Florida corporate landlord with ties to Hermès heirs settles PPP fraud case
Four years ago, residents in the lower-income, largely Black and Hispanic Tampa neighborhoods near Busch Gardens were surprised when journalists knocked on their doors and told them their rental homes were partially owned by the ultra-rich Hermès family, heirs to a global luxury fashion empire thousands of miles away.
Now, the investment company behind those rental houses and its founder have signed a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that they knowingly committed fraud to acquire a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
That’s because a whistleblower and former partner at the company, which owns homes across the state including in Fort Lauderdale, has been working with the government, trying to root out what he says is greed upon greed: A company that financially benefited from Florida’s pandemic-era housing shortage also took taxpayer money to help it expand its business.
Thibault Adrien and the company he founded, Lafayette RE Management LLC , agreed as part of the settlement to pay the government $680,000, roughly equal to the amount of Paycheck Protection Program loans the company and its property management affiliate received in the spring of 2020. Both loans were forgiven the following year. The property management company was not named in the settlement.
But the whistleblower, Jesus Nunez-Unda, says it’s not about the dollar amount.
“Even if the theft here is less than a million dollars, it’s something that is having a cascading effect on the people of Florida, because it impacts their housing,” he said in an interview. Nunez-Unda worked for the company for about two years, according to court records, and filled out the company’s applications for government relief loans as part of his duties.
Lafayette’s government help came as the company was raising rents in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and other key markets in the South, court records show.
Under the terms of the settlement, Lafayette didn’t admit liability. The company maintains that it was eligible to receive the loans.
“In the interest of avoiding protracted litigation and engaging legal fees that would have exceeded the amount of the loans, Lafayette – like many others – opted to resolve the matter by settling with the Department of Justice without any admission of liability or wrongdoing,” the company said in a statement.
The company also said the whistleblower complaint that led to the settlement was filed by “a disgruntled former employee who was in charge of leading the application and forgiveness processes for the PPP loans, and reflects what Lafayette believes to be Unda’s personal vendetta against the firm and the individual that terminated Unda’s employment.”
Homes as corporate assets
Four years ago, the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald revealed the Hermès family’s stake in more than a thousand Florida rental homes, which had become public thanks to a new transparency law in Luxembourg. The tiny European country had long been a haven for the ultra-wealthy to stash their fortunes because of favorable tax conditions and confidentiality.
But the new law allowed an international group of journalists, in collaboration with reporters at the French newspaper Le Monde, to shed light on how the wealthy move their money around the globe in ways invisible to everyday people, even as the investments touch aspects of their lives like the homes where they live.
In the cache of records, three heirs to the Hermès fortune, Julie Guerrand, Blaise Guerrand and Édouard Guerrand, were listed as beneficial owners of a Luxembourg holding company under the umbrella of Lafayette Real Estate. The company has used the funds provided by investors like the Hermès heirs to buy houses — though it created other, smaller companies to make those purchases. It began buying homes after the Great Recession, when the glut of foreclosed houses were sold to investors for pennies on the dollar and corporate homeownership began to take hold nationwide.
The ritzy allure of the French fashion brand contrasts with the modest homes it owns in Tampa, many of which offer around 1,000 square feet and have chain-link fences lining their front yards.
On Hermès’ website, customers can browse luxury goods like a $1,025 men’s belt or a $910 chihuahua-sized raincoat (those fit for larger canines cost more). The company’s signature Birkin handbags have gone for hundreds of thousands at auction – more than the value of many homes in Lafayette’s real estate portfolio.
The Hermès family downplayed its involvement in the real estate company when previously asked about it by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. Lafayette told reporters, with approval from the family, that the heirs’ stake amounted to less than 3% of the company’s assets.
But the whistleblower’s complaint against the company, which was recently unsealed in federal court, reveals that Édouard Guerrand was on the advisory board of one of the real estate funds used to purchase homes. And a separate filing by Nunez-Unda in a related New York lawsuit showed he told the Hermès heir and other members of the fund’s board about Lafayette’s alleged wrongdoing before the federal government got involved.
Representatives for the Hermès family did not respond to emails requesting comment. The statement from Lafayette said that none of the advisory board members of the fund “have any involvement” in the operations of the company that settled with the government.
The legal battles between the real estate firm and its former employee are ongoing. Nunez-Unda’s lawsuit in New York claims the company owes him money. Nunez-Unda is entitled to about $130,000 of the settlement amount paid by Lafayette to the U.S. government, an arrangement that is typical of whistleblower lawsuits.
A statement from Lafayette immediately after the settlement hinted at more possible legal action, saying it believes “Nunez-Unda has also engaged in defamation” and the company and its founder “will fully enforce their rights in this regard.”
But as these fights continue, the resulting court records provide insight into the workings of the corporate landlord industry, one that has fallen under increased scrutiny as housing affordability has plummeted in Florida.
Nunez-Unda said Lafayette targets a specific demographic for its customer base.
“Through data, they sort of perfectly calibrate, ‘OK, our niche is the firefighter married to the elementary school teacher, who … are never going to be rich enough to buy their own homes,’” he said.
The corporate purchasing of homes nationwide has for years stirred criticism among affordable housing advocates that companies are boxing regular people out of homeownership in their own neighborhoods. That’s because the companies are armed with advantages, like Wall Street connections and big bank accounts, that can make competing with them difficult for regular buyers. A Republican state lawmaker filed a bill this week making it harder for Wall Street-backed landlords to buy Florida homes, citing concerns about rising costs to residents.
Lafayette has responded to criticism of the industry by saying it fills a crucial need in underserved communities by offering affordable, quality rental housing, including for those not able to buy.
“The fact that home ownership is much more expensive than renting … is a reality that Lafayette neither created nor controls,” the company said.
Lafayette has also expanded into the build-for-rent industry, buying empty land to construct homes to lease. In November, the company announced its 15th build-for-rent deal in a year with the purchase of a swath of land in New Port Richey.
More than a third of the homes Lafayette owns are in Florida, with 17% concentrated in the Tampa market.
More ammunition
While investigations for improper Paycheck Protection Program loans have become almost commonplace — a federal report estimated 70,000 of the more than 11 million forgivable small business loans may have been fraudulent — there are aspects of this settlement that lawyers said stand out.
To get the loan, Lafayette had to certify that ongoing economic uncertainty could threaten its operations, and the company would use the money to stay afloat.
But proving that a company took out a loan it didn’t really need is not an easy task, said Derek Adams, a former federal prosecutor who has extensively tracked pandemic loan fraud cases. He said this case was rare in the way it revolved around a dispute over the company’s financial need.
“It’s about the mindset and the intent of the organization,” Adams said.
In the federal complaint filed by Nunez-Unda, he alleges that Adrien, the CEO, acknowledged in writing that the pandemic would likely help the business more than hurt it, even as the company applied for government help.
Days before and after Lafayette applied for its pandemic relief loan, court records show Adrien, who is French American, sent emails to other company officials expressing bullishness about the single-family rental home sector. Adrien also discussed the “opportunity,” to invest in stocks of one of Lafayette’s competitors, Invitation Homes, the complaint said.
After Lafayette received the government loan, the company submitted an offer to acquire a national mortgage loan corporation, paying more than $1 million in legal and financing fees in the process, Nunez-Unda alleged. Also in 2020, the property management arm of the business opened four offices, according to the complaint.
The company contends that its loans were used only for allowable expenses, and later investments came after it had a better read on the financial landscape. While it was optimistic about the long-term strength of its business when it applied for the forgivable loans, the company said, it was less certain about the immediate future when pandemic-induced unemployment threatened tenants’ ability to pay rent.
“There were serious short- and medium-term concerns,” the company said.
The $680,000 settlement amount represents roughly a fifth of the company’s $3.5 million annual revenue, according to court records. That revenue figure is based on fees the management company receives and does not include profits from other parts of the company.
Adams, the former federal prosecutor, said the Lafayette settlement could lead to more cases against companies suspected of taking out forgivable loans they didn’t need, with other whistleblowers now able to use this case as a model.
“It gives a little bit of ammunition,” he said.
Tampa Bay Times staff photojournalist Douglas R. Clifford contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
