Billionaire Guma Aguiar Missing at Sea

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guma-aguiarA search is under way for a boater whose vessel came ashore on Fort Lauderdale beach in the early morning hours Wednesday.

Missing is Guma Aguiar, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale Police and the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Aguiar is a businessman who made a fortune in oil and gas interests. He is also a philanthropist who has contributed millions to Jewish and Israeli charities and in 2009, co-sponsored a soccer team there called Beitar Jerusalem.

Aguiar’s 31-foot, center console Jupiter boat, the T.T. Zion, a tender for the yacht Zion, landed on the sand east of East Las Olas Boulevard around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, with its navigation lights on and engines still running, police said.

Good Samaritans reported the beaching of the boat, officials said.

The Coast Guard said it matched Aguiar’s vessel to another report, that Aguiar took his boat out at approximately 7 p.m. Tuesday and had not returned.

Aguiar’s wife Jaime Aguiar told Fort Lauderdale Police that she is concerned for her husband’s safety, Detective Travis Mandell said Wednesday.

She arrived home Tuesday and believed her husband was in his home office, Mandell said. She told investigators an employee of the couple told her that her husband went out on his boat around 7:30 that night, and had not been seen since.

The Coast Guard, Broward Sheriff’s and Fort Lauderdale Police marine units are searching area waterways and three miles offshore, between Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and Port Everglades, officials said.

One of Aguiar’s attorneys, Fred Haddad, said his client is knowledgeable about boats.

“I’m just kind of dumbfounded,” said Haddad when he learned about the missing person report. “I really like the guy. He’s as nice as they come.”

Fort Lauderdale Police also searched the beach aboard ATVs, Mandell said.

Before dawn, Aguiar’s boat was pulled from the sand into the ocean by SeaTow for storage at its Fort Lauderdale warehouse.

{WPTV/Matzav.com Newscenter}


6 COMMENTS

  1. He sold his company (Lior Energy) for 2.55 billion dollars and he was a fifty percent owner, so he definitely was a pre tax billionaire (his share was $1,275,000,000). Regardless, he is a very unique neshomo with a heart of gold which has given tzedoko with great generosity.

  2. “wow”, do a little googling. Gum a sold Leor for 2.55 BILLION. He owned half. Even if he didn’t make another dime and spent 250 million he would be a billionaire NOT millionaire.

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