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Did you guys see the Costa Developers story in Amcostarica today?
Coastal developer faces Florida racketeering count
By Helen Thompson
of the A.M. Costa Rica staffAn American man linked to a development company that owns projects on the Pacific coast has been arrested in Florida on four charges of racketeering and money laundering.
The man, Jeffrey Martin Goldberg, was confirmed to be one of the owners of Costa Developers by a representative of the company’s San José office Thursday.
The company owns Costa Esterillos and Costa Reserva, two gated communities near Esterillos on the central Pacific Coast, and Costa Montana, a hilltop development in the same area which was recently singled out by the government’s Tribunal Ambiental for damage to the environment.
Said to work mainly in the company’s Florida office, Goldberg’s charges appear to come from his involvement with a sports gambling ring there which used a betting service operating out of Costa Rica.
Chappy Sports Gambling and Bookmaking Enterprise, which has been running for about eight years in Costa Rica, was handling bets for an organized crime group that was broken up by Broward County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office May 22, officials there said at the time.
Goldberg, 59, and his son Jason, 32, got involved when the ringleader Norman Weissman ran into money troubles, according to the Miami Herald. The two then “shared in the profits from losing bets and high-interest payments collected from the bettors who lost,” reported the newspaper.
Officials suspect that the enterprise earned millions of dollars a year from its customers, who made Internet or telephone bets through Costa Rica. In total, 12 people who worked for the Florida betting ring were arrested and remain in custody in Broward’s main prison.
Goldberg’s charges are for racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, money laundering of over $100,000 and conspiracy to commit money laundering. His bail is set at $1.6 million.
I gotta hand it to this website for cautioning people for years now about this group and others like them. If I hadn’t found this site and seen all the discussions about Costa Developers, people that I love (close family) could have made a serious mistake investing with them.
Did they require that you put up money first before you can look at their projects? You’d think that would be the first clue that something is amiss, but it doesn’t seem to stop people from forking over the cash and then trying to get it back later. Glad you weren’t a victim of some of these real estate scams. With all the property available in Costa Rica, I don’t know why anyone would fall for these schemes.
Its the same old story. Up front escrow money is not the problem. My wife and I and many others have made money in pre-construction projects here in CR and they will often require funds to be escrowed up front. This is not uncommon with seasoned real estate developers like Kirebe or Wellington or even the large hoteliers. Further, gated communities do offer advantages. The problem is that just like in Tampa, or Telluride, or Timbuktu, you have to do your due diligence. We looked at Costa Developers and they left too many of our questions unanswered, and our instincts proved correct. The moral of the story is Caveat Emptor, so do your homework.
Nobody should require that you put money down prior to seeing there project I don’t care who they are or what escrow account you are putting it in.
They shouldn’t but they do and people actually give them the $$$. Go figure. Then they whine later than they can’t get their money back without hiring lawyers and threatening to sue, and some have even gone so far as to try and organize class action lawsuits against some of these companies.
Does anyone know if they are still building their projects, Costa Esterillos and Costa Reserva. The other project they are building is Costa Montana has been completed, I believe.
Are these guys continuing on or are they shut down?
THIS POSTED IN THE WRONG PLACE AND REPOSTED HERE BY SCOTT.
message Posted By
Posted Jun 02,2008 9:30 AM midiman 07¨Have It Your Way” With Costa Developers
Besides being the biggest developers in the Central Pacific region,
Costa Developers(CD) gives their customers both control over and the right
to determine exactly what goes into the houses they have Costa Developers(CD)
have built for them.
They are perhaps the only developer in Costa Rica that succeeds in doing so.
My personal experience is but one example.
After getting into the Advanced Building Program, largely due to the untiring
efforts of CD’s in-house attorney Ms. Andrea Ovares, I was notified I could determine
the exact details of what I wanted my Kirei model home to feature.
First, I met with Construction Project Manager Ricardo Lizano, architect Dulce
Lopez and Alonso Gomez whom, with their encouragement and consultation, I showed
them features I wanted featured in the construction contract that would be drawn up.
These included major things like choices of five different major appliances, a greenhouse instead of garage, the size and shape of my pool and indoor structural changes as well as numerous electrical components and other features.
Through an Internet website, I was allowed to choose things like door colors, size and type, kitchen cabinet handles, cabinet colors and many other details.
COO Jorge Jorge Flores met with us the final time to ¨Make sure I was satisfied* and got everything I wanted.
Ms. Ovares then drafted a construction contract including all 22 of my choices/specifications.
After which I realized that this was how ethical businesses with true integrity that really care about customer satisfaction conduct themselves.
One month after construction began on my house, CD provided me with a letter of access that allowed me to visit my home site on a monthly basis.
Three months into the building process, Dulce Lopez met me on a weekly basis and gave me a personal tour of the building site.
She always asked and made sure I was both aware of the ongoings of the various phases of construction and that everything met my specifications and with my approval.
Ms. Lopez also began sending me weekly construction reports with both photos and a narrative about the going ons and progress of my house.
I met with COO Flores and Ms. Lopez at their Escazu headquarters where they arranged my walk thru tour to be two weeks before my homes’ completion.
Dulce notified me two months prior of the exact date my house would be completed
The walk thru tour would allow me to inspect the finished product to make sure it met all my specifications and I was completely satisfied with it.
If there was anything that didn’t, I was informed it would be corrected within 30 days.
It doesn’t get any better than than when it comes to having both control over and the right to determine exactly what goes into the house one is having built for them.
With Costa Developers home building philosophy, one can truly have their “DREAM Home”.
I would like to thank COO Flores for his quality leadership and commitment to true customer satisfaction.
As well as Ms. Dulce Lopez for her attention to detail, her response to my requests and the excellent results from all her efforts!Well…this all sounds rather disconcerting, bitter or jaded. I am, however, bewildered.
I purchased a lot in Costa Esterillos recently. I did go to the development on a recent visit to CR and was more than impressed with what I saw in Costa Montana as well as the information from thier construction people plus the infrastucture in place.With some of the blogs I have read, CD are evil evil developers, charlatans if you will. But I have yet to read a blog by someone with first hand experience with CD.
Anyone??
One of the reasons you may not have seen any blogs with nasty tales is the strict libel laws in Costa Rica where even telling the truth, damning as it may be, could be a criminal offense. There is another nameless developer who, when anyone says anything negative about them, has their lawyer fire off a very threatening letter promising them a libel suit. For the faint-hearted, that would usually serve to gag them from any further comments.
Thanks Maravilla. My point was, is there anyone out there that is a purchaser in Costa Developers’ developments? I am looking for any info…not just negative, if fact, I hope to hear some positive reviews.
I really don’t know much about them, but have driven by a few of there sites and work was going on etc..That’s good news if what you say is true and all the infrastructure is complete. There was an older thread from a member on here who was having trouble because they were using his lot to store construction equipment, and I think CRHomebuilder toured the site for one of his clients and seemed to report all is well. That said there was also a report in the local papers they were shut down for environmental violations.
We are owners in Costa Esterillos, and part of an email group of Costa Developer owners. If any owners would like to join it, please reply to this message under “via email”. It’s been very good for communication and updates on the projects.
I am an owner of Esterillos too and would like to join your email group. I couldn’t find the reply via email button so please write me at djbren123@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Dan
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