The money is long gone !!

(burtonmail.co.uk) – A subpoena is set to be served for Colin Thomas, of Town Hill, to appear in Madrid as a class action lawsuit against Spanish developer Ricardo Miranda Miret continues to rumble on in an effort to recover money on behalf of dozens of Ocean View Properties (OVP) victims.

The criminal claim for fraud and misappropriation of funds was lodged in a Madrid court last year and included Mr Thomas and other directors of his firm.

The prosecuting lawyer is seeking more than £6.5 million in damages for 70 claimants.

The firm took deposits worth around £80,000 each from British investors, but much of the cash disappeared as the homes failed to materialise, it is alleged.

Antonio Flores, the Spanish prosecuting lawyer from Marbella-based firm Lawbird, said: “We have requested that Colin Thomas specifically is summoned and quizzed.

“I don’t believe OVP knew anything about what was going on but they will be forced to talk in court.

“This was a scam of huge proportions. It has the potential of becoming one of the biggest property scams, as none of the developments will be built.” Mr Thomas’s company was behind a number of successful enterprises but ran into difficulties when it became involved as an agent for Spanish developer Ricardo Miranda Miret.

More than a thousand British investors who paid £45 million for off-plan overseas property developments have lost their money after the firm was formally dissolved in 2009 with the appointment of liquidators Grant Thornton.

The Madrid court claims are linked with developments that never materialised at the Estepona Country Club on the Costa del Sol and Punta Perla, in the Dominican Republic.

This comes after the Mail revealed that The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Staffordshire Police would take ‘no further action’ following the collapse of OVP.

Last year, the Mail also revealed that 50- year-old Mr Thomas was banned from being a company director for nine years after an Insolvency Service investigation revealed that he had pocketed almost £14 million despite the firm being insolvent.

The findings also showed that his firm took £23 million from customers for a Spanish development that it did not own, did not have a building licence for and never undertook any construction work on.

Despite efforts by the Mail, neither Mr Thomas nor his advisors were unavailable for comment.

Related article:

Boardroom ban for £43m property flop Colin Thomas

(mirror.co.uk) – Careering downhill at ­breakneck speed – we could very easily say the same of Michele de Havilland’s partner’s property ­business.

For eight years, Ocean View ­Property International told ­investors their money would be refunded if anything went wrong.

But founder Colin Thomas, 50, knew this was untrue and that no proper steps had been taken to safeguard deposits, the Insolvency Service found. It said: “OVPI led people to believe purchasing properties was virtually risk-free.”

Instead, two years ago, it went bust, owing £43million, after taking deposits of £80,000 from more than 1,000 investors, including former Scottish ­international ­footballer Matt Elliott.

The firm banked £23million for a Spanish ­development even though the site had not been purchased and building work never started.

Despite Ocean View being ­insolvent, Thomas trousered £13.8million and paid his partner Michele another £650,000, “although she had no professional qualifications and provided no tangible services”, according to the Insolvency Service. Thomas has been banned from running a company for nine years.

The couple, who live in a £1million house in Yoxall, Staffordshire, are regulars at the local Downhill Soapbox Race, which raises money for charity.

Well, that makes it OK, then……

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Colin Thomas, founding director of Ocean View Properties, is being investigated for fraud and misappropriation of funds over a Costa Del Sol holiday home scheme.

Sunday, February 20, 2011 | Colin Thomas , founding director of Ocean View Properties , is being investigated for fraud and misappropriation of funds over a Costa Del Sol holiday home scheme.

Ex-Aston Villa star Gareth Barry ‘victim’ of alleged holiday property firm crash – Sunday Mercury: “CRIMINAL case has been launched against the boss of a Midland property firm that went bust owing £43 million to investors – including soccer star Gareth Barry.
Colin Thomas, founding director of Ocean View Properties, is being investigated for fraud and misappropriation of funds over a Costa Del Sol holiday home scheme.
His Staffordshire firm marketed properties using images of celebrities including ex-Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry and BBC’s Homes Under The Hammer star Martin Roberts to sell luxury off-plan apartments, though neither benefitted in any way or had any knowledge of irregularities.
It is understood that midfielder Barry, now playing for Manchester City, also invested in the company, although it is unclear how much he put in.
A source close to the England star said: “The investors are all just chasing their money at the moment.”

Who is financing Ricardo's lifestyle today?, the investors he never met.....

Nothing interesting happened in the court room in Madrid on December 21,2011.

Like Dominican Watchdog wrote one year ago, then the reason Ricardo Miranda will not meet with investors is because he will say “I never did that” or “I never signed that” and “I have never met that person in my life!” and that’s exactly what happened in Madrid he said “I never had a relationship with customers, either physically or in writing”

Ricardo simply told the judge that he had never met any of his investors! That he is as clean as snow….. and that a piece of land was used as guarantee towards investors. The judge told Ricardo to bring documentation, so let’s see what happens next…..

Dominican Watchdog has only two comments:

Who is financing Ricardo’s lifestyle today? All the investors he never met….?

The land placed as guarantee is not worth 10% in today’s market. Roco Ki has closed their doors and Cap Cana will probably soon follow! There simply is no interest in over priced resort developments in Dominican Republic. These buyers like  more developed places like St. Barts or Barbados….

The huge class A lawsuit against Ricardo Mirand from angry investors in his Punta Perla fantasy project has been FORMALLY ACCEPTED by the judge and Ricardo Miranda Miret is summoned to attend to the Courts of Madrid to declare in front of the judge on the 19th October 2011.

After Miranda meets the judge we will know if the criminal case against him for fraud  will proceed. My guess is it will unless he makes an immediately cash settlement of around USD 60 million with Ollie’s investor group.

Will we see the Trio HAND in HAND again? President Leonel Fernandez and HRH Prince Albert of Monaco will probably do everything possible not to go to court in Madrid. Read here: The court has been asked to summon them as well for there active role in promoting Punta Perla.

Resent information from the non-public Punta Perla investor forum run by Ben Potter shows a conference call btw the investors disclosing that there might not be any Chinese financing coming to Punta Perla. Miranda could not attend this conference call because his mother was sick(I could’t stop laughing when I read that, not only will he not meet any investors, now he will not ever take a long distance conference call, petty on you Miranda!).

Before writing this news update both Alex Rood and Ben Potter was contacted and offered to respond on the Chinese financing situation, however we have not heard a word in regards to that, Alex Rood has just ignored our emails.

Dominican Watchdog has always been against Ben Potter’s forum as it tried hide the truth about the project which means new buyers accidentally could be sucked into the “ATLANTIS”. I will go as far as to say that Miranda’s poppet show: Ben Potter, Mark Andrew or what ever Earth company he runs and Alex Rood have been tranquilizing angry investors with hot air and BS for the last year. Nothing has happened, all deadlines has been passed and finally it seems like the Chinese institutional investors are not so stupid after all.

If the criminal lawsuit moves forward, I guess we can all kiss Punta Perla goodbye since his other developments are already stone dead and there is more lawsuits coming from the Estapona Golf and Marina investors. Promoters and real estate agents(even the crooked ones) has stopped selling Punta Perla after Dominican Watchdog tracked them down and told them to inform potential clients about ongoing legal issues and to place funds on escrow. Simple consumer protection was needed to stop Miranda from ripping off more people.

3 simple things that made Punta Perla the greatest joke of the Caribbean!

1. They have opened and closed more websites than any other developer in DR and they lost their domain puntaperla.com, moreover there is not a phone number on the website to call should a potential buyer want to hear about Star Island -:), not to forget all the angry investors who would like to reach Miranda directly.

2. During 5 years the “Great developer” Ricardo Miranda has not managed to build as much as a sales office on the land despite all the millions he has taken. He claims on the PP website to have build many fine projects, there is not a link to one of them! But there are plenty of stories on the internet about all the developments Ricardo Miranda has NOT finished!

3. Miranda, never been available to meet the small investors face to face, tried to use HRH Prince Albert of Monaco and President Leonel Fernandez to promote and kick off the sale of Punta Perla, but that failed after Dominican Watchdog started to dick into the facts and sent off the first letter to the Royal Palace in Monaco almost two years ago!

However one big question still remains….. Where is all the money from the small investors and how did Ricardo split them?  Maybe the judge in Madrid will soon be able to in-light us on that, so come back for more updates.

Now 6 weeks later despite several follow up emails we have not got answers to the important questions below and must now warn all property buyers against using LAS AMERICAS TITLE SERVICES as their operation in our opinion is not safe!

Here is the email of March 20th, 2011 sent to Marcos and Alex Rood including several lawyers:

Dear Marcos,

I have visited your website to collect information, I have also visited the Panamanian company register as you can see below.

I have received the Punta Perla title guarantee from your company for my comments to investors and have the following questions:

1. How come the the document is not Notarized and the reg number of the company not listed on the letterhead?

2. What title are you talking about in your letter? I see no references nor title certificate and registration numbers anywhere!

3. Why is a copy of the valuation of the land not attached to the letter for investors to see?

4. Why is a copy of that extremely valuable title not forwarded to investors together with a land plan?

5. Have you checked that there is no liens or loans on that land? Where is that certification and when was it done?

6. How come that this USD 98,100,000.00 land parcel is held in escrow by a unknown Panamanian offshore company with a maximum authorized capital of USD 10,000* Pls note that Authorized and PAID IN capital is not the SAME!! What is the paid in capital of CTRD Escrow Services INC ?  USD 100 *One Hundred dollars?

7. Please explain to me how Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company and Chicago Title are connected to you and this transaction* expect me to contact them for verification of your answers and activities since their name and reputation is on the line here.

8. How do you plan to indemnify those investors if there is problems with the title and they sue you since CTRD Escrow Services INC have little to no capital according to the extract from the Panamanian register below?

9. Can you please clarify the 80% rule in your guarantee. 80% of the total project? 80% of phase 1 or 80% of the houses of those investors who accept this offer? Does the 80% involve the Marina and the first golf course? If Yes is it then 80% of the marina and 80% of the golf course which has to be finished too?

Sorry if I seems a little harsh in the questions, but we are playing with big numbers here and something don’t add up for me, however I’m sure you have a good explanation and I will be happy to send that off to investors and add it to my website.

Prince Albert of Monaco claims not to know the developer Ricardo Miranda, despite he is talking to him at the ground breaking of Punta Perla.... So why was he there with an axe picking the ground and allowing the media to take pictures of him?

Dominican Watchdog is pleased to see that things are falling into perspective and the truth is getting out. From the day we started to write about Punta Perla and Ricardo Miranda they have tried everything to discredit our work and Pittbull-editor Jan Vistisen.

Prince Albert of Monaco was not acting very intelligent when he joined President Leonel Fernandez and Ricardo Miranda at the Punta Perla axe picking event, because his name and picture was later used on previous Punta Perla websites and on Ben Potter’s forum to establish as fact, that Prince Albert of Monaco had given his endorsement to the development.

Originally there was even articles in the local news claiming the Prince was an investor. These articles was removed when Dominican Watchdog first broke our story, but a copy of the text of the original article from DominicanToday can be found here

Now with the lawsuit filed by Ollie Reel and his investor group in Madrid the skeletons are starting to fall out of the closet, and that was about time one can say as Miranda has not dared to meet any of his investors the last 2 years!!

A few days ago Prince Albert of Monaco have through his lawyer in Paris sent a letter to Antonio Flores(the lawyer who filed the lawsuit in Madrid against Ricardo Miranda on behalf of 80 angry investors from Estapona Beach Club and Punta Perla, DR) which states that the “Honorable Prince” never endorsed the Punta Perla development and that the “Honorable Prince” has no connections whats or ever with Ricardo Miranda Miret. With this statement Prince Albert try with the speed of light to distance himself from the hell that are about to break lose in regards to Ricardo Miranda and his never build developments.

You can find a copy of the ORIGINAL letter here

Dominican Watchdog wrote to HRH Prince Albert two years ago to get clarification to this important matter. As the Prince has not come forward earlier with a statement to protect investors, we feel that Albert indeed is partly responsible for the loses of those who have invested in Punta Perla. Prince Albert of Monaco has had two years to make it clear, so why do we first now receive an official letter from his lawyer? That’s not the way a European monarch is supposed to act. It leaves us with a feeling that the Prince was paid to attend the event as earlier proclaimed by people very close to his friends.

The fact that President Leonel Fernandez was attending the ground breaking event doesn’t mean anything. The Dominican President has endorsed projects financed by drug money and called them a “model for investing in his native country”!!!!!!  more about that

Dominican Watchdog is currently investigation how a small lawyer from the Bronx in New York became President of the Dominican Republic and subsequently made a personal fortune which some estimates is over 100 Million Dollars today. Not bad after only 10 years with a salary of USD 300,000 per year…… You can soon follow Dominican Watchdog’s special second year anniversary story about President Leonel here

OCEAN View Properties was founded by buy-to-let tycoon Colin Thomas in 2001.

He is now facing criminal charges in Spain for fraud and misappropriation of funds in relation to alleged irregularities with his overseas property investment company.

He marketed the properties using celebrities while his then friend, convicted conman Sean Woodhall, searched for development opportunities on the Costa del Sol.

Ocean View was behind a number of successful enterprises but ran into difficulties when it became involved as an agent for Spanish developer Ricardo Miranda Miret.

More than a thousand British investors who paid £45 million for off-plan overseas property developments have lost their money after Ocean View was formally dissolved in 2009 with the appointment of liquidators Grant Thornton.

The purchasers each paid deposits, typically of between £85,000 and £120,000, four years ago for properties in Spain and the Dominican Republic, which were either never built or said to be sub-standard.

Some are alleged to have lost much more.

Two investors sank almost a million pounds each into schemes run by Miranda Miret, one being a 350 luxury apartment build at the Estepona Country Club on the Costa del Sol, the other marketed as a prestigious 6,000-property development, Punta Perla, in the Dominican Republic.

When the sector collapsed amid corruption scandals in the Estepona region, the venture started to fail. Thomas and Woodhall had turned their attention to the Caribbean development of Punta Perla in the Dominican Republic.

Woodhall, 43, went missing after his light aircraft crashed over Brazil in 2008 and, while his body has never been recovered, he has been declared dead.

Nick Wood, partner at Grant Thornton’s Recovery and Reorganisation practice, said: “We are investigating what happened to monies paid by investors. There is a black hole amounting to millions of pounds.

“We are looking to identify any claims which can be instigated to recover monies for creditors.

“Our investigation is focusing on Ocean View’s operations in the UK and overseas jurisdictions including Spain.”

Ocean View, which operated as a franchise throughout the UK, had an office at the historic country mansion of Longdon Hall in Rugeley.

Colin Thomas owns a luxury home at Town Hill in Yoxall, where he lives with his partner, Michelle de Havilland.

Both Thomas and Ms de Havilland are Friday night regulars at The Meynell Ingram Arms in Hoar Cross, where they helped to set up the charity madcap Hoar Cross Downhill Soapbox race.

Thomas and the former directors, or considered de facto directors, of Ocean View, which include David Stewart and Robert Parkes, were named in the criminal claim lodged in a Madrid court on February 4.

Those in charge of running Ocean View and Spanish developer Miranda Miret have previously strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Antonio Flores, the Spanish prosecuting lawyer from Marbella-based firm Lawbird, said: “I don’t believe Ocean View knew nothing about what was going on.

But they will be forced to talk in court.

“This was a scam of huge proportions. It has the potential of becoming one of the biggest property scams, as none of the developments will be built.”

Several celebrities were involved in the marketing of the company, but there are no suggestions of wrongdoing against any of them.

They included Martin Roberts, presenter of the BBC’s Homes Under the Hammer property programme.

He claims the company owes him and his partner around £200,000.

England international footballers Gareth Barry and Alan Smith also bought properties successfully from Ocean View.

Go to source to see pictures: http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Place-in-the-sun-dreams-turned-into-a-nightmare.htm

Finally some action against Ocean View & Ass.

THE Government is poised to take legal action against a company that used TV and sports stars in a suspected £43million overseas property scam.

Punta Perla and the Chinese Deal

PuntaPerla.com is again down from the internet and it will be interesting to see what content will be on that next time? Those who didn’t manage to download copies of the Chinese deal papers before PuntaPerla.com went into “maintenance mode” can find them on another location set up by “Joseph Mitchell” – please visit: http://puntaperlacaribbean.com/doc – click on docs.zip to download and save them one by one before this location is closed too.

There will come a moment when these papers should be forwarded to the Chinese Embassy in Washington and London, because Dominican Watchdog is currently working on clarification of issues related to information received from “Joseph Mitchell” about Punta Perla and RM. We have sent an email with several questions to Alex Rood as it looks like he is the new head of communication on behalf of Ricardo Miranda(who will soon be very busy when the angry Irish investors headed by Ollie Reel submit their criminal case to the court in Madrid next week).

It’s perfectly clear that “Joseph Mitchell”  is not a private detective as first presumed, but a whistle-blower who is/was very close to Ricardo Miranda. Dominican Watchdog is not aware of the identity of the whistle-blower but we have several hours of very interesting conversation with him/her on skype and the person had extremely deep knowledge about everything around RM,even personal issues incl a story about the killing of a young boy by his ex bodygard/driver outside a discotheque in Madrid.

Dominican Watchdog has been contacted several times by “Joseph Mitchell” and asked to publish a lot of documents. However without knowing who “Joseph Mitchell” is and how he/she obtained the documents we denied to do so, because we have too often linked to sources that has later been altered or removed after pressure form certain groups within the Dominican Republic. And exactly the same happened now again with puntaperla.com(DW however have screen dumps of all the articles on the PP domain from “Joseph Mitchell” and will probably publish them one day if there should be a need to do so).

Dominican Watchdog has no interest in being involved in the personal problems between “Joseph Mitchell” and Ricardo Miranda. Therefore we will not publish any of the documents we have received from “Joseph Mitchell”. However we have contacted “Joseph Mitchell” several weeks ago and informed him to post the documents on www.The-Dominican-Republic.org if he is really serious about having a voice and letting investors know the truth.  We however feel “Joseph Mitchell” is rethinking his/her strategy…..

I believe I can speak for everybody when I say, that we are all very tired of Punta Perla .com, .org. com.do domains opening, closing and changing content on a monthly basis! Lately none of the domains had a telephone number, contact person or address where the CEO could be met. These useless US$ 500 websites are promoted by people like Mark and Alex who are all in Ricardo Miranda pocket’s. However Ricardo Miranda himself have not dared to met with any of his investors for years, to look them in the eyes, and tell them the truth about what happened to their money in Spain, Morocco and Dominican Republic.

Dominican Watchdog is not aware of any other development of that size where is has not been possible to meet the developer!! There is no doubt that Punta Perla is among the most unprofessional projects ever launched in the Dominican Republic. Atlantico in Luperon was another white elephant where over US$100 million from investors was lost!! And Canadian investors lost US$ 160 million when dealing with the former Dominican tourist minister. Victor Cabral got only 12 months house arrest for ripping of these investors, and believe me that he was not alone, but nothing happened to the rest of the gang who shared the money!!!

DominicanWatchdog.org and our forum The-Dominican-Republic.org has never been down or in “maintenance mode” – we are running mirror servers with hourly back-up to ensure our readers have access to all the important news about the Dominican Republic. To boost our ranking on all search engines we run several blogs(like this one), specific sub domains, twitter and facebook. Dominican Watchdog had over 14,000 pages views last month, visitors from 150 countries and 1050 friends on facebook. Power to the internet and free media – the truth will prevail, join us on facebook today!

Prince Albert II

Investors in the Punta Perla fraud were swindled out of $60 million.

Punta Perla was a private real estate project that sought to entice middle-class Europeans to deposit hard-earned savings for as-yet-to-be-built Caribbean vacation homes.

Albert is a head-of-state. One can understand Monaco’s Sovereign promoting private interests if it involves trade, commerce or tourism for Monaco, such as helping promote a new resort by SBM or Monaco QD.

But a head-of-state allowing himself to be used as a celebrity endorser to help line the pockets of non-Monegasque con-men in a far away land?

Shameful.

What’s next, Albert doing TV ads for Viagra?

A huge question remains unanswered:

What did Albert stand to gain from his involvement in the fleecing of $60 million from hundreds of small investors?

The Punta Perla development was relatively small for the billionaire prince, especially when he has the government of Qatar writing blank checks to spend on much larger projects through his Monaco QD entity.

So what (or who) induced Albert to get involved with Punta Perla’s main organizer, scam artist Ricard Miranda MIRET, whose previous property projects were failures?

It is clear that something corrupt transpired to get the Prince to the Dominican Republic.

Monegasques and Dominicans, as well as victims whose money was stolen, deserve to know the answers to these questions:

Why did Albert get involved in Punta Perla?

How much money was Albert and/or members of his entourage paid?

Will Albert give up his fee to help pay restitution to the victimized investors?

What does Albert know about the whereabouts of money stolen from investors?

What does Albert know about Ricard Miranda MIRET and his current whereabouts?

Does MIRET have a bank account in Monaco?

We wish success to the victims of Punta Perla and their skilled attorneys at Law Bird as they seek justice, and we hope that Ricard Miranda MIRET and Prince Albert are held to account for their misdeeds.

Source: eringer33.com

MUST SEE!!!! Watch this broadcast where spymaster Robert Eringer calls Ricardo Miranda a con man for defrauding investors for USD 60 million – CLICK HERE!!!

As I have received many requests for more information regarding who I am and how I obtained email addresses, everyone deserves the same response.  I have been hired to investigate the current situation of the Real Estate Development, Punta Perla.  My client purchased on the development in 2007.  As there has been no continuous flow of information from the Developer, nor advance made in construction, the decision was made to investigate formally.  Email addresses were obtained as part of the investigation to maintain all interested parties informed.  Those who do not wish to receive information will be removed from the list upon request.  Individuals that respond in an obscene or unprofessional manner will also be removed.

In addition to looking into ownership of the land, I have been to Madrid to observe the daily activities in the office. Limited individuals are seen entering the office on the fourth floor of Glorieta de Ruben Dario 3.  The doorman refers to the occupying tenant as GCP, SA.  Telephone calls are not answered and the door seemingly ignored.  Speaking with one employee for economic compensation, it was learned that GCP, SA acts as a parent company for the Punta Perla project, employing the few local employees in Madrid, the majority of whom have departed the company with money owed to them, including Eva Sotres.  It was also confirmed that Ricardo Miranda at that moment was in the Dominican Republic.   Names and telephones of additional former employees acquired.  Contact was made with these employees in Madrid. They have provided valuable information that is in the process of being confirmed.  Others present in the building mentioned that GCP was being evicted by the owner for failure to pay rent for over 4 months.

There is a team investigating in the Dominican Republic where there appears to be similar issues and serious problems with employees.  Additionally, there appears to be serious doubt as to the land ownership, which above all will be very important in regards to the situation of the investors.

Regards,

Joseph Mitchell

puntaperla@london.com

Updated, December 02, 2010

Esteemed clients,

I am sorry I am unable to respond to each of you individually, yet I would like to make a couple more observations based on emails I have received.  My client does not desire to be known as the individual who instigated this investigation; what is desired is that after so many years of being uninformed, those who desire to receive updates, are regularly made aware of information discovered.  For the good of the investigation, it is best that particular details remain confidential at the moment.

With that and for the lack of any other relevant confirmed information at the moment, all I can report is that there will be a case being heard today, December 2, 2010, for the eviction of Mr. Miranda from his home due to failure to pay.  As more information resulting from the investigations being carried out in Spain and the Dominican Republic is verified, all will be duly informed of the findings.

Cheers,

Joseph Mitchell

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