Complaint Review: Wayne E. Douglas Sr - Stephen F. Smith - Edith Ellen Estates - Hampton Lake Florida

Florida Developers Scam Out Of State Buyers Legally
Another Sign the USA is Headed In the Wrong Direction!

Bradford County, North Florida The justice system is merely an illusion these days when numerous laws on the State & Federal level can be broken, and the crooks can use the justice system to get away with their crimes without any consequence!

A California couple and their wheelchair bound 82-yr.-old mother became the latest victims of an old scam with a new twist when they purchased almost 2 acres of land from an unscrupulous developer & realtor to build their dream home in Florida. Unlike the olden days of selling worthless swamp in Florida that could be developed in some cases by investing thousands of dollars to bring the land above water, building roads, etc. Scammers nowadays sell fancy waterfront subdivisions with paved roads that are up to 99%-restricted land. This is not disclosed to the buyer being sold and illegal. The difference this time is unlike the swamp scams of years past where it was possible to build and develop, a Jurisdictional Wetland is "land that is protected by the government", you cannot even step foot on it, let alone row across it in your canoe. Buyers are obligated to pay the taxes each year because someone made a huge profits selling worthless dirt, and have no more rights to their property any other person driving down the street and looking out their car window would have. The sales take place in the dry season and the land is illegally cleared prior to the sale so no one suspects anything.

"This is worse than buying a government bridge, since you could at least drive across the bridge!" Prior to buying this worthless land, buyers can thoroughly research them with the local courthouse, property appraiser, building officials, zoning directors, and everyone will state they are "Good Property", a "Good Deal" and "They would buy it themselves, etc. which is obviously not true. Background checks on developer and realtor come up clean? After moving 2500 miles from one side of the country to the other in a moving truck and wasting over one hundred thousand dollars, victims are told by these scammers "That's Life" and "You Shouldn't Listen To What People Tell You Or What You Hear Them Say"? These are from people who drive around town with signs on their vehicle telling everyone to read the Bible?

Now you would think in the United States of America there would be laws against swindlers like this and there are, plenty of them, both State and Federal. However, just like other laws in this country, NOTHING IS ENFORCED. You make numerous complaints to a variety of regulatory agencies; an investigation is initiated taking a year or more, then nothing happens! This is why most people just quietly put up a "For Sale" sign on their bogus land instead of complaining. But if you do decide to complain, this is how game works and what you will experience:

The #1 problem for the unsuspecting buyer is the developer & realtor have employees working within the local courthouse, Building & Zoning Departments, and so on who assist in the ploy.
The FBI will not get involved unless an out of state buyer spends more than $500k? So a sale of $499k or less will avoid this problem.
The U.S. Postal Service can transmit payments, and these activities constitute the federal crime of mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1341. But as long as the scammers do not rip-off an individual for over $250k, or 25 people are not ripped-off $25k each or more, nothing will ever happen? So $249k x 24 people, and the crooks can legally skirt the law with almost $6 million dollars cash!
The State Agency who issues the building permits for these bogus home-sites DO NOT enforce their own permits? So, a developer can buy several hundred acres of restricted and protected government wetland for cheap, and get a building permit for one or two home-sites in the non-restricted sections, as long as they agree not to sell the restricted areas. But once the permit is in the developer's hand, new surveys are filed with the court and the worthless land is sold to out-of-state buyers and foreigners alike in violation of the subdivision's permit?
The Division of Land Sales, who apparently put people in jail when people do this on Ebay, will not get involved unless the scammers convey the land by quitclaim? Any generic forms from a common office supply chain can avoid this problem for the unethical & unscrupulous individual.
HUD has pages and pages of Federal laws pertaining to Interstate Land Sales, Fraud, etc. that have been violated, and these transactions are not legal in the USA. However, your grandchildren's grandchildren will graduate college before anything happens here since the mortgage crisis takes precedent in Washington DC nowadays.
The Division of Real Estate, the department responsible for licensing realtors in Florida will end up renewing these broker's license for another 2 years after an investigation is completed and finding numerous illegal violations! Then the case is handed over to their legal department for prosecution, and that never happens? I'm saving the best for last!
Media? Advertising this is what goes on here in Florida is not good for new business, so hush!
Politicians? It's an election year not anybody's job!
Civil Court? Numerous civil laws have been broken and any somewhat competent attorney can point that out to a judge or jury. But you see the same problems other agencies have had while sorting through the legal process here in Florida, are happening time and time over again, because everything ends up in the exact same place!

Now here is the best part I promised you!

In North Florida, most people are extremely nice! However, "some" are prejudice and will see you as mega-rich; job stealing, out of state foreigners, and you are fair game here in their quest for survival! This is a small town 10-15 minutes outside of a big city; everyone knows everyone and most people are related to each other either by blood or marriage. No one wants to "rock the boat" for his or her neighbors jeopardizing anyone's livelihood. Many have a family to feed, and putting food on the table is a priority. When various agencies have attempted to prosecute these scamming individuals in the past, the proper jurisdiction is the local county courthouse. The judge is elected into power through his connections with the churches, and has little legal experience. The State Attorneys who prosecute criminal cases like these have their own districts, and they won't prosecute one of their own.

So what happened to the civil court case you ask?

The judge closed his eyes & ears to dozens of laws the attorneys presented before him; "It's his court".

AND, the victims are being put on trial for 4-days, 6 months from now, for the Slandering, Defamation of Character, and Libel of the "Developer & Realtor who screwed them". Just because they were not happy about getting ripped-off by an unethical, immoral, and illegal miscarriage of the justice system and complained, but nobody listened.

By Daniel Arthur - March 7, 2008

For more information, please contact the writer at (((ROR REDACTED)))

Fl_landscam.victims
Hampton, Florida
U.S.A.

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