At an $18,000 loss, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday finally sold a Tallahassee home he co-owned with embattled friend, former Florida Rep. David Rivera,
according to Politico.
The buyer’s identity has not been disclosed, but the home was purchased for $117,000, significantly less than the 2005 purchase price of $135,000.
Rubio and Rivera bought the three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home when they both served in the Florida Legislature.
But it turned into a "house of horrors" for Rubio, according to the website, which noted that the home once flooded and fell into foreclosure proceedings in 2010 after the men failed to make their mortgage payment for five months. Rubio and Rivera maintained that they stopped paying because of a dispute with the bank. The foreclosure debacle occurred when Rubio, now a presidential candidate, was running for the U.S. Senate.
Rivera has been the subject of investigations into his personal and campaign finances,
The Miami Herald reported in April, causing another headache for Rubio, who has distanced himself from Rivera.
In 2014, a state administrative law judge sent a 37-page recommendation to the Florida Commission on Ethics.
Rivera, the judge found, had violated three state ethics laws between 2005 and 2009, "when Rivera appeared to be living off campaign money but failing to report his income properly."
According to Politico, Rivera has twice been named by the government as a co-conspirator in a case involving "secret money that his former girlfriend said he gave her to help a little-known candidate attack a rival."
Rivera has denied the allegations and has never been charged. He is appealing an April recommendation by the Florida Commission on Ethics that he should pay some $58,000 in fines for double-billing Florida taxpayers for travel when he was in the Florida Legislature.
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