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RE: We have smart people! We are looking for more!
There are certainly some decent characters over there and I wish you the very best. I don't come to the annual event because I'm morally opposed to supporting unrepentant scam artists like Berwick but nevertheless, I'll swing by and have a look next time I'm up there. A good community shouldn't be defined by its bad apples anyway, right? Cheers from Chile!
You are correct about judging. You'll be happy to know, Jeff isn't involved in this event. He's is welcome to participate of course as is everyone in the community. Just for the record, Jeff has been my neighbor for years and although I haven't done any serious business with him, I have never seen anything disingenuous.
Also, I spent some time in Chile, loved it and the people there. Every time I get a bottle of Chilean wine I toast to the good will and nature of that beautiful place and it's people.
Anyone can google "Jeff Berwick Scam" and quickly see a sample of the damage he's responsible for. I had a front-row seat at the Galt's Gulch Chile disaster and learned my lesson well. Glad to hear you haven't been burned yourself yet.
I'm more familiar than most with Galt's Gulch. I traveled down there in 2013. I looked at the project and prior to going down was excited at the possibilities but it was pretty clear right off they weren't ready to sell anything. The land wasn't subdivided and when I asked Ken Johnson about some of simplest of questions about it. He told me he "knew people in Hollywood!"
That was the first time I met Jeff. Every time I saw him during that time he was practically incoherent from drinking too much.
I'm not going to defend Jeff but several people who were in doubt about whether to invest asked me about my thoughts. I responded with, "It's pretty simple... What are you buying?" The correct answer was... a dream. Because there were no deeds or titles to the land available.
Now, I had been involved in the construction industry for many years. So I had a great deal more experience than most in understanding land purchases. I'm sorry to see people lose their money on a bad deal. But just for everyone's benefit going forward because there seems to be many more scams out there... if anyone reading this is ever in a circumstance where someone is offering something that might be questionable but they can't help themselves with their excitement to buy in... put the money into the hands of a third party escrow until the claims can be verified.
I'm a natural skeptic so I do my own due diligence when it comes to people's claims. As a rule I'm willing to spend up to 10% of an investment to investigate an opportunity to find enough truth to give me some sort of comfort. Otherwise I pass, no matter how exciting the claims.
As for Jeff I can give you my personal observations if you'd like. To sum it up from what I saw. He was drunk and stupid, he got involved in something way over his head. When I ran into him again in 2015 for the first Anarchapulco he was living pretty frugal for someone who took off with millions. Where did the money go? I have some ideas. Some was certainly squandered on the "show" when people came down to see. Most went to the previous owners in the form of payments for the land. Legal fees and contractors (who also apparently got screwed). The rest is a question that may never be known. Ken certainly wasn't living extravagantly on site. I do know from my own experience on bad projects that time alone can eat up allot of money. Once a project gets stalled and money gets tight, moving forward gets harder and harder and much more expensive. Was it designed to fail? I have my doubts. There was many inexperienced well meaning people. Quite a few stupid decisions. Were there greedy players? Yes.
Which brings me back to what I'm doing today. When I first came to Acapulco I wanted to build a development here similar to the promises of Galt's Gulch. I must admit, I'm a bit of a dreamer in that regard... but over time as I've learned the market here and deprogrammed myself from living in the USA most of my life. It wasn't necessary. We've started a community here with practically no investment. To live here is cheap and we don't have to live right next to each other. By living throughout the city we have a great deal of security in our diversity of choices and our dispersion. That also gives us the opportunity to connect with the locals in many different ways.
I consider Mexico one of the freest countries because the people have few illusions about the government. If you ask the average Mexican about the police or the government they will tell you straight up that they are corrupt and useless. As for the police themselves, thanks to the cartels, they are infiltrated. The average policeman doesn't really know who to trust and in many cases feels a bit threatened just walking down the street. Needless to say, they don't consider themselves "authorities". It does have a 'Wild West' feel in some ways but not the shoot em up version... just the version where, when it comes to about everything, the responsibility and authority rests in the hands of the individual or group willing to take it.
Sorry about the long winded response but I hope that gives you a bit more clarity on where I'm at.