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April 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 am
outatime wrote:
Last summer I came across this discussion board and was shocked to read your warning about C E since the year before I had become an investor. This was my first investment and I really didn’t know enough about investing to get myself into this. Like so many others I heard D J on my fav. Christian radio station and got sucked in thinking that he must be trustworthy. After reading your post, I came across some others that were giving the same advise- to get out if you can.
I want to thank you for your post, you see I did listen and I did sell my investments before it was to late.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with those of us who really need it.
Glad to see we helped someone.
I’m thinking that all the Shine listeners who were duped should complain to the station or Alan Hunsberger.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hi I am an investor with concrete I have some info on this company .I have been told by someone close to the company now that they are having problems. I was told that they would buy a building at higher then the going rate at first it was 2million over the appraisal and then sell them to the lp for 3million over that . concrete does have a mounthly management fee on these buildings that they get money from.I was told that after they purchased castleridge they started commingling funds. I was also told that these accounts were emptied at the end of every month if there was any money left.I was told that all the gps were aware of this and did this. I was also told that David Jones when to pick up his money from one of the deals and David Humeniuk did not give it to him .I was also told by Concerte they have no finacials and have not done taxes since day one .I was told that the last projects they did not get enough money from investors to close the deal.I was told that instead of telling the investors they lost there money the went and got notes at 30% and used this borrowed money to close . I was told they took some of this money because they had more and used it for another building these notes are unsecured good luck getting your money back.I was told that they had to get 59% mortgage on one building and 40% on another building I wounder how they expect the Lp to think this is ok. I know if my mortgage was 20%I would go bankrupt .I beleive it was greed and they just wanted there commission and it did not matter about the Lp .I have been told the Dave humeniuk is being investagated for fraud by the police.I was told they are selling everything to strategic to get the mess swept away .I was told the Lp will take it on the chin when they are purchased. I was told it will be millions lower than they were purchased by the Lp.kiss your money goodbye.I was told that if this goes through with strategic you will never get your money back.To me it looks like they stole money from the Lp and now the game is up and they are looking for the door .I was told that Dave Jone was part of this he had to know about it they need two people to sign for the money.David Jones new onehundred % that the Lp would lose there money but is so arrogant he thinks we will do anything he says so if you listen to David Jones kiss your money goodbye . I wonder how they thought we would take on liability and have no say that right there tells me they are out for thm selfs.If somthing goes wrong they will come after the Lp assets thats good they did not take enough of our money lets just give them every thing.David Jone told people to take out credit lines on your houses now you won’t see any money to pay them back that just makes it very obvious that he is out only for David Jone .David Jones has made millions on this I do not see godly man doing anything to fix this or make it right .I beleive it is all about the money for them and they need more .I was told that they will get millions in this deal and we will lose many millions in the deal.I am hopeing that some how they get what coming to them for steeling the money.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
I as well had more money than brains at the time of investing into the mexico project. Emotions before due diligence clouded my judgement..Live and learn!!!
Anybody else recieve any news on this El golfo project??
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
“The others of you that are in the projects that I would say no company in it’s right mind would touch I wish you luck, a law suit might be the only recourse that you have.”
Out of all the projects that CE sold us on, which of the projects do you think another company would not touch? Why?
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
I am an Investor in a downtown property. There have been no payouts (profit share) for December 31, 2008 and March 31, 2009 and it is looking like there will be nothing for July 09. They have never provided financial statements to there investors, which they are required to do – and have promised many times. This is a bad investment with many problems. These guys are salesmen but not managers. Look at the reports by Alberta Securities Commission and you will think twice about investing with these companies.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Well, we kept talking about getting rid of the GP and that wasn’t so easy was it! All the hoopla about let’s get together and vote out the GP and we can do a better job then the GP……! I agree this GP has to go but I want to know who is willing to step in?? All I hear is some old nag yapping about taking over, is she willing to step in?
Most LP holders do not have the net worth or the risk tolerance to step in and takeover. Few out there have the appetite to expose themselves to such risk. If you read the LPA, once the LP’s get involved in the business of the GP, they have really exposed themselves from the limited liabilty which we signed up for. Most of the LP’s can’t step in and obtain a mortgage on a commercial building (SNC). Now we are looking to get AC involved who have their own agenda. Do you think they are going put their name on the line for financing for us without a price??? Think again? I have spoken to a number of lawyers, other real estate syndicators and industry members, no one wants to step into this mess and put their name on the line. Strategic is even having second thoughts!! If Riaz Mamdani, who owns half this city and shrewd as he is, is telling us he is concerned about the risk in this portfolio, I don’t understand how Aunt Edna LP holder is going to provide advise on the direction we take?? Now we have LP holders that have no investment or real estate background trying to give advise on how to resolve it.
There is a reason why large investors do not want to be in a pool with smaller investors, we both have different agendas. As you can tell I am very frustrated!!!
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
I notice that concerned1 (former Concrete Equities Sales Rep) deleted his post.
I wonder if that had anything to do with litigation threats from the so called big shots at CE.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hi Ladies and Gents, my name is Huxley and I have no investment with CE or affiliation with them in any way.
I was directed to this discussion site by a friend of mine. I am on a related discussion board on this website (search Bridgecreek Developments), The company operates on a similar level as CE except the monies raised go towards residential / recreational investments.
Needless to say, all 1400 investors with that company are also being affected the way it appears this group is.
I can see that this group appears to be struggling with how to move forward, a Go Forward Proporsal was also put forward by the directors of our Bridgecreek basically mirroring what it appears what you are asked to do.
At this point there are several investor groups with Bridgecreek (representing different projects) who are dealing with the company.
As someone dealing with this already, I can offer some advice which Im sure you have already considered.
1) Get the group organized (obtain the investor list for each LP) and get someone nominated as a spokesperson/ leader etc.
2) Figure out how to apportion costs to the group in order to secure rights. This is important so that there are no misunderstandings
3) Meet with a lawyer (with a large investor base, having one dedicated person will mean the lawyer is only responding to messages from one person, if all the investors tried to call the lawyer for updates, your bill will only rise by the second)
4) Decide a course of action, as well as how to handle ongoing decisions after you realize on your security, as a group and instruct the lawyer to act. Do not involve anyone not currently an investor, it might mean that you decide as a group to realize on your security, whatever that might look like, but dont know who will manage the project. Just deal with those two as separate issues which is what they are. If you dont trust CE, dont leave your money there. At minimum create your own legal entity and passively manage things that way.
Getting a professional manager can happen but wasting time reaching a decision only means more money getting wasted every day on rents and salaries by CE. I am not entirely familiar with the structure of your investment so I apologize if this seems too simple a solution (it is how some members of our group are moving, and one of them has taken on the responsibilities of marketing and selling property in conjunction with a professional management firm, so it can be done)
5) There was earlier posts about civil and criminal action.
Under the criminal code ss. 362, under Fraud and False Pretense it lists the various criminal categories.
Using materially incorrect information to obtain mortgage credit in any form is a criminal act. I think this applies in your case although Im not 100% positive having no other knowledge of the facts other than what I read here.
My recommendation at this point if you wish to pursue these claim is to get in touch with me.
I am trying to dig up information myself about the legalities but will be visiting the commercial crimes division of the CPS and RCMP shortly. Given the similarity of these alleged crimes it makes sense to present this together (The calgary police are unlikely to ignore a request by 2500 total investors as it stands to reason that if that many people are involved something is going on)
6) Ive already been in touch with the media (CTV and the Calgary Herald) both are interested in doing stories but need proof of criminality and / or tortious acts by the salespeople/ directors etc.
Again this is something members of our group are also working on and something I think makes sense to deal with as a combined larger group. Its impossible to ignore claims by that many people of wrongdoing, even if full liability can not be proven, any reporter will recognize that there is a newsworthy story and start digging around, which is what we all want.
I apologize for the verbose and unsolicited advise, of course you are free to do what you wish with this. All the best with your efforts in recovering your monies.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
___First, I would like to thank the steering committee for all the time and effort they have committed to this cause. As well, as keeping us up to date with the latest information._
I agree with some of the points that you have made ‘retiredat55′, especially around the area of GP replacement. I have invested in two of the projects and after hearing we may have paid an excessive amount of money for CEP. I think it is time to look at a law suit (pertaining to the involved GP’s). As well, I would entertain the thought of selling the properties. This way we can at least get some of our money back…We would first need to have a property appraisal completed before we could see if this is a good strategic move. People may think this is a foolish idea, being that the state of the economy is not too hot, but if it is true that we paid $10 000 000 (ten million) dollars more for CEP then what it is worth, this may be our only option. I find it hard to believe (if the above is true) that we are going to have enough money to cover the mortgage for CEP. Which makes me think that CE GP’s have been ‘Robbing Peter to Pay Paul’. However, if CEP is able to stand on its own, it may be plausable to hold it until the market picks up.
Another concern I have is around the access to the property bank accounts. Who has access to the property accounts? Do the GP�s have access? Who is monitoring the accounts? Who is paying the monthly bills (utility, mtg. property tax, ect)?
I noticed another television ad for CE…Have they been using our money for these ad’s? What is the mortgage on CEP, MEG and the other buildings? Who hold these mortgages? What percentage are we paying on the mortages?
Look forward to everyone�s reply!