MIAMI — When the Securities and Exchange Commission sued developer Rishi Kapoor in December, accusing him of defrauding investors in his real estate projects, the SEC’s lawsuit made no mention of his company’s consulting agreement with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

But that didn’t leave Suarez, who was not named as a defendant, entirely unscathed.

In April, Suarez was compelled under subpoena to give a sworn statement related to the Kapoor case, according to three people familiar with the matter. Although his statement under oath is not a public record, those familiar with Suarez’s testimony say he was questioned by SEC lawyers about his consulting contract with Kapoor to find investors for the developer’s real estate projects.

The mayor has refused to make public a copy of the contract since questions about his work for the developer became public last year, and instead said that there was no conflict of interest. The Miami Herald has previously reported that the mayor received a $10,000 monthly retainer but has now learned that he was also promised commissions if he helped woo investors, find real estate and secure financing for Kapoor’s projects in Miami and elsewhere.

Also notable: The agreement promised Suarez an equity stake in Kapoor’s company if he worked as a consultant for a certain period of time, though ultimately he did not receive it, according to people familiar with the contract and the developer’s business.

The date on the contract, which was executed in July 2021, when Suarez received his first $10,000 payment, appears to undermine the mayor’s long-standing claim that he has never mixed his public work with his private employment. A meeting between Suarez and Kapoor that was organized through official city channels and listed on Suarez’s mayoral calendar took place in late August 2021 on Kapoor’s yacht. By that point, the mayor had already received $20,000 from URBIN LLC, one of Kapoor’s former development companies, sources said.

Although the exact nature of Suarez’s statement to the SEC is unknown, the agency’s probe generally focuses on the mayor’s contract with the developer, the nature of his work and his compensation beyond the retainer. But the details of Suarez’s contract, and in particular its start date, are more broadly relevant as Miami-Dade County ethics officials, state prosecutors and federal authorities, including the FBI, investigate whether the mayor misused his public office for private gain.

Kapoor hired Suarez in July 2021 after more than a year of working the mayor’s channels at City Hall to push through legislation beneficial to one of the developer’s planned projects in Coconut Grove. The next month, the two met at the Cocoplum Yacht Club and went out on Kapoor’s yacht, according to public records and sources familiar with the meeting.

Kapoor said through his attorney that he did not discuss business with Suarez at the August rendezvous. But the timing of the meeting, in which Suarez spent two hours with Kapoor in what appears to be his mayoral capacity at a time he was also on the developer’s payroll, underscores a possible breach of the firewall Suarez is supposed to maintain between his public office and private employer, according to county ethics laws.

Suarez and his defense attorney, Armando Rosquete, did not respond to requests for comment on his statement to the SEC, the contract or the mayor’s yacht meeting with Kapoor.

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