White Sands & Green Planet

A few years back Green Planet Plc starting selling plots of land in the Province of Natal in North East Brazil. They operated out of expensive premises in The Gherkin in the City of London.

The main area for sale was at The White Sands Country Club, and White Sands Towers, just a few miles to the north of the city of Natal.

Admittedly this is a great area for development, but was it a great deal?

Purchasers of land at White Sands are mostly still waiting for certificates to show they own anything. Some have been offered planning certificates, but these relate to what we would normally call outline consent rather than detailed consent. My understanding is that the planning certificates relate to what the Brazilians called the loteamento, or the area classification. This is stage one of a rather lengthy process that can take four years or more to come to fruition.

To the best of my knowledge there have been no updates.

A trust certificate was issued to some purchasers claiming that a company called Title and Trust was acting as trustee for the operation. That company ceased trading at least two years ago.

Green Planet’s website, though still online, has not been updated for nearly two years. The company moved from The Gherkin into smaller offices in Soho Square. They then moved again into even smaller officers in Covent Garden, and my understanding is that there is one room, a desk, and a telephone, that is never answered.

It also appears that most of the directors have resigned, and the company is a skeleton. Not only is the UK version of the company no longer functioning, but neither are the two related companies in Gibraltar.

In short, the situation would appear to be that the company no longer exists, and the money that has been paid over for plots of land has gone god knows where, and there is in all probability no ownership of land in Brazil at all.

Someone claiming to be called Brian Hubbard appears to be acting as some kind of watchdog for the company. What his purpose is, is not clear at the moment, and although he has offered to speak to me, he has not returned my calls, neither has he sent any meaningful email of explanation to me. For the record, Brian’s email address is brian.hubbard@greenplanetinvestment.com

Whether there is anything tangible that could be called Green Planet Investment is another matter.

A copy of this post will be emailed to him, and I will post any reply he chooses to make. However, at the moment it would appear that Green Planet was yet another fraudulent operation, and those of you who have been defrauded are invited to join a group to see what, if anything, can be salvaged from this mess.

Lose Money in Brazil

This is issued in the public interest. We have information on more sharks in the water, ready to bite off your wallet.

I have for some time been saying that Brazil is the place to buy property. I am invested there, and my investments are doing well. It would be difficult to go wrong in this country. It is coming along by leaps and bounds. It’s economy has come from nowhere just a decade ago to being just outside the top five biggest economies in the world.

Land prices in good locations in Brazil are cheap. They can only get more expensive. If you own some Brazilian land and sit on it for a while you will ultimately be able to sell for a nice fat profit.

Where there’s a profit there are thieves.

Your problem in investing in Brazil is not necessarily the investment but the sharks who sell it to you, or maybe even pretend to sell it.

There is a golden rule with all these investments. Get off your arse and go and look. If you dont you are likely to get stuffed.

I recently did a deal with a company called Cavendish Land & Property Investments (CLP). They purport to be selling land for development in Sunset Beach, Natal Province. I was initially not interested in the deal because I could not verify the company selling it was on the level, but I have a letter in my possession telling me they will buy back the property for a 10% uplift in price on 30 days notice.

Well, I sent in my request for them to do just that, and I have received no response and no sale-back. I sued them in the County Court. I now have a judgment against them.

So, here we go again. Dont have anything to do with a company selling plots of land at Sunset Beach.

CLP also run a nice line in ad-speak, telling customers that deals have been struck with Petrobras and the like. That is all codswallop. Steer well clear of this company.

john