Fanjuls and U.S. Century Bank: connections that rarely surface ... by gimleteye

Pepe Fanjul

Florida's billionaire sugar barons, the Fanjuls, are in the news despite best efforts to stay off any but the social pages of Vanity Fair or Women's Wear Daily. The Palm Beach Post has a couple of blistering stories this week that lay bare the bruising politics that keep policies intact to enrich Big Sugar at the expense of consumers-- not to mention the environment (Everglades) and public health. The Post story is based on information disclosed by Wikileaks.
The Post notes: "Pepe Fanjul, 67, was one of a handful of donors who raised more than $100,000 for Bush's second presidential campaign." The Fanjul connections are legendary on the Democratic side, too: Alfie, Pepe's brother, was famously on the phone with President Clinton when his aide, Monica Lewinsky, was paying attention to the president. 

But the Fanjuls have other close associations that are nearly as frictionless. Another of the $100,000 Bush Rangers in Florida: Sergio Pino in Miami, founder of the cratered empire surrounding housing in platted subdivisions and U.S. Century Bank. Although Pino's fortunes have hit a rough patch, he and fellow directors of US Century represent the hubris of the housing bubble and the mad rush to put more suburban sprawl in farmland and Everglades wetlands. Pino is also one of the long-time inside players in Miami-Dade County politics.

The Fanjuls have a natural affinity for a vertically integrated lobbying machine that preserves, protects, and maintains their rights to build cities or rock mines or whatever they want in the Everglades Agricultural Area, an enormous block of land south of Lake Okeechobee. Joe Klock, the longtime attorney for Fanjul related sugar interests, jumps to the billionaire's defense in the Post series. Klock is a name partner in the law firm founded by Ramon Rasco, who is also chairman of U.S. Century Bank. Both Pino and Rasco were heavily involved in the leadership of the Latin Builders Association. Klock joined the firm three years ago. Rasco is a major background player in such fiascos as the Homestead Air Force Base conversion by HABDI; a project that he guided and cost Miami-Dade taxpayers tens of millions of dollars through the dedication of county staff resources. 

The Post notes that the Fanjuls, "Helped kill former Gov. Charlie Crist’s push to buy nearly 200,000 acres owned by rival U.S. Sugar for Everglades restoration. Proposed a 14,000-acre new town west of Wellington in 2004 to attract The Scripps Research Institute. Co-owners of a proposed reservoir west of Wellington, now part of Palm Beach Aggregates rock pits." A related story in the Palm Beach Post details how the Fanjul's manipulation of US farm policy has made the family vastly wealthy. 

Having Klock, an attorney so closely connected to the Fanjuls and Big Sugar, is a countervailing force to the cratered fortunes of U.S. Century Bank; a bank that in EOM's view ought to have been shuttered by the FDIC long ago. ProPublica recently wrote an extensive investigative story on the bank. ("Florida Bank, Used as ATM by Insiders, Won TARP Loan But Now Teeters, Oct. 19, 2011) 


U.S. Century, the Fanjuls, and the ongoing efforts by Big Sugar to foist the costs of pollution onto the backs of taxpayers: it's quite a story. Use our search button to find more.