Leo Govoni, the Clearwater businessman accused by state officials of stealing more than $2 million from medical trust funds, has agreed to sell 11 properties in Florida and Kentucky to replace the missing funds, court records show.
Under a new court injunction, liens of $200,000 will be placed on six properties in Pinellas and Charlotte counties and five in Woodford County, Kentucky. After the properties are sold, the proceeds including the payments to lift the liens will be placed in an account so that trust fund holders can move their trusts to another administrator or take control of their money.
Even if Govoni is successful at repaying the missing money, that will not resolve civil charges against him, said Kylie Mason, a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General. In court records, state officials have cited potential violations of the Florida Anti-Fencing Act’s section on theft, the Florida Deceptive and the Unfair Trade Practices Act.
“This is a preliminary order: it secures (through liens) the value of what has been alleged to have been taken,” Mason said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times. “The defendants have agreed to not only secure the properties, but sell them. It does not prevent other sources from paying damages once the merits of the case have been adjudicated.”
The attorney general’s office in May asked a Pinellas judge to freeze the assets and bank accounts of Govoni and two other employees of the Directed Benefits Foundation, a Clearwater nonprofit that administered 46 trust funds set up to pay for medical care and other expenses for disabled and injured people. In a civil complaint, prosecutors accused Govoni of taking more than $2 million from the trust funds.
![Leo Govoni, right, is accused in bankruptcy records of taking $100 million in an unpaid loan from medical trust funds set up for the disabled and injured. The funds were being managed by the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, a St. Petersburg nonprofit that Govoni founded along with attorney John Stanunton, left. .](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 620 466"/%3E "Leo Govoni, right, is accused in bankruptcy records of taking $100 million in an unpaid loan from medical trust funds set up for the disabled and injured. The funds were being managed by the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, a St. Petersburg nonprofit that Govoni founded along with attorney John Stanunton, left. .")
In a separate care, Govoni is accused in federal bankruptcy records of orchestrating a $100 million unpaid loan to his own company from the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, another nonprofit handling trust funds. The loan was taken from trust funds belonging to more than 1,500 people with profound disabilities and injuries, court records state.
The trustee presiding over the center’s bankruptcy has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Govoni’s assets because of his role as guarantor of the $100 million loan. Including interest, the trustee said Govoni owes the center $142 million, court records show.
It’s unclear if the 11 properties Govoni has agreed to sell would also be among those Michael Goldberg, the court appointed bankruptcy trustee, is also pursuing. Goldberg did not respond to an email seeking clarification as of publication deadline.
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The properties include townhomes, single-family homes and two warehouses. One in Punta Gorda is leased by Kozma Welding and Fabrication. It is listed as being owned by Big Storm Real Estate LLC. The other is a 22,000 square-foot warehouse on Daniel Drive in Clearwater valued at $1.3 million.
The combined value of the properties is $3.8 million, according to property appraiser records.
A financial adviser, Govoni founded the center in 2000 and grew it into one of the biggest trust fund administrators in the nation. He quit the organization in 2009 but retained control of it, court records show. Soon after, the nonprofit started a $2.5 million line of credit to his Boston Finance Group firm that ballooned to $100 million within three years.
In the years that followed, Govoni bought a private jet worth roughly $3.4 million in 2014 and kept a pilot on staff for seven years, the Tampa Bay Times has found. He flew friends to his executive suite at the Kentucky Derby and donated more than $900,000 to politicians and political committees.
Along with his son, LJ Govoni, he also purchased Big Storm Brewing and made the firm one of the fastest-growing craft beer businesses in Florida. The business has struggled in the past year, closing five tap rooms since September.
