Kissed Florida Dream Fell Apart - Telegraph.Co.Uk - Property In Florida: How The Sun - Money
Property in Florida: How the sun-kissed Florida dream fell apart - Telegraph.co.uk
Property in Florida: How the sun-kissed Florida dream fell apart Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Furthermore, he adds, British buyers didn't see Florida as "foreign" in the same way as, say, Spain or Bulgaria - nor did they imagine that they can get ... |
As cautionary tales go, his takes some beating - and it offers a salutory lesson to anyone tempted to invest in the latest "property hotspot", whether in the US or anywhere else. At the height of the 2004 boom, he found himself in Florida and decided that it was the place to invest. At the end of January, David Weiker and Larry Maloney, a former president and board member of Platinum Properties, were arrested and charged with organised fraud and other offences. Back then, Britons returning from Orlando were just as likely to have bought a holiday home as a Mickey Mouse corkscrew. Boom and bust: the attractions of Florida in the days when all seemed rosyDevelopers' flags flew in such abundance along all the main tributaries of Interstate 4 that drivers felt like victorious emperors returning from battle. His Floridian villa does not exist, nor is it ever likely to. Hundreds of British investors have lost millions of dollars and are now trapped in litigation of Byzantine complexity.A serious criminal investigation is now under way. In 1994, he persuaded investors to part with money for a "themed" $25million residential community he was to build on 1,200 acres of undeveloped land. Maloney, who was removed from the board in October 2005, made the accusations in a 2006 lawsuit filed in Lake County Court against Platinum. Nor are any of the 600 homes Platinum Properties sold off-plan to largely British investors at its Winslow Estates, Millbrook Manor and Citrus Gardens sites. Not that there appears to have been a lot for them to do. Now hundreds of Britons who have bought in Florida are left out of pocket. Platinum Properties stood for nothing but three wastelands used for waste-tipping by local builders who were constructing houses nearby. Take Paul Ream, from Fleet in Hampshire. The $24million of down payments paid to Platinum, whose boss is former time-share salesman, David N. The community was never built, much of investors' money went on business expenses, and the company was later dissolved. The queue to purchase at developments within the mythical 15-minute drive from Walt Disney World surpassed that at the playground's Space Mountain ride. There's just no truth to it." Maloney has not commented.The two men have links that go back a long way. Weiker spent a further $2.5million in employee salaries, appointing both his wife, Irene Weiker, and his son, David Weiker Jnr, to Platinum's board. Weiker denied the allegations and Maloney later worked for the company again, as a partner. Weiker has described the charges as "bogus": "None of it is true. Weiker, who has recently filed for personal bankruptcy for the third time, has a history of irregular business dealings.
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