Untangling Mysterious Business Dealings of Abusive Swimming Coach Alex Pussieldi

by Irvin Muchnick and Tim Joyce

Yesterday we published the document of Alex Pussieldi’s fine and indefinite suspension last year by Florida Gold Coast Swimming, the Local Swim Committee for USA Swimming. Now we turn to the question that continues to vex the Broward County youth swimming community: Is Pussieldi still running the cross-Caribbean athlete flesh trade through a web of corporate entities with various fictitious business names?

Gianluca Alberani, the Italian owner and head coach of Florida Azura Aquatics, denies the rumors of Pussieldi’s ongoing involvement. Here’s the full text of Alberani’s statement to us last month:

“I formed a new swim club when the owners privately told me and the other Davie Nadadores coaches that they were retiring. The name of the club is Azura Florida Aquatics.

As previously stated I am and have always been the 100% owner of Azura Florida Aquatics.  I filed the paperwork to open the company under the name Davie Nadadores, Inc. because the name was available and it was a recognized name (the previous club operated under the name Davie Swimming, Inc.)   After my company’s paperwork was filed but before the corporation became effective, Tomas Victoria who was one of the owners of Davie Swimming, Inc. asked that the name not be used because it was meaningful to him and so I changed the name to Team Davie, Inc. D/B/A Azura Florida Aquatics.

Azura Florida Aquatics opened on September 1^st [2013].  We have never used the name Davie Nadadores and have no affiliation or connections with Davie Nadadores Swim Team or its owners. I am working hard to build my team. Please respect this.”

Shortly thereafter, on March 27 – perhaps in an effort to put the speculation to rest – Alberani filed new papers with the Florida secretary of state for a corporation named Azura Florida Aquatics Inc.

State records show that Alex Pussieldi has incorporated at least two entities. One, a nonprofit, was activated in 2009 under the name “Davie Swimming and Diving Inc.” (This coincided with Pussieldi’s departure from Pine Crest School, shortly after the arrest of his associate, confessed child pornographer and molester Roberto Caragol.) Davie Swimming and Diving’s listed officers, besides Pussieldi himself, are Tomas Victoria (the chief assistant at Davie Nadadores, who like Pussieldi is under indefinite suspension from Gold Coast Swimming) and Anna Rodriguez.

In 2008, Pussieldi also had started a for-profit company called Davie Swimming Inc. He is the president. Tomas Victoria is the treasurer. Carol Victoria is the secretary. The company lists a principal address in Plantation, Florida.

One of the most intriguing entries in the state records is a fictitious business name for a now-defunct entity, Best Swimming. The co-owners are Pussieldi and Leonardo H. Martins, who competed for the Fort Lauderdale Swim Team and went on to swim at Arizona State University. These days Martins is believed to be back in his native Brazil.

Sources say Martins has intimate knowledge of the allegations of Peeping Tom videotaping by Pussieldi of the underage swimmers he housed. One of those swimmers, a Mexican, had the physical fight with Pussieldi on the pool deck in 2004 whose background was covered up by the Fort Lauderdale police, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the swimming beat writer for the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Sharon Robb. The swimmer told police that Pussieldi had been his legal guardian.

We don’t know if Pussieldi’s Florida businesses are officially active; if they are, it appears that annual reports are typically filed with the state by the end of April.

Meanwhile, the Broward County tax assessor’s site still confirms that Pussieldi owns a house in Fort Lauderdale.

Complete links to our Alex Pussieldi investigation are at https://concussioninc.net/?p=8652.

Here are headline links to articles on the specific topic of Pussieldi’s speculated ongoing business interests:

New Club, Azura Aquatics, Carries on Alex Pussieldi’s High-Powered Multinational Model in South Florida