Fraud charges dropped, developer sues FDLE agent

Mark Brivik, a former Sarasota real estate developer and major contributor to Republican causes, was jailed in 2009 for 24 days on charges of fraud and securities violations.

Those charges were later dropped, and this week he sued the state investigator and the businessmen he holds responsible for the allegations.

Brivik, in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Tampa's U.S. District Court, accused Claudia Law, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent who brought the case against him, of conducting a botched investigation that ruined his career.

He also named seven members of his former investment group in the lawsuit.

Agent Law, the lawsuit says, "performed a reckless investigation, which ultimately led to Mr. Brivik's wrongful arrest and incarceration."

The agent's allegations were reviewed by the State Attorney's Office in Sarasota, the lawsuit says, and the case was terminated.

Brivik was arrested on 23 felony charges of defrauding investors out of millions in a failed land deal in Manatee County.

Brivik's attorney, Chicago-based Blake Horwitz, said Florida agents often don't have the knowledge to investigate complicated transactions. Cases such as this one, he said, should be reviewed by the State Attorney's Office before an arrest is made.

"Agents are not lawyers but have an unfettered ability to lodge powerful charges which can throw innocent civilians in jail," said Horwitz, who specializes in complex business and federal civil-rights litigation.

Horwitz said Brivik's real estate deals were complicated but legal. Law, he said, "so profoundly misunderstood the nature of the transaction that she interpreted traditional business dealings as illegal activity."

Law did not return a call seeking comment.

Keith Kemeg, FDLE spokesman, said the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation.

FDLE and the state of Florida are not named as defendants in the lawsuit, Horwitz said, because of the sovereign immunity clause in the U.S. Constitution.

Also named in the suit were John Murray, Steve Murray, Joseph Russo, Richard Zimmerman, Ronald Carr, Andre Panet-Raymond and Abraham Smajovits. The investors, Horwitz said, presented false information to FDLE to use Brivik as a "scapegoat to blow up a real estate deal which became less desirable after a nationwide economic downturn."

That's not true, said defendant Panet-Raymond, who told the Tribune on Friday that Brivik stole $750,000 from him. He said he's not worried about being named in the lawsuit.

"If the information we have stacked up against him can't prove him guilty, then he certainly couldn't prove us guilty," Panet-Raymond said.

The other investors could not be reached for comment Friday.

Horwitz said the "false charges" not only resulted in Brivik's incarceration but also in intense news coverage.

"This is a man who was respected, had dinner with President Bush," Horwitz said. "This case profoundly affected his ability to go into business transactions because he was displayed as a while-collar criminal."

Before the charges, Brivik was respected in the community, Horwitz said.

From 2001 to 2006, Brivik contributed $17,300 to Republican causes, including congressional candidates Gus Bilirakis and Vern Buchanan, according to the Federal Elections Commission donor website.

Brivik seeks a trial by jury and compensatory damages for "emotional pain and suffering" and a "significant financial loss."