to the details surrounding Gumar's disappearce authorities initially believed that Aguiar may have faked his own death and now new evidence revolving the case further suggests that theory.

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[MuffyBee]

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2012-07-19/news/missing-millionaire-s-partner-speaks-john-amoruso-made-guma-aguiar-rich/
Missing Millionaire's Partner Speaks: John Amoruso Made Guma Aguiar Rich
July 19, 2012

In 2003, Texas geologist John Amoruso had a hunch that there was a lot of natural gas — and big money — in a previously unexplored geological area about midway between Houston and Dallas.

It was a long shot. To prove his theory, Amoruso needed somebody willing to take a big risk and put up money to acquire land and drill the Deep Bossier sands of Richardson County.

Then, one day, he met Guma Aguiar — the Fort Lauderdale man who recently disappeared at sea. They sat down to talk. Amoruso's hunch was about to make Aguiar a very rich man.
More...

[sharon]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/crime-safety-blog/sfl-aguiars-wife-to-sell-assets-20120730,0,7932691.story

Aguiar's wife to list assets


By Linda Trischitta

2:41 p.m. EDT, July 30, 2012
If Guma Aguiar is alive, watching his loved ones from afar and noting the legal decisions happening in his absence, he may not be happy to see his former lifestyle being dismantled.

Jamie Aguiar, 33, his wife of seven years and mother of their four young children, received permission from a Broward judge to list their $5 million Rio Vista Isles waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale, as well as a $2 million, 75-foot Lazzara yacht and the fishing boat.

Also being shed: The yacht’s captain and the home’s “big staff, more than Jamie wants, that’s for sure,” her lawyer, William Scherer said Friday.

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[sharon]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/crime-safety-blog/fl-guma-aguiar-faked-death-20120728,0,4235290.story

Where is missing millionaire Guma Aguiar?


By Linda Trischitta, Sun Sentinel

11:38 a.m. EDT, July 29, 2012
FORT LAUDERDALE —

Bring up multimillionaire Guma Aguiar's mysterious disappearance at sea and you'll hear lots of theories:

He died in a tragic boating accident, leaving behind a beautiful wife and four young children.

Tormented by psychological illness, he committed suicide.

Or, others suggest, he faked his death to dodge a half-dozen lawsuits pecking at his $100 million fortune.

If Aguiar disappeared on purpose, he may want to note that many have tried in Florida, and most have failed.

Among the attempts, according to newspaper accounts:

• Former British Cabinet minister John Stonehouse was fleeing blackmail and pretended to drown in the Atlantic Ocean in 1974. He left his belongings in his room at Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel, and turned up in Australia. He managed to travel for a month before Melbourne police were tipped off. He served three years in prison for forgery, theft and fraud.

• Audrey Marie Hilley moved from Alabama to Fort Lauderdale to escape charges of murdering her husband with arsenic in 1979. She adopted an alias, married a boat builder and somehow "died." She returned as her fictitious "twin sister." She reunited with the boat builder and, in her new persona, lived in New Hampshire. A fake obituary she placed backfired, leading to her 1983 capture after four years as a fugitive.

• Investments manager Marcus Schrenker parachuted from his plane over Alabama in 2009, letting it crash near a neighborhood in the Florida Panhandle. It was all part of a fake death plot to evade his failing marriage and business troubles. Afterward, he didn't keep a low profile, and drove a motorcycle and emailed a friend. U.S. Marshals found him after two days, while he was trying to commit suicide at a Florida campground.

Fort Lauderdale police consider Aguiar to be a missing person, not a fugitive. This much is known: Aguiar had the means to disappear.

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[sharon]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/27/new-clues-in-the-mysterious-disappearance-of-multimillionaire-guma-aguiar.html

New Clues in the Mysterious Disappearance of Multimillionaire Guma Aguiar

Aug 27, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

Energy tycoon and prominent Zionist Guma Aguiar disappeared off the Florida coast in June. Whether he died in an accident, killed himself, or staged his own death remains one of the year’s most intriguing mysteries. Now his close friends are telling their side.

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Interviews with a half dozen of his close friends and advisers, including several who had never spoken publicly about the case, offer new clues into Aguiar’s state of mind leading up to that fateful day and undermine the theory that he’s hiding out in some remote locale. Their stories paint a picture of a bullish, athletic self-starter, someone who wasn’t one to run from trouble and who had big plans to use his wealth to change the world. But they also show someone who was chased by a terrible darkness, prone to fits of depression and extreme, unpredictable behavior that may have figured in an untimely death.

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[Nut44x4]

http://touch.sun-sentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82668656/


January 29, 2015

Two years and seven months after Fort Lauderdale multimillionaire Guma Aguiar vanished at sea, a Broward County judge on Thursday granted a joint petition by his widow and mother to declare him dead.
 
Days after he disappeared, the women — wife Jamie Aguiar and mother-in-law Ellen Aguiar — began fighting in court for control of the investor's estimated $100 million estate.
 
But they eventually put their differences aside in the interest of the family, attorneys for both sides said. After two hearings and ahead of the usual five-year waiting period to declare someone dead, Judge Mark A. Speiser granted their request.
 
"Everything in the estate is in limbo," Albert L. Frevola Jr., lawyer for Jamie Aguiar, said before Speiser made his ruling. "The parties don't think he's coming back."
 
With Aguiar declared deceased, administrative costs for his estate and real estate are eliminated, he said.
 
"The legal battles are settled and resolved," Frevola said. "And the survivors will be able to move on with their lives."
 
A court in Israel, where Aguiar spent time and owned properties, will have to decide whether to accept the Florida court's decision.
 
Aguiar was a 35-year-old father of four young children whose fortune came from oil and gas exploration. He disappeared at sunset on June 19, 2012. A Fort Lauderdale police missing persons report said he required medication and was depressed.
 
Home surveillance video recorded Aguiar alone aboard the T.T. Zion, his 30-foot Jupiter center-console boat, as it entered the canals of the Rio Vista Isles neighborhood.
 
A neighbor saw the boat speeding and leaving a large wake, according to court documents. As Aguiar went through Port Everglades, a boat captain whose vessel was just outside the inlet and in the midst of an ocean burial saw him pass.
 
The captain told police there were 4- or 5-foot swells and that the boat was jumping waves and moving quickly through the water.
 
No one was following or chasing him, according to the witnesses' statements to police.
 
When his wife discovered that Aguiar was not home, she left messages on his cellphone warning him of the dangerous conditions that night and asking him to call her, police said.
 
While heading north in the Atlantic along Fort Lauderdale's coast and about four miles offshore, Aguiar began having steering trouble and could not maintain a true course. It was later found that the tie rod that enabled the twin outboard engines to work together was broken.
 
A marine engineering consultant studied the boat's GPS and data from its engines and found the boat had sped up and slowed down several times while the starboard engine was not being controlled.
 

There were two reported sightings of Aguiar: one at Miami International Airport and another at a Palm Beach hotel, but Fort Lauderdale police said those reports were inaccurate.
 
Perhaps the most significant clue: sworn statements by his wife and mother that they had not seen or heard from him and were not aware of anyone else might have had contact.
 
Speiser said the evidence, combined with Aguiar's perilous situation in the ocean, satisfied him that all available measures had been taken by authorities and attorneys to find him.
 
The petition to declare Aguiar dead says he accidentally fell overboard and drowned.