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Russ Whitney’s Costa Rica activities

Russ Whitney reportedly owns some property in Costa Rica and holds seminars there. Here are some things I have been told. Don’t know if they are true. I would appreciate help from readers in tracking down pertinent facts. Much of what I have reported about Whitney has been brought to me by readers.
‘Investors are paying an incredible premium’ at Rancho Monterey
On 4/27/04 I got an email from a person who says he lives in Costa Rica. He said that Whitney’s seminar there is “supposedly just a sales pitch for [Whitney’s] Rancho Monterey project” and that the “investors are paying an incredible premium.” If I understand correctly, he means that Whitney brings persons from the U.S. and perhaps other countries to seminars in Costa Rica. The attendees must pay big bucks for the seminar, but they are essentially paying to attend something like those “free vacations” you get offered by telephone boiler room sales persons if you agree to listen to a sales pitch for condos or vacation home lots. The phrase “incredible premium” apparently means that the buyers are paying far more than market value for the properties.
Selling overpriced real estate to out-of-towners is an age-old scam. I have heard that Whitney does something similar with attendees at his “Millionaire University” in Cape Coral, FL. The federal government enacted the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act to put a stop to many abuses in the sale of property to out-of-state buyers. To read the actual text of the law go to http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/ils/ilsstat.cfm.
One of its main provisions is that covered developers must provide purchasers with a Property Report. If they do not, you can get your money back within two years. Apparently there are some circumstances where you can get your money back within two years even if you do get a property report. The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act applies to both land in the U.S. as well as in foreign countries like Costa Rica [Section 1402(3)].
I do not know if the Act applies to what Whitney sells in Costa Rica. There are many exceptions depending on the number of parcels, whether they have buildings on them, and so forth. I do not yet know the details of what Whitney sells there.
• Who specifically owns the properties they are selling? Whitney himself? Or one of his companies?
• What are the addresses, prices, and dates of sale for some of the deals?
• What were the actual fair market values of those properties on the dates they were sold for those prices?
• Is the seller covered by the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act?
• Is the seller complying with the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act?
Complaints about Whitney and his selling of real estate to out-of-state buyers
If you have a complaint about Russ Whitney selling real estate to out-of-state persons, go to http://www.hud.gov/complaints/landsales.cfm.
‘The good stuff’
I have also heard that persons are urged to attend the Costa Rica seminar because it offers stuff that Whitney instructors cannot talk about in the U.S. What the heck would that be? Sounds shady. Like, “Pssst. Wanna buy an asset-protection seminar?”
And how does saying it in Costa Rica matter? Does Whitney think the IRS or another agency or the press cannot send a person to attend just because it is outside of the U.S.? IRS probably ought to subpoena Whitney’s records of all the people who attended his Costa Rica seminars.
If you are familiar with the pitch for the Costa Rica seminars and can confirm or deny that they say or imply that its offshore location means they teach things there that “cannot” be taught in the U.S., please let me know.
In fact, we have freedom of speech in the U.S. It’s not instructors saying something that gets you into trouble. It’s you doing things that are illegal that gets you into trouble. Whether you got the advice to do something illegal in the U.S. or Costa Rica matters not.
For the record, U.S. citizens are taxed on all income made worldwide. There are some tax credits for taxes paid to foreign countries. If there were not, you could be taxed twice on the same income. But you cannot avoid tax on any income just by running it through Costa Rica or any other country. For years, Schedule B of the Federal Income Tax return has asked if you have any foreign accounts, trusts, interest or dividends.
Extradition treaty
Some may think that Costa Rica must not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. (That’s a treaty that causes the country in question to ship you back to the U.S. and vice versa if you break the laws and try to hide in that country.] Actually, it does: http://usembassy.or.cr/exttreatyeng.html. So don’t be too quick to assume that the real estate you bought in Costa Rica can be a place to hide if you are trying to avoid prosecution for tax evasion or some such in the U.S. Read the treaty to make sure the offense you may have committed is not extraditable.
I would appreciate any other information readers could provide me regarding Whitney’s Costa Rica operations.
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John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.