Florida's Shady LLC Loopholes

How Anonymous LLCs create sketchy political optics

This Wednesday, Sarasota’s Board of County Commissioners will be voting on the DR Horton Proposal to build 170 homes at the corner of Raymond Road and Palmer Blvd. The land is currently zoned for a farm, and it’s adjacent to the environmentally sensitive Celery Fields. To make matters worse, the property in question was seriously flooded after Tropical Storm Debby hit in August.

Flooding after Tropical Storm Debby, where DR Horton is proposing to build 170 houses

The site is in County Commission District 1 - Commissioner Teresa Mast’s district. Teresa and Jon Mast have been active lobbyists for our local building industry. Mast’s professional ties to the building industry have some residents who closely watch local government wondering if she has close ties to DR Horton. One source approached me with records of such a connection - a transaction between the Masts and DR Horton.

A closer look revealed additional connections to Jim Turner’s Hi Hat Ranch and an executive of Carlos Beruff’s Medallion Homes. Turner and Beruff were among the prominent landowners/developers out front advocating for reversing the Sarasota 2050 plan standards back in 2014. What did the Mast/DR Horton transaction reveal? Does it say anything about whether Mast can be objective about the DR Horton proposal coming up for a vote this week? You decide.

Teresa and Jon Mast purchased a lot from DR Horton for $125,000 in 2020, mortgaged the property, built a home there in 2022, and sold the property for nearly $3 million in 2023.

Details surrounding the transaction illustrate how Florida LLC incorporation can be engineered to provide anonymity. An anonymous LLC obscured the identity of the person(s) who bought the Mast Hi Hat Ranch home in 2023.

A few years ago it seemed there were only two states in the US where a corporation could register without naming a person or persons owning/managing the business - Wyoming and Delaware. Now, in Florida, there are LLCs that name absolutely no human owner. What are the ramifications for conflicts of interest, undue influence or even outright graft? When states fail to require transparent corporate ownership, obscuring the identity of parties to a transaction is easy. I’ve written about political donors using anonymous LLCs in Florida. This transaction shows how a Florida LLC served as a tool to create an anonymous real estate buyer.

Here’s how:

Records indicate that the Masts purchased vacant land (Lot 22 in “The Forest” in Hi Hat Ranch) from DR Horton in June 2020 for $125,000.

In September 2021, Teresa and Jon Mast were provided a mortgage by Dave Wick for $400,000. Dave Wick is a Vice President with Carlos Beruff’s Medallion Homes. The property, Lot 22, Forest at Hi Hat Ranch was mortgaged, granted and conveyed by the borrowers, the Masts, to the lender, Mr. Wick.

In February 2022, Mr. David Wick filed a Satisfaction of Mortgage with Sarasota County, attesting he had received full payment from the Masts and the $400,000 mortgage was satisfied.

Also in February 2022, Teresa and Jon Mast took out a mortgage from lender SouthState Bank for $450,000. The same property, Lot 22, Forest at Hi Hat Ranch was mortgaged, granted and conveyed by the borrowers, the Masts, to the lender, SouthState Bank.

The Masts built a 3 bedroom, 4.5 bath, 3300+ square foot home on their Hi Hat Ranch lot, which was completed in 2022.

On January 2, 2023 Teresa Mast filed her “Statement of Candidate” to run for Sarasota County Commissioner, District 1. On the same day, she appointed her campaign treasurer, Eric Robinson, and designated the bank for her campaign account.

An anonymous LLC using the Masts’ Hi Hat Ranch street address as its name was incorporated in late April 2023.

In May 2023, Teresa and Jon Mast sold the home at Lot 22, Forest at Hi Hat Ranch to the anonymous LLC with the same name as their Hi Hat Ranch property address. It’s a name “123 Elm St LLC”. I won’t use the actual name, because someone else lives at that address now.

According to the Sarasota County records, on May 30, 2023, the Masts’ Hi Hat Ranch home was sold for $2.7 million dollars to the anonymous “123 Em St LLC” LLC.

Also on May 30, 2023, Teresa and Jon Mast purchased a 3300+ square foot home in the Founders Club for $1.85 million.

In June 2023, SouthState bank recorded a Satisfaction of Mortgage indicating the Masts had paid the $450,000 mortgage in full.

In July 2023, the same Lot 22 Forest Hi Hat Ranch property was transferred for $100 to a married couple. The transfer quit claim deed paperwork indicates that the husband owned the anonymous LLC and was transferring ownership to himself and his wife.

In June 2024 Teresa Mast filed her candidate oath, almost 17 months after filing as a candidate in January 2023.

Mast also filed her candidate Financial Disclosure in June 2024, a full 17 months after she filed to run. Teresa Mast included her and her husband’s new Founders Club residence in her financial disclosure, which she valued at just over $1.4 million. Recall the purchase price was $1.85 million in May 2023. Mast reported her total assets at just over $1.5 million. She reported no liabilities.

I’ve never seen a local candidate who delayed 17 months to file their candidate oath and financial disclosure. Worth noting: the Candidate Oath and Financial Disclosure require the candidate’s address.

The anonymous LLC “123 Elm St LLC” (again, not the actual LLC name/2020-2023 Mast Hi Hat Ranch address) existed for one year only. No 2024 annual report was filed, and the entity was dissolved for lack of an annual report in September 2024. These facts suggest that the sole purpose of incorporation was for the LLC to serve as an anonymous purchasing vehicle for the Mast’s Hi Hat ranch property. Which is strange, because in two months the LLC transferred ownership to a married couple. The husband was the sole owner of the LLC, though you would never find that information on Sunbiz. Are these anonymous LLC entities serving the public interest?

The Anonymous LLC that the Masts sold to has an address in St. Pete….

The address for the anonymous LLC which bought the Mast’s Hi Hat Ranch home is 7901 4th St. N, Suite 300, St Petersburg, FL. Hundreds, likely thousands of LLCs are incorporated at this building address. I stopped counting after about 500, and at that point I had only looked LLCs at this address with names starting with the number 1 , and some starting with the number 2. The remaining LLCs starting with 2, and those starting with 3-9, , as well as all LLCs at with names beginning with A-Z are NOT included in my count of over 500 LLCs. By all appearances, 7901 4th St N is an address with many thousands of LLCs registered there. It’s a staggering number. I’ve never seen so many LLCs at the same building address.

7901 4th St N, St Petersburg, FL

Just for fun,I figured I’d see if there are any Florida campaign donors at the same building address.

Yes, there are political donors at the 7901 4th St N Suite 300 address, including “Knock Doors Inc” (they say they do political canvassing). “Knock Doors Inc” contributed over $104,000 to the Florida political committee “Putting Florida First”. “Knock Doors Inc” was the ONLY donor to the political committee “Putting Florida First”. That money remained parked in the PAC “Putting Florida First”. It was never spent. The PAC is now closed, and the State of Florida did not require “Putting Florida First” to account for where those dollars went. The PAC did not have to zero out its books. Apparently you can park money in a Florida political committee and it can just evaporate. Not the first time I’ve seen and reported on this Florida loophole.

Why does the State of Florida permit this? Did that 100K go to line to pockets of politicians tax free? Did it go to charities for the homeless? Who knows? The State of Florida certainly isn’t keeping tabs on this.

By the way, “Knock Doors Inc” is incorporated by a person named Riley Park whose listed address is the same - 7901 4th St N Suite 300 in St Pete.

Curious about the building that houses hundreds of LLCs, I looked up the owner of the building, which is an LLC as well The company, Baywest LLC, lists itself as a Foreign Limited Liability firm, incorporated in Wyoming, applying to be an LLC in Florida. There is another corporation listed as the registered agent, with a signature that does not match the name of the human being listed as the manager (Riley Park).

Back to Commissioner Mast….

and her connections to developers and developer donors. Clearly the Masts have many contacts in the development industry. If you are in real estate, flipping houses is a way to make good money. The Masts are definitely in a position to know a lot about the local real estate market.

But Florida’s shady LLC loopholes do nothing to instill confidence in candidates and public officials who engage in transactions with dummy LLCs. When a dummy LLC uses a candidate’s address to name their dummy LLC and then makes a multi-million dollar purchase of the same property at that namesake address - a purchase that is well timed to benefit the candidate and the optics of a political run - those circumstances may raise eyebrows, raise questions, and erode public trust. What is the big deal? Why the secrecy? The husband who utilitzed the anonymous LLC to buy the property, and then transfer ownership to himself and his wife must have had his reasons.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these transaction is that a Medallion Homes executive personally provided a mortgage to the Masts.

It will be up to the public, to Teresa Mast’s constituents, to hold her accountable for her vote on this DR Horton proposal, as well as future development votes. The residents of Sarasota County are challenged with inadequate and aging infrastructure, flooding, traffic, and environmental degradation. In the context of those important decisions, decisions which impact the home values and quality of life of Sarasota’s citizens, the ethics of local officials making these important local decisions warrant scrutiny.

“Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen.”

— Dwight D. Eisenhower