Careful with Costa Rica ‘Experts’

The following email letter was received on the 27th May 2004 and was sent by one of our website visitors and NOT one of our registered ‘Users’…

Please note that this letter is being reproduced here for informational purposes only and although all the facts in the letter appear to be correct, I have never spoken with and do not know Mr. Rubinstein.

“Having met Chris Howard and read his book on Costa Rica I found the article on your website written by him in the ‘AM Costa Rica’ newspaper entitled ‘Prominent author gives tips on evaluating all those experts’ irritating.”

In his letter, Mr. Howard recommends the type of ‘expert’ that one should listen to when dealing with foreigners who consider themselves experts in Costa Rica.”

1. Call me an aggressive New Yorker if you will but what is hilarious about Mr. Howard’s letter of 26th May on AMCostaRica.com is that he states that; “We know a couple of people who have even lost their life savings because they put their affairs in the hands of an “expert. Sure he does! He knows hundreds of people that have “lost their life savings.”

“Every single reader of his book on Costa Rica who followed the advice of Mr. Howard would have lost 100% of their investment! What an expert! Or should I say ‘Que experto?’

2. In the tenth edition of Mr. Howard’s book on Costa Rica that I have in my book case here in New York (ISBN #1-881233-34-0), on page 63 in the ‘Saving and Making Money in Costa Rica’ chapter he states that “We recommend the Villalobos Brothers Money Traders” and refers his readers to the full page advertisement on page 211 of his book for the ‘Villalobos Brothers.’

If I’m not mistaken, isn’t this the organization that your website has helped expose which never explained how it wanted to ‘invest’ your money and later collapsed losing over 5,000 ‘investors’ more than US$500 million? Many of whom must have been Mr. Howard’s readers.

How would you feel if you followed the advice of those ‘experts’ recommended by Mr. Howard and lost 100% of your investment?

3. In the very same tenth edition of Mr. Howard’s book on page 66 he also states that “Since we don’t know all of the nuances of seeting (his typo’ not mine) up one of these corporations, we suggest you contact .. The Firm of Marc M. Harris.

Then on page 208 of Mr. Howard’s book is a full page advertisement for ‘The Harris Organization’ which must be even more gut-wrenching for his readers who have followed Mr. Howard’s ‘expert’ advice about Costa Rica because according to the Florida ‘Sun-Sentinel’ newspaper, on 21st May 2004 Mr. Marc Harris, “A former Miami financier received a 17 year prison sentence Friday for masterminding schemes to help two groups evade millions of dollars in U.S. taxes.”

How would you feel if you followed the advice of this second ‘expert’ also recommended by Mr. Howard where you not only lost 100% of your investment but where you would probably now be facing criminal charges for illegally evading taxes?

Follow the advice of ‘experts’ like that and you’ll be bankrupt and on welfare before you can pay for one of Mr. Howard’s overpriced ‘Costa Rica Retirement and Investment Seminar Tours’ as publicized on his www.investincentralamerica.com website.

4. It’s interesting to note that although he calls himself an ‘expert’ Mr. Howard never once mentions the “formal training…” of “…. foreign investments” that he speaks of in his letter of the 26th May

5. In referring to ‘experts’ on Costa Rica, Mr. Howard warns that; “If they have been here for under 10 years be careful.”

If we are foolish enough to follow Mr. Howard’s own advice, does that mean that we should throw away the other three books written by Mr. Howard on “Living and Investing in the New Cuba” (ISBN 1-881233-006), shred your copy of the ‘Living and Investing in the New Nicaragua’ (ISBN: 1881233502) that is being sold and maybe incinerate your copy of “Living and Investing in Panama”(ISBN 188123312X)?

Or has Mr. Howard perhaps been living in Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Panama at the same time for the past 15, 22 or 40+ years (depending on which of his many websites you see) and is an ‘expert’ in all four countries? I did try to find out by looking at his other ‘expert’ websites:

Mr. Howard also has the www.liveinnicaragua.com website, www.liveinpanama.com, www.liveincuba.com and a few others. None of them specify how many years experience Mr. Howard has as an ‘expert’ living in Nicaragua, Panama and Cuba.

However, according to his website at www.liveincostarica.com he actually has “40 plus years of experience and the knowledge gained from writing a #1 BESTSELLER on the subject.”

On Mr. Howard’s www.primecostaricaproperty.com website which is about “Costa Rica retirement – living in Costa Rica – offshore investments,”Mr. Howard does not mention how many years experience he has as an ‘expert’ on Costa Rica real estate or investments.

Or how many years experience he has as an ‘expert’ on retirement on his www.retireincostarica.com but if you look at his www.costaricabooks website you’ll see that actually, “Retirement is our only business.”

On his www.investincentralamerica.com website Mr. Howard does not mention how many years experience he has as an ‘expert’ on investing although you now know what do if Christopher Howard gives you any recommendations on ‘investing’ –

Mr. Howard has obviously mastered the art of building numerous websites and I would hope that after 15, 22 or 40+ years (?) he can speak Spanish well but if you’re in doubt, you can check that out for yourself at one his other websites www.costaricaspanish.net

So if we are to understand this correctly Mr. Howard is an ‘expert’ at living in Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica as well as retirement in Costa Rica, Costa Rica living, Spanish, Costa Rica real estate and, if your investment goal is to lose 100% of your money then Mr. Howard has an impressive track record for recommending people for ‘investing’ too.

6. Yes! You really must be careful which ‘expert’ you listen to!

Jerry Rubinstein
50 West 72nd Street
New York, NY 10023

PS. Mr. Howard also has:

[custom_script adID=97]

www.costaricaretirementvacationproperties.com
www.costaricaretirementvacationproperties.com and
www.costaricatour.com

Phew!

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.