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Russ Whitney’s assets and their locations by John T. Reed

Copyright 2002, 2003 by John T. Reed
Last update 4/28/03

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If you sue Russ Whitney and win, you need to locate his assets to collect. He is big on asset protection, which would make it more difficult to find and collect from some of them, but let’s try to locate those anyway.
Also, he can’t hide everything. He owns stock in various companies, U.S. bank accounts, a home, and so forth. I would appreciate hearing from anyone with regard to the locations and hiding mechanisms of Whitney’s assets.
Whitney Information Network, Inc.—OTC BB public company which is required to file quarterly public documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can read those documents, which are excruciatingly detailed, at the SEC’s edgar web site (http://www.sec.gov/edgar). In one SEC report, Whitney was listed as owner of 86% of the stock in this company. You can see my comments on highlights from the SEC reports at www.johntreed.com/ReedonWINinc.html.
Car
2002 Cadillac Escalade SUV. GMAC holds a lien on it.
Real estate (Some of these may never have been Whitney owned or may no longer be Whitney owned, but he may have taken back mortgages against them. Such mortgages are assets, too. The Redondo Beach property seems out of place. It may be that an incorrect social security number was entered with regard to that property and the mistake turned the correct SSAN into Whitney’s SSAN.
Whitney’s Social Security number was issued in New York State between 1/1/65 and 12/31/67 when he was 10 to 12 years old. The fact that his number was issued so young indicates he had some sort of income. At that age, it would typically be interest or dividends. He may also have gotten a Social Security number at that age for some governmental action like getting a passport.)
When you search for Russ Whitney’s stuff in various Internet programs for that purpose, he comes up under at least four different names:
• Russell A. Whitneyy—apparently a typo but if you do not check it you miss at least one of his properties
• Russell W. Whitney—this is the name of his father and grown son, but it was apparently erroneously used as his name on at least one property
• Russell Whitney
• Russell A. Whitney
1811 SW 48th Lane, Cape Coral, FL 33914 (value $79,740?)
2130 SW 50th Lane, Cape Coral, FL 33914
232 Bayshore Drive, Cape Coral, FL 33904 (10,000 or 14,000 or16,000 square foot lot. Whitney’s home, reportedly in the name of 1-Bayshore Trust of which Ronald Simon, Whitney’s in-house CPA is trustee. Built by Gulfstream Development Group, Inc., 4821 Coronado Parkway, Cape Coral, FL 33904)
2520 SE 8th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33904
343 Cape Coral Parkway, Cape Coral, FL 33901
4128 SW 15th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33914 (value $59,010?)
4814 Coronado Parkway, Cape Coral, FL 33904 (office building value $374,740?))
4822 SW 20th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33914
4835 SW 18th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33914 (owner listed as 1-SW 18th Avenue Trust, value $81,510?))
4836 SW 24th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33914 (value $76,700?)
5227 SW 16th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33914 (value $81,910?)
5326 Del Monte Court, Cape Coral, FL 33904
613 Coronado, Cape Coral, FL 33904
615 SE 31st Street, Cape Coral, FL 33904 (value $88,900?)
2251 Grand Avenue, Fort Myers, FL 33901 (occupied by Haitian Catholic Community 239-334-2234)
2400 Spurgeon Avenue, Redondo Beach, CA 90278
4818 Coronado Parkway, Cape Coral, FL 33904 (WIN, Inc. headquarters building listed in various documents, apparently relatively empty and rarely used—cars in the parking lots on Thursdays or Fridays)
229 Bayshore Drive, Cape Coral, FL 33904 (Listed as owned by a trust)
1612 Cape Coral Parkway East Cape Coral, FL 33904 (Apparent actual headquarters of Whitney businesses, reportedly owned by trust of which Ronald S. Simon, Whitney’s CFO, is trustee)
5341 Nautilus Drive, Cape Coral, FL
354 Bayshore Drive, Cape Coral, Fl (reportedly in trust with wife as trustee)
5223 SW 16th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33914 (value $81,040?)
5613 Coronado, Cape Coral, FL 33904
1813 SW 48th Lane, Cape Coral, FL 33914
Whitney was apparently involved in some real estate development in Lake County, CA in late 2003.
The following is listed as being owned by Ingrid E. Whitney in Lee County, FL:
2130 SW 50th Lane, Cape Coral, FL 33914
In Schenectady, he owned various interests in the following properties. He may still own interests in some of them, or have taken mortgages or land contracts back on some of them.
3160 Guilderland Avenue, Rotterdam, NY 12306
455 Hulett Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
11 Eagle Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
904 Lincoln Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12307
??? Mumford Street (Lot 187), Schenectady, NY 12307
??? Schenectady Street (Lot 77), Schenectady, NY 12307
23-25 Eagle Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
16 Eagle Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
20 Swan Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
812 Grant Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12307
8 Hawk Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
21 Eagle Street, Schenectady, NY 12307
117 Valley View Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12306 (4/87—I saw no mention of this property when I checked Whitney’s name in the Schenectady County Clerk’s records.)
A Whitney employee tried to tell me that the above was not necessarily the complete list of Whitney’s properties in Schenectady, that he may have owned others in trusts that are not in his name. I doubt it. He was only in his twenties then. Trusts for hiding property ownership were not big back then. I don’t believe the phrase “asset protection” had even been invented back then. His 1984 books seem pretty thorough. He makes no mention in them of any other properties or of any trusts or the use of trusts.
Also, he can’t have it both ways—bragging about how rich he is on the one hand, then claiming he won’t tell you what he owns on the other because he doesn’t want possible persons who might sue him to know how rich he is. It looks to me like he did not own anywhere near as much real estate in New York as he claims when bragging about his success or his “first fortune.” See my Web page comparing his claims to my research.
If he wants to claim otherwise, he can prove it. Until then, I don’t buy it. Many, if not most, gurus say the reason few properties show up under their names in the real estate records is they own them in ways that disguise their ownership for asset-protection reasons. Yeah, or they are simply lying about the ownership.
Show me the deeds. Talk is cheap.
Trusts in others’ names
Whitney apparently advocates hiding assets by using trusts with other person’s names on them. One way to break that code is to look at mailing addresses listed on property records. In other words, where does the owner of the property want the property tax bills sent. Trusts that are having their bills sent to a property owned by Whitney, like 4818 Coronado, his office, may be owned by Whitney.
Another clue is how the trusts are named. Whitney apparently does the common trick of naming the trust after the street the property is on another nearby street. So you could just look for trusts named after streets. They won’t all be Whitney, but you will have narrowed it down.
I cannot tell from the Web information whether these are actually Brevoort’s properties or are owned by Whitney in trusts with Bervoort’s name on them, but here are the properties in Lee County, FL listed as owned by Richard Brevoort.
4020 Old Burnt Store Road N, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4006 NW 2nd Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4326 NW 44th Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3736 NW 43rd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3510 NW 46th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3502 NW 41st Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3517 NW 41st Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4126 NW 37th Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4115 NW 36th Lane, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4134 NW 32nd Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4225 NW 32nd Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4231 NW 33rd Lane, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4429 NW 32nd Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4342 NW 28th Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4309 NW 31st Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3039 NW 42nd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4119 NW 25th Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4239 NW 25th Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4329 NW 27th Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993
2200 NW 42nd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
2201 NW 37th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
2317 NW 38th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1931 NW 34th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
2313 NW 34th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1620 NW 32nd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1614 NW 32nd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1904 NW 32nd Court, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3613 NW 20th Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1526 NW 38th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1527 NW 37th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1508 NW 37th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1201 NW 36th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1236 NW 35th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1412 N. Burnt Store Road, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1028 NW 33rd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
1009 NW 33rd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
731 NW 38th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
418 NW 37th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
411 NW 37th Avenue, Cape Coral, FL 33993
403 NW 32nd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
603 NW 32nd Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3311 NW 4th Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3312 NW 2nd Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
208 NW 35th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
6 NM 35th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
3307 NW 4th Street, Cape Coral, FL 33993
227 NW 38th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33993
4500 SE 5th Place 206, Cape Coral, FL 33904
Brevoort’s properties are all or almost all vacant lots. Isn’t it interesting how many more properties Brevoort apparently owns than his big boss Whitney owns? Or does Brevoort really own them? They all have the same mailing address: 4818 Coronado Parkway, Cape Coral, FL 33904—the address of Whitney Information Network, Inc.’s headquarters office.
As recently as 1998, Brevoort was making $30,281 a year according to Whitney’s SEC filings. He only owned 1.95% of Whitney Information Network, Inc. stock. Since the stock is not listed on an exchange and is extremely thinly traded, the value of that 1.95% is hard to say. Also, if Brevoort had tried to sell a significant amount, he probably would have had to file various insider trading public notices and the stock price would have fallen as a result.
Whitney’s daughter was named as defendant in a delinquent property tax lawsuit in Cape Coral. She was described as the trustee of a trust named after the street address of the property.
Whitney’s main long-term trusted associate now that Brevoort is deceased appears to be Ronald S. Simon, C.P.A., the Secretary/Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer of Whitney Information Network, Inc. Here are the properties listed under his name in Lee County, FL:
4706 Coronado Pkwy, Cape Coral, FL 33904 (Owner is Ronald Simon, 47th Terrace Trust)
1342 Colonial Blvd C22, Fort Myers, FL 33907
1342 Colonial Blvd C23, Fort Myers, FL 33907
Other trusts
Here are some other trusts that have been reported to me as possibly being related to Russ Whitney:
IW Land Trust
I W Land Trust
Bayshore Trust
Thea R. Whitney Trust
102 4 4th Street Trust
102-4 4th Street Trust
Surety Trust
Burnt Store Land Trust
1612 E Cape Coral Parkway Land Trust
Costa Rica
Whitney apparently owns or leases something in Costa Rica. I would appreciate hearing details from any readers in the know.
Canada
Whitney apparently owns or leases something in Markham, Ontario, Canada. Another source said it was Mississauga, Ontario. Whitney’s Form 10-K/A for 2001 says it is at Unit 20, 3780 14th Avenue, Markham. I would appreciate hearing details from any readers in the know.
England
Whitney apparently owns or leases something at 500 Chiswick High Road, Suite 44, London, England W4 5RG telephone 020 8956 2242. I would appreciate hearing details from any readers in the know.
Utah
For some reason, Utah seems to be the sleazy real estate guru capital of the world. Whitney has three locations there. A Whitney news release dated 9/12/02 says they have their “consulting group” [telephone boiler room] in Salt Lake City. Another location is 3,678 square feet at Draper Business Park, Suite 200, Building #5, 12227 South Business Park Drive and 3,475 square feet at Suite 230, Building #7, 12244 South Business Park Drive, both in Draper, UT.
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.