(Photo: Carl Lender – Creative Commons License)
After a price reduction of almost $2 million, televangelist Edir Macedo’s Florida beach condo was sold for $13 million, reports the Redfin real estate website.
Macedo may own additional property in the United States. One property database indicates Macedo’s family owns a $10.7 million beach condo. However, the Miami-Dade County assessor lists the owner as a mysterious LLC with unnamed managers.
Macedo, head of Brazil’s Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), is ranked 1947th on the Forbes Magazine Billionaires List with an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion.
The beach condo is located in the exclusive Porsche Design Tower, a luxury highrise that cost $560 million when constructed. In 2013, The Real Deal reported, “Nearly two dozen of the homes — 22 — under contract will belong to billionaires.”
The Porsche Design Tower is famous for its patented car elevator which lifts autos to a garage on the floor where the resident resides. Macedo lived on the 40th floor.
By using a Durable Real Estate Power of Attorney, TV executive Wilon Cardoso acted on Macedo’s behalf to sell the Miami condo.
Cardoso serves as CEO of Macedo’s Record Enterprise Television Inc. Macedo’s Record is the second most watched TV network in Brazil.
In addition to leading a church denomination and TV network, Macedo also owns Banco Renner, a Brazilian bank.
In 2009, Macedo was arrested for allegedly embezzling church money and engaging in international money laundering, but the Brazilian government was unable to obtain a conviction.
Following the arrest, the Associated Press reported, “Sao Paulo state’s prosecutors office alleged in a statement that Macedo and the others took more than $2 billion in donations from 2003 to 2008 alone, but charged that the alleged scheme went back 10 years.”
The Associated Press also reported, “Prosecutors said the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God receives nearly $800 million in donations every year from faithful in 4,500 temples across Brazil. The church claims to have nearly 8 million followers in Brazil and many more around the world.”
Trinity Foundation’s Pastor Planes (Instagram and X/Twitter) project tracks four private aircraft, three registered in Brazil and one in America, owned by Macedo’s church: Bombardier Global Express, Falcon 2000EX, Embraer EMB-505 and Gulfstream G280.
Besides traveling in Brazil, the church jets also make flights to Portugal and Israel.