Complaint Review: Global Trade & International Investments - San Jose Select State/Province

November 15, 2010

The following is a synopsis of the telephone conference held Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 7pm CST. with Shane Messer.
Shane Messer has a law degree and sits on the board of Lawyers without Borders in Costa Rica. He was referred to me by another attorney, Marion Williams. Ms. Williams was trying to secure funding for a project on the isle of Tobago through Brad Hogan and Global Trade and International Investment Services, S.A. When the funding did not occur she began to reach out to her sources for more information on Brad Hogan.
Shanes comments regarding Brad Hogan are below:
He has personally known Brad for 3 years. Shane is one of the original people he tried to sell land to via Costa Vista Land, which was operating in 2007. Every single person in this scam lost between $5,000 and $100,000. He has two clients that have lost $144,000 with Brad. One lives in Tennessee and the other in Washington DC.
Brad Hogan worked with partners Carlos Zuniga and John Dorsey on the Costa Vista Land project.
The scam worked like this: Brad had an office just east of Guadalupe (San Jose). He would bring in clients, take them to see fake properties, show them offices, hire girls for them, and take them to fancy restaurants and bars. Brad is a soft closer which means he creates such a strong illusion of trust that people naturally dont want to think twice about investing money because no one could create such an elaborate story such as Brad. He is also a very believable person.
Brads promises are usually simple: We know the land and the history and we can make you money. If you want to do it, fine. If not, thats okay too. Im here for the long-haul. Once clients wire the money, Brad maintains short-term relationships and then settles into a state of the market messed us up, but we are still in this for the long-haul.
In reality, Brad has never made a single person a single penny from what he could gather. They have found a lot of developers and people who speak against Brad, but ZERO who can vouch for a single thing he says. After Brads scam of Costa Vista Land came to light, his partners split up, sued each other, and subsequently Brad formed Costa Del Mar which was housed on the top floor of Mall San Pedro.
That scam came to light last year, and now Brad is currently (as far as he knows) working from his home near Burger King, across from Mall San Pedro. He closed the Mall San Pedro office.
Other items of note:
Brad is a known purchaser and user of cocaine, prostitutes, and fast expensive cars.
Brad Hogan has many false identifications thereby allowing him to operate under several names.
The attorney that Brad used in working the Costa Vista Land scam is Vivian Consejos. Her office is in Escazu next to the mall.
Brad currently has two contracts out on his life; one for $5,000 the other for $7,500. He has a long-time bodyguard named Milton with him at all times. Milton is an ex-Columbian paramilitary soldier.
The only recourse clients have is a civil law suit, which would be fruitless because Brad Hogan does not have any assets in his own name, or a criminal law suit to see if you can put him in jail. Although it is not certain you would get to trial. You would have to amass enough information for the District Attorney to agree to try the case. Costa Rica does not have a legal system like the U.S. Shane Messers attorney is Karen Zamora. 

I have contacted the U.S. Embassy in regards to recourse against Global Trade or Brad Hogan. Their advice was to hire a Costa Rican attorney and pursue the matter through the court system. Although our clients take the risk of throwing good money after bad, this was their only suggestion. Please feel free to contact me regarding any item listed that may need clarification.