Since 2001, seven have sued over failure to repay loan or investment.

 A Gainesville doctor took a second mortgage on his house to make a $100,000 business loan to Sarasota developer Rod Connelly.

It seemed like a good deal: 18 months at 20 percent interest.

Two years later, Robert Erickson and his wife had not seen a dime. After they learned that the project in which they had invested was dead, and that Connelly never mentioned that fact, they asked for their money back.

The Ericksons, like others before them, had to go to court to get it.

Since 2001, seven people have sued Connelly or one of his business entities over failure to repay a loan or investment.

Yet the Australian-born developer is no fly-by-night. He has worked in Sarasota since the late 1970s. He has a visible track record.

Midnight Cove on Siesta Key. Ashton Lakes. Oaks Plaza. The Centerpointe office building downtown.

Connelly's company, Civix, made headlines in late 2005 when a Sarasota County jury stopped its effort to develop the Sunrise Golf Club. Residents of the surrounding Sunrise neighborhood had produced a long-term lease that guaranteed the golf course would remain territory for long drives.

Less visible than his development activities is Connelly's way of attracting people to investments and avoiding ruin when the deals go sour.

He is built like a bulldog with a squat stature and jowls. He is polite. When a reporter who he knows has been asking questions shows up in his office, he readily sits down to talk.

Connelly points out that most of the litigation against him has been settled or dismissed. (One suit, filed in September, is pending.)

"These kind of guys -- there've only been four or five," he said during an interview in his downtown office, referring to the people who have sued him.

He prefers to keep the discussion general. Civix finances its activities through investors, but he does not want to talk about who they are or where he finds them.

"People call us. People come to us. They know what we're doing. It's just through contacts, business contacts," he said.

"They're private individuals," he said. "They've invested a lot of money through us, and they've received good returns."

Devil in the details

The Ericksons made what boils down to a handshake deal.

They had met Connelly's longtime associate and real estate broker, Terry Dorman, through the Amway distribution network. They became so close to Dorman that they put him in their wills as guardian of their children.

Robert Erickson, who runs a preventive medicine center, was looking for a way to recoup savings lost to a long illness.

"Terry knew this. He had been like a brother," Judy Erickson said.

Dorman and Connelly talked to the Ericksons about investing in a Sarasota condo or a shopping center on Bee Ridge Road, but those deals did not go forward. Then they presented a bank and medical office in Port Charlotte, saying they needed $100,000 for a down payment.

"I said, 'Terry, if this man is that successful ... why doesn't he just go to the bank and borrow the money?'" Robert Erickson recalled asking about Connelly. "Terry said, 'It's a cash-flow problem. He's got multiple projects going on. He's stretched.'

"There was just enough truth in that."

So Erickson took a second mortgage on his house and wired the money in November 2001. About a month later, he received a memo labeled "loan agreement."

The conditions listed the borrower as "Civix Holding II LLC."

Erickson didn't remember any mention of a limited liability company.

He called Dorman, who reassured him. "Basically, everything was OK with the deal and not to worry, and that the money was secured by the property," Erickson said in a 2005 affidavit.

The security that Dorman mentioned was not backed by a recorded lien or mortgage.

Later, Erickson said in the affidavit, he found out the deal was dead; that the bank selling the Port Charlotte property was suing Civix Holdings II for default money; and that Civix Holdings II did not exist at the time the Ericksons made their loan.

The Ericksons filed their suit in Sarasota County in September 2003 and reached a settlement in spring 2006, just as the case was headed for trial. The Ericksons said they received their $100,000 but no interest.

Latest round

Roman Ofenito is the son of a late Venice retiree who sued Civix and Connelly in September for repayment of his father's money. The first hearing in the Sarasota County case is scheduled for today.

Ofenito said he warned his father, Albert Ofenito, against the deal, but he didn't learn the details of it until after his father's death last May.

In his father's papers, Ofenito found a memo labeled "promissory note." Civix Holdings promised to repay $450,000 at 17.5 percent interest in six months.

"That right there makes it very suspicious to me," Ofenito said, meaning the amount of the return.

In his lawsuit, Roman Ofenito seeks to hold Connelly personally responsible for two loans totaling $550,000 that he says his father made in 2004 through a Nevada corporation called American Financial Investments.

In answer to the suit, Connelly admits dealing with that corporation. But he says that it is a separate, viable entity to which Roman Ofenito has no claim.

In an interview, Connelly added that "a substantial amount" had been repaid to the corporation.

It is impossible to know for sure how Albert Ofenito understood the deal. Roman Ofenito remembered his father talking about a golf course property as security.

Instead of a recorded lien or mortgage, Ofenito's attorney, Nevin Weiner, turned up a document trail similar to that of the Erickson's case.

Weiner said in the lawsuit that Connelly made the deal in the name of an entity that no longer existed.

Connelly signed the "promissory note" from Civix Holdings for $450,000 on July 23, 2004.

Civix Holdings was dissolved in September 2003.

Weiner argues in the lawsuit that although various entities dealt with Ofenito, Connelly stood behind each of them and should personally repay the money.

Weiner pointed out in the suit that Connelly's promissory note offered as security a parcel on Mandarin Road, near the golf course, but neither Connelly nor his entities owned it yet.

Connelly's Civix Sunrise eventually obtained the house at 6925 Mandarin Road to provide secondary access to the 113-acre Sunrise Golf Club, said Dorman, Connelly's longtime associate.

To avoid instant association with the golf course development, Dorman said, he bought the Mandarin Road property through the Santos Land Trust on June 30, 2004.

Then Connelly's Civix Sunrise bought the Mandarin Road parcel from the land trust in September 2005.

Building trust

Dorman and Connelly both say Dorman's role is to find real estate, but he has also linked Connelly to investors.

Dorman says those links are coincidental, not intentional.

Through Amway, Dorman became friends with the Ericksons, as well as custom home builder Bruce Saba. Saba later sued Connelly.

Dorman also would lunch with Jack LeFrock, a retired Sarasota doctor and developer who also sued Connelly.

LeFrock said in a 2005 Sarasota County lawsuit that he partnered with Connelly and Dorman on several development projects, including the Sunrise Golf Course.

In that lawsuit, he accused Connelly of misappropriating money that LeFrock claimed belonged to a partnership.

The suit was dismissed, but LeFrock won a settlement.

"I just worked my thing out with them through mediation, which I felt was a fair way to do it," LeFrock said.

LeFrock declined to elaborate on what he gained. At least part of a settlement is secured by a $3.9 million mortgage, recorded in July, on the Sunrise golf course property.

While building relationships with people like LeFrock, Dorman said he was an independent Realtor using Connelly's conference room as an office.

Dorman said he did not solicit anyone; he didn't have to.

"I had a lot of friends that came in and out. They see a plan on the wall or something. They let it be known they're interested in doing business."

For example, he said Albert Ofenito, a retired Eastern Airlines pilot, liked to hang out in the office and reminisce about flying.

"He's a fun guy to talk to," Saba said, referring to Dorman.

Dorman, also a pilot, can talk flying, fishing, lots of things, Saba said.

Saba said he, Dorman and their wives would get together every weekend or two for nearly eight years.

While Dorman has a "good ol' boy" personality, Connelly is more business-minded, Saba said.

"Rod's people skills only apply when he's talking about business," Saba said. "'How are ya?' and then it's numbers."

Saba says he wrote checks for a Civix project, pitched as a big box store, because he trusted Dorman.

Saba sued Connelly and Civix in Sarasota County in 2002 for repayment of $70,000. Saba said he sued because Connelly told him the money was moved to another project.

Saba won a default judgment; Connelly never answered the suit. Connelly eventually repaid Saba.

Saba still feels betrayed, but he thinks for Connelly and Dorman, that is business as usual.

Connelly even waved at him from his new burgundy Escalade last time they passed on the road, Saba said.

"If I were to run into both of them today, it'd be like nothing ever happened. It's their way of doing business," he said.

Connelly said he preferred not to resurrect the details of past litigation. "A lot of these guys you're mentioning, they were looking to participate in some form of project," he said. "Our relationship didn't work out. That's the way it goes."

THE PLAYERS

Who's who in Civix litigation, past and present:

Rodney I. Connelly, 56, president of Civix. Manager and sole member of GPI Ventures, Civix Sunrise, Civix Holdings and Civix Holdings II, among others.

Terry B. Dorman, 62, Civix executive vice president. Also a real estate broker since November 1995.

Bruce Saba, custom home builder who loaned money to Civix. Sued Civix Inc. and Connelly in March 2002 over repayment of $70,000. Repaid in April 2003.

Dr. Robert and Judith Erickson, Gainesville couple who invested $100,000 in a Civix project in Charlotte County in November 2001. Sued Civix Holdings II, Civix Inc., Connelly and Dorman in September 2003.

The Ericksons received their $100,000 but no interest in a settlement reached in April 2006.

Albert Ofenito, a former Venice resident who allegedly made loans totaling $550,000 through a Nevada corporation to Civix Holdings. Ofenito died May 28, 2006 at age 73 while living in Italy.

Roman Ofenito of Germany, son of Albert Ofenito, sued Connelly and Civix on Sept. 22, 2006, seeking repayment.

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