Philanthropist Guma Aguiar has gone missing after he left his Florida home in his motorboat, which was found upside down in the water.

Sandy Eller - VIN News

A Fort Lauderdale industrialist and multi-billionaire who is known for his philanthropy has been reported missing after his boat, with its navigation lights on and its engine still running, washed ashore in the early morning hours.

Brazilian born Guma Aguiar went out last night on one of his three boats, the thirty one foot boat T.T. Zion at approximately 7:15 PM.

An experienced mariner and the father of four, the thirty three year old Aguiar was alone on the boat at the time.

“The weather was not the best last night, but Guma is a water person and he knows the water very, very well,” Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc, co-director of Chabad Lubavtich of Fort Lauderdale, told VIN News.

Fort Lauderdale Police were notified when the boat washed ashore at the 300 block of South Atlantic Boulevard and they proceeded immediately to the Aguiar home. Aguiar’s wife, Jamie, thought her husband was working in his home office and was completely unaware that her husband was missing. Currently, both the police and the coast guard are searching for Aguiar and investigating the circumstances behind his disappearance.

“Guma is a dynamite person,” said Rabbi Lipszyc. “He has an unmatchable neshama and a heart bigger than all this world. With Hashem’s help he will show up soon, safe and secure and we are asking everyone to daven for Yehuda Dovid ben Ilana Orah and to do a mitzvah as a zechus for his safe return.”

Aguiar, who immigrated to the United States at age two, is the vice president and chief executive officer of Leor Energy. He divides his time between his homes in Florida and Jerusalem and is known for his generous support of numerous Jewish causes including Chabad, Nefesh B’Nefesh and March of the Living and was just recently named as one of the thirty six most influential Jewish leaders under the age of thirty six by The Jewish Week.

A die hard sports enthusiast who played both soccer and tennis competitively, Aguiar invested over $4 million to revive the financially strapped Beitar Jerusalem Football Team and over $1.5 million in the Jerusalem basketball team, Hapoel Jerusalem.