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CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago
All over the country thousands of prospective home owners are always looking for a deal to suit their pockets.

And in so many cases they are lured by various housing schemes that seem affordable as they are asked to pay a down payment to secure their spaces.

We look at one such housing scheme that left many people out of pocket as they search for the owner of the housing company who seemed to have disappeared with their money almost two years now.

Here's this special two month investigation by Senior Multimedia Investigative Journalist and Producer Mark Bassant and cameraman Brandon Benoit.
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:20 Even before the LBS emails in late 2022, months before that, Melissa Sunnylile said she had
00:25 her suspicions looking back at the agreement. When I saw the contract stating that the yearly
00:35 maintenance of the place would have increased by 50 percent and my husband had explained
00:41 to him we had small kids and by that time they would have been going to high school
00:45 and the cost of books and living would have been escalated and whatnot. So the owner of
00:52 the thing, LBS, he had completely waived that from our contract. So that was skeptical to
00:59 me.
01:00 Other issues arose when her husband Leon visited the company's St. James office in 2022 with
01:06 the firm intention of getting his money back but was convinced to bear with them.
01:11 When they showed him where it was, he said in his mind that's a nice area too. So he
01:16 had re-signed the contract in the St. James office and we went again looking and when
01:25 we went there, the neighbors said that those property were owned by their family and it
01:30 was never for sale. And they had shown us in the cadastral three different sections.
01:37 So I said, you know, maybe we get the wrong one. So we drove further up and the people
01:43 said no, those belong to other people and it was never for sale. That's when the Warren
01:49 Road alligator trees came up. So after that now we started to contact them, contact them.
01:57 The uncertainty of the investment weighed heavily on others as well.
02:01 At the end of 2022, I started to get suspicious because, you know, I would have seen emails
02:08 where the general manager would have resigned from the company and also they had indicated
02:14 that the office from St. James was relocated to Trin City. And when I investigated there,
02:21 there was absolutely nothing in Trin City, no office in Trin City. So I started to get
02:26 suspicious and I requested a refund via an email and I was promised to get a refund.
02:33 And now in 2023, it's almost impossible to contact anybody from that LBS company.
02:40 I would have heard that story and feel confident to invest my money. Today in 2023, almost
02:49 the end of 2023, and I am at the location now and there's absolutely no form of any
02:56 kind of development taking place.
02:59 It was especially difficult for Shelly Ann Mathlin, a single mother of two whose husband
03:03 had only recently passed away and was heavily reliant on her dream house after having surgery
03:09 in June 2022.
03:11 Upset because you have a lot of things I could have done with that money. Right. I
03:21 need to get back my money. Right. It's just I'm a single parent now. My daughter father
03:29 passed away in May this year. So I know what it is or what other ways and means for me
03:37 to get back my money so I can see about my children. I have two daughters. I will appreciate
03:45 that a lot. I'm sorry how to reach this. And they give us full confidence that big office
03:54 in St. James and we say, yes, these people look like you're waiting for us. You know,
04:00 they're going to be solid. I'm really upset because you have a lot of things I could have
04:07 done with that money. Right. I need to get back my money. Right. It's just I'm a single
04:16 parent now. My daughter father passed away in May this year. So I know what it is or
04:22 what other ways and means for me to get back my money so I can see about my children. I
04:27 have two daughters. I will appreciate that a lot.
04:31 The female this jockey from the East was equally distraught.
04:35 The most heartbreaking part of it is that my daughters and I were really looking forward
04:41 to this. They don't live with me. And that is what I wanted to see that I can live with
04:50 them, that we can all be together again. That's that's that's most heartbreaking thing for
04:55 me that no, we still we still apart.
04:59 Very unfortunate. I feel sort of stupid to be quite honest, to be caught up in such a
05:06 scam as this, because these people, the way the email office, everything just seems so
05:12 professional. The way they spoke with you, sat with me in that interview, actually showed
05:17 me drafts of this project. It's just I'm just in shock, just in shock. And this belief that
05:27 something like this could happen to the best of me.
05:31 Another woman who spoke in the condition of anonymity and paid $67,500 at the St. James
05:37 office was not sure of her next move.
05:39 I'm not sure if they are there or not, if they still operate from Trinidad. I know they
05:46 don't have the office in St. James anymore. They posted stating they were moving to Trin
05:51 City, but that never happened. I'm not sure where to go from here.
05:58 With emails and phone calls to the LBS representatives going unanswered for months, several investors
06:03 said they filed illegal action. Melissa Sanilal is one of them. But even that was tricky.
06:09 We want back the money. We do not trust the world. We do not want to wait on them. We
06:13 have been waiting since 2021. We do not want anything with them besides we want the money
06:19 back.
06:20 Have you taken any legal action?
06:22 Yes, I have contacted a lawyer friend who would have done a letter to them, but she
06:29 couldn't get in contact with them. But from the time she saw the contract, she knew that
06:34 something was off.
06:36 The businessman who invested in four lots and seven other people said they had taken
06:39 legal action with the premise of getting their money back.
06:43 And what happened to the THA deal? A well-placed THA source said it never got off the ground.
06:49 The source said apart from LBS not providing proper information to them, they were requesting
06:54 monies up front and the THA was not willing to risk such.
06:58 Senior sources at the frauds were confirmed that they received 10 reports about the alleged
07:02 fraud connected to LBS housing and its managing director, Lorenzo Smith.
07:07 In March this year, after silence for several months, LBS housing sent out an email telling
07:12 people like Dilyana who they had promised to have the unit ready in three months.
07:17 It would be inconsiderate of us to provide a date again and not be sure to live up to
07:22 it. We have no intention of giving false expectations and providing a date when there are only ongoing
07:28 talks that would be a lie.
07:31 After almost two weeks of trying to speak to Mr. Smith, he met us on November 10th but
07:36 declined to speak on camera but allowed us to record the interview for accurate quotes.
07:41 Mr. Smith, for the most part, seemed apologetic and wanted to clear the air. He claimed that
07:47 the actual number of people who made a down payment was 34.
07:52 When you come to the market with something new, there are people out there and they say
07:55 they want to have competition. They are going to do things to keep you down. Yes, the people
08:01 who are saying we are fraud, I can't argue with them because in our culture, you do good,
08:06 people still say you do bad. You do bad, people will still say you do bad. Yes, I must admit
08:11 we were lacking in our communication with customers which is going to change from December
08:16 and customers who want a refund will be refunded.
08:20 Smith said they had a new investor on board from Saudi Arabia saying funds were now in
08:24 his account as he showed us what was purportedly a screen grab of funds. He also dismissed
08:30 claims of the land belonging to someone else even though there could be the possibility
08:34 of land fraud that at times has emanated in the Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry.
08:41 I have all the correspondence from her, Mrs. Alexander, and legal documents. It was only
08:46 when we got to the last stage of payment we realized that though the land belongs to her,
08:50 it carries one deed with two different parcels of land. We did our search and the search
08:54 came out of the land. If we are a victim, it would be this person who is claiming now
08:59 the land belongs to her.
09:02 Responding to legal action and possible police reports, he said, "The only legal document
09:07 we got was from a businessman named 'Lawyer' not from the government, nowhere else. I think
09:13 someone is trying to contact us but not saying why they want to contact us but I do not know
09:17 if it's a lawyer."
09:19 Smith said the Monmouth Road location had drama and denied ever losing communication
09:23 with those who paid. But we too also told him that we had difficulty getting on to anyone
09:28 for almost a month. He also dismissed claims he was owing money on the rental of the office
09:33 at St. James.
09:35 He told Smith that people viewed him as a con man and a fraudster and asked how would
09:40 he repair that image.
09:43 This is where I have decided right now I am the one answering customers. Just as how you
09:47 got my number, there are customers calling my phone and I am the one to take responsibility
09:51 of talking to customers. I have decided in a reduction of the cost of their house, we
09:56 have to pay the price. This is what people think, that I use their money to travel. Some
10:01 accuse me of using their money to fix my mouth, it's my German insurance that pay for that
10:05 after a bike accident."
10:08 TV6 News obtained Smith's travel history. I saw he had travelled to Germany via Holland
10:13 where he has ties at least 8 times in 2022 and twice in 2023, spending in most cases
10:20 2 weeks. Most times he would leave from Tobago's A&R Robinson Airport. TV6 News had only gotten
10:26 on to Mr. Smith after obtaining a German WhatsApp number. He also dismissed suggestions that
10:32 he asked the THA for money up front and said they only sent in a proposal but no money
10:37 transaction was ever discussed. In relation to his bank accounts at a certain bank, he
10:42 said there was an ongoing investigation that he could not get into that his lawyers were
10:46 looking into.
10:48 In 2 months, many of those who have been waiting for 2 years will hope that Mr. Smith is a
10:53 man of his word and will refund their monies if they are no longer interested in the housing
10:57 project so that they can finally move on from this chapter of their lives. Mark Besant,
11:05 TV6 News.
11:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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