Miami Real Estate Investors Charged With Running Scam

Kevin Brass IPJ 03/07/2010 13:51

Miami Real Estate Investors Charged With Running Scam - U.S. - Miami - property investors - property scam

A Miami firm promoting Florida real estate investments was actually running a $135 million Ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged this week.

Gaston Cantens and his wife, Teresita, founders of Royal West Properties, promised investors returns between 9 and 16 percent a year on property in southwest Florida markets like Cape Coral, Port Charlotte and Lehigh Acres. But when the bottom fell out of the market the Cantens began using new investor money to pay off earlier investors, the SEC alleges in its civil complaint.

“The Cantens also misappropriated more than $20 million from investors to fund unrelated personal business ventures, pay themselves high salaries, and divert money to their children and grandchildren,” the SEC charged.

Most of the alleged victims were elderly members of the Cuban-American community, where the Cantens are well known, the Miami Herald reports.

In a statement released to the press through a public relations firm, the Cantens denied the charges.

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