TAMPA – The Clearwater businessman, accused of receiving $100 million from the Medical Trust Fund in court records, was found on Friday’s light empty because he has not worked with a bankruptcy lawyer trying to document his finances.
Federal bankruptcy judge Roberta Colton ordered Leo Govoni to pay a $5,000 fine every day for not following court orders to provide personal and company financial records.
She gave a May 12 deadline and followed suit to ensure compliance before beginning a U.S. District Court criminal comment extension. Govoni also needs to pay legal fees for the time his lawyer has pursued his records.
The discovery stems from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings filed in February 2024 by the Special Needs Trust Management Centre, a St. Petersburg nonprofit organization established by Govoni to administer a trust fund for people with disabilities. Court records show that the nonprofit has given Govoni’s Boston Finance Group a $100 million line of credit.
The funds were not repaid leaving the trust fund holder without funds for medical and living expenses. Govoni is under investigation by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A court order was introduced in March that ordered him to prepare the document after Govoni failed to comply with a subpoena issued until September by the legal team that worked for bankruptcy councillor Michael Goldberg.
Govoni was given two opportunities to go to his business office. He is prohibited from entering a court order to obtain the documents sought for it. Tax returns, personal assets lists, and his many companies’ assets were one of the required documents.
Colton suffered from criticism of Govoni and said the violation of the court order, which his own lawyer agreed to, was terrible.
“The allegations that he didn’t know what he needed fall into deaf ears in this courthouse,” she said.
Govoni submitted a fact sheet for his personal finances, but omitted the names of the companies he previously testified to have ownership in court. He also did not mention the trust of the family, which was founded in 2018.
Colton described the document as “a total waste of paper.”
“It’s amazing to be given under the vows,” she said.
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