By Dan Moffett
Delray Beach developer Anthony Pugliese III has lost another court decision in his fight to avoid paying $23.1 million to the estate of Subway restaurant founder Fred DeLuca.On April 10, the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected without comment Pugliese’s request for a new trial in the case of the failed partnership with DeLuca that once had grandiose plans for building a sprawling eco-city named Destiny on 41,000 acres near Yeehaw Junction.
West Palm Beach attorney Rick Hutchison called the appeal court ruling “definitive and the end of litigation” in what was a 10-year legal battle between the two businessmen. DeLuca died of leukemia at 67 four years ago, and his wife, Elisabeth, continued his case.
In 2015, Pugliese pleaded no contest to fraud and theft charges after admitting in court depositions that he created sham companies with phony addresses and fake invoices to siphon off about $1.2 million of DeLuca’s money. Pugliese served four months of a six-month jail sentence.
Pugliese and DeLuca had accused each other of fraud, with the developer suing the Subway magnate for $5 billion in civil court. Pugliese blamed DeLuca for an illegal financing scheme that allegedly profited him more than $20 million.
Each accused the other of stealing Destiny’s money and using it for lavish personal expenditures. But the courts have sided with DeLuca.
In 2017, after a five-week jury trial, a Palm Beach County circuit judge ruled that Pugliese should pay $4 million for breaching a contract with DeLuca and another $8.7 for civil theft. The balance of the $23.1 million bill, roughly $10.4 million, goes to cover DeLuca’s legal fees.
Pugliese, 72, could ask the Florida Supreme Court to consider the case but the terse rejection by the appeals court makes the prospects for getting a new trial seem unlikely.
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