Builder Pugliese owes $23M over failed land deal

South Florida real estate developer Anthony Pugliese III is on the hook for $23 million from court orders over a failed green community project south of Orlando, after a judge’s ruling Friday.

The money is owed to the estate of Subway restaurants co-creator Frederick DeLuca, who was Pugliese’s former business partner in the aborted venture from a decade ago.

Called “Destiny” and pitched as larger in scale than Walt Disney World, the project spawned only lawsuits between DeLuca and Pugliese, with the developer once claiming he was entitled to $20 billion in damages.

But a trial early last year resulted in nothing for the 71-year-old Pugliese. The jury instead awarded about $12.8 million, plus 5 percent interest per year, to the DeLuca side for damages tied to fraud and civil theft violations and contract breach claims.

On Friday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele issued a final order that DeLuca’s attorneys with the Holland & Knight firm should receive nearly $10.3 million in attorney’s fees and costs over the protracted litigation.

Pugliese’s attorneys have said their client has no intention of digging into his wallet in light of pending appeals in the case.

“We’re not going to write a check to anyone, anytime soon,” Edgar Belaval Jr., litigation manager for Pugliese, said last summer.

Efforts to reach Belaval by email and phone call Friday were unsuccessful.

Rick Hutchison, attorney for DeLuca’s estate, said the judge awarded the full amount of attorney’s fees and trial costs that was requested.

“The DeLuca parties are pleased with the result and appreciate the hard work of the jury and the court,” he said.

DeLuca was 67 when he died of leukemia in 2015.

That same year, Pugliese and his business manager, Joseph Reamer, pleaded no contest to felony fraud charges connected to the same project.

Pugliese was slapped with a six-month jail sentence, 10 years of probation, and an order to pay DeLuca $1.2 million. Reamer, 59, was punished with a four-year probation term.

Prosecutors filed the charges in 2012 based on DeLuca’s allegations that Pugliese and Reamer created fake companies and used phony billings to steal from DeLuca.

The money went to expenses at Pugliese’s oceanfront mansion in the town of Gulf Stream, including an $11,000 “moat chilling machine” to cool a pond to keep fish alive, records show.

Pugliese and Reamer have testified they diverted the money into a reserve account because DeLuca had been wavering on his investment in the project planned for 41,000 undeveloped acres in Osceola and Indian River counties.