Drugs in Cap Cana Marina

The antinarcotics (DNCD) agency seized around 75 kilos of cocaine in the marina at the resort Cap Cana. It said the drug in 74 packages was in four bags aboard the boat “Millennium,” registry PR-6557-GG also confiscated, while the three men were identified as……., the boat was moored between the marina’s C-19 and C-20 docks……. read more

Running out of cash, need to steal from the poor?

Desperate RICARDO HAZOURY ? YouTube video state that Hazoury and Cap Cana destroyed 25 homes of working class people in Cabo San Rafael. The houses were demolished with trucks and bulldozers without number plates. Some families lived here for over 20 years and now the road is closed and families have no longer access to their land. Boycott Cap Cana before they “clean” more land to enlarge their financial troubled development!! How could they do that a few days before Xmas…?

JULIÁN RUIZ vs Cap Cana

Copy of email from Dominican Watchdog to Cap Cana on October 7, 2011

————–

Dear Cap Cana,

Would you be so kind as to forward this email to Dr. Ricardo Harzoury. I have several questions in regards to this case:

Last month the famous Spanish political candidate and head of the Spanish lawyer association Don JULIAN ANGEL RUIZ NAVAZO (http://www.pcal.es/es/burgos/?iddoc=7163) was in the DR in regards to his lawsuit against Cap Cana. He is represented in the Dominican Republic by José Manuel Alburquerque Prieto from Alburquerque & Alburquerque in Santo Domingo.

The lawsuit involves some purchased land before anything was built, inside cap cana, the widow refuses to acknowledge the sale- and its been in court for the past 8 years- and from what I hear, it seems that some “bigger hands” are at work here- not allowing the case to move forward (not unusual in the DR based on my experience).

In the interest of international consumer protection, I would like to hear from Mr. Harzoury what exactly is the status on this high profile case, who is blocking it and what does it mean for Cap Cana?

Furthermore I have questions related to PENALTIES of late delivery and late/missing payment of condo fees:

Is it correct that Cap Cana is now acknowledging penalties due to late delivery of Punta Palmera units in the region of USD 200,000 to bring clients forward to the closing, hoping this will prevent them from walking away from their contracts?

I believe this is a smart move to give some discount to keep the client and subsequently being able to collect the expensive condo fees for the next 20 years in order run the troubled development. However in regards to this, I like to know exactly how much Cap Cana owe the condo association in late payments for all the empty shops and apartments as worried investors contacted us in regards to this issue. They are interested in our support in a Class A lawsuit against Cap Cana. We gave 300 hours of free support and media attention to the angry investors behind Punta Perla (www.puntaperla.wordpress.com)

How much does Cap Cana spend on Spamming Google?

For years fake posts was created in tripadvisor.com about how fantastic Sanctuary Cap Cana is. The amazing posts were done immediately after a guest complained about their stay out there!
At the same time Cap Cana’s SEO Team has been Spamming Google on free and irrelevant article forums with thousands of useless articles to try to suppress bad or negative articles about Cap Cana on the internet. The goal of this action is also to move own domains to the top of the search engine.
sup•press/səˈpres/
Verb: 1. Forcibly put an end to.
2. Prevent the development, action, or expression of (a feeling, impulse, idea, etc.); restrain.

Cap Cana is spending fortunes on this activity – Here are the last few days articles:

Blog Archive » Information Relating to Cap Cana Dominican Lodge …
Get Struck with Herbal Beauty and Luxurious Estates at Cap Cana, Dominican. Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is ready to be the arena’s next great destination, …
newchristianradio.com/…/information-relating-to-cap-cana-do…

Data Relating to Cap Cana Dominican Resort Motels …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is set to be the world’s subsequent nice destination, as is bannered in its reputable website. This is a ways from fiction. The plan …
fat-burning-furnace-scam.com/…/data-relating-to-cap-cana-do…

Information Regarding Cap Cana Dominican Lodge …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is ready to be the world’s subsequent nice destination, as is bannered in its professional website.
www.lakpuraya.com/…/information-regarding-cap-cana-domi…

Information Regarding Cap Cana Dominican Lodge Hotels …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is ready to be the arena’s next great vacation spot, as is bannered in its official website. That is far from fiction. The plan for Cap …
lobbyleaks.org/?p=7608

Data Concerning Cap Cana Dominican Lodge Hotels!
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is set to be the world’s subsequent great vacation spot, as is bannered in its official website. That is some distance from fiction. …
coffeearticle.com/data-concerning-cap-cana-dominican-lodge-…

3asyticket.com » Information Regarding Cap Cana Dominican Hotel …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is about to be the sector’s next nice destination, as is bannered in its reputable website. That is a long way from fiction. The plan …www.3asyticket.com/information-regarding-cap-cana-dominic…

Data Relating to Cap Cana Dominican Resort Resorts! | Nirmal …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is ready to be the world’s subsequent nice vacation spot, as is bannered in its authentic website. This is far from fiction. The plan …
www.nirmalkotecha.co.in/…/data-relating-to-cap-cana-domini…

Knowledge Regarding Cap Cana Dominican … – Article Directory
Get Struck with Natural Attractiveness and Sumptuous Estates at Cap Cana, Dominican. Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is about to be the sector’s next nice.
www.article.sg/knowledge-regarding-cap-cana-dominican-res…

Knowledge Concerning Cap Cana Dominican Resort Hotels! – Local …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is about to be the world’s subsequent great vacation … The plan for Cap Cana contains the biggest inland marina on the planet, …
www.localbeat.org/…/knowledge-concerning-cap-cana-domini…

Knowledge Concerning Cap Cana Dominican Hotel Inns! | Dengok …
Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is about to be the arena’s next nice destination, as is bannered in its official website.
www.dengok.com/…/knowledge-concerning-cap-cana-domini…

Cap Cana – Dominican Republic Locations Scouts
Dominican Republic, Caribbeans, locations scouts is an essential service for producers, photographers, art directors or publishers considering or having …
www.dominican-republic-locations-scouts.com/…/index.html

Knowledge Regarding Cap Cana Dominican Resort Resorts …
Get Struck with Natural Attractiveness and Luxurious Estates at Cap Cana, Dominican. Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, is about to be the world’s subsequent …
bluespotdirectory.com/knowledge-regarding-cap-cana-domini…

Knowledge Regarding Cap Cana Dominican Resort Resorts! | Mens …
Build a six pack. Better abs & muscle & tone with healthy excerise, tips & resources.
www.mensfitess.com/…/knowledge-regarding-cap-cana-domin…

And so it’s has been going on for years to self promote Cap Cana, when nobody else has anything positive to write! Ricardo please update us all on TRUMP at Cap Cana…. What’s going on up there on the Farallones….? Not one word has been posted about TRUMP in Cap Cana for years, before it was like the King arrived!

New window stickers for all the empty units in Cap Cana

In recent months Dominican Watchdog has received several emails from worried investors in Cap Cana who informed us that Cap Cana is not able to pay their part of the monthly condo fees for all the empty apartments and shops. This is not only hurting the maintenance of the development, but also their image as a luxury development and investment object.

Dominican Watchdog wrote to Ricardo Harzoury for an answer to this and the fact that huge discounts are given to buyers in Punta Palmera for closing instead of walking away from their contracts. Ricardo Harzoury never replied to our email, but Yesterday he released the press release below.

From the readings between the lines its all crystal clear, Cap Cana is in serious trouble and even worse, none of the investors has been able to resell anything in Cap Cana for the last 2 years unless they took huge loses!! The promised rental income is also not happening so investors are trapped with properties worth million of dollars in probably the most boring resort in the Caribbean.

JUANILLO, Dominican Republic, Oct. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Cap Cana, S.A. (“Cap Cana” or “the Company”) today announced the status of the collateral securing its 10% Senior Secured Notes due 2016 (the “2016 Notes”).

The amount of Eligible Receivables that meet the eligibility criteria set forth by the Indenture of the 2016 Notes is approximately US$98.3 million as of June 30, 2011 and $93.4 million as of September 30, 2011. The Company’s estimate of the Collateralization Ratio is equal to 1.02:1 as of June 30, 2011 and 0.97:1 as of September 30, 2011. The decline in the Collateralization Ratio during the first nine months of the year is primarily due to receivables falling into arrears as a result of adverse macroeconomic conditions.

Construction of the real estate properties securing the 2016 Notes (the “New Notes Project”) has significantly slowed down due to lack of funding. The Company had planned to finance the construction of the remaining components of the New Notes Project through a credit facility with a top-tier investment bank. However, the availability of adequate financing for real estate development companies such as Cap Cana has been dramatically constrained over recent months and the Company was unable to secure the specified financing. As a result of the factors described above, the decline in the Collateralization Ratio is expected to continue.

The Company has suffered a substantial slowdown in sales of its real estate properties during the first nine months of the year. Sales of real estate properties to individual buyers totaled US$13.0 million during the first nine months of 2011 compared to US$28.5 million during the same period in 2010. Sales of development sites to third party developers have comprised the majority of Cap Cana’s sales since it re-focused its sales strategy in late 2008; however, year to the date, the Company has been unable to finalize any transactions involving the sale of large land parcels.

During the first nine months of the year, the Company has continued to cut its staffing levels and other operational expenses, restructured debt with its local and international lenders and has entered into payment-in-kind transactions involving real estate properties with numerous suppliers and contractors. In addition, Cap Cana undertook a debt cancellation program by entering into payment-in-kind transactions involving real estate properties whereby the Company was able to cancel approximately US$72 million in aggregate debt during the first nine months of the year.

The long-term effects of the 2008 financial crisis, and the subsequent world economic recession, have had a significant impact on Cap Cana’s business and financial condition. The Company intends to continue developing the Resort. However, given the adverse real estate market and operating conditions under which the Company is currently operating, and the uncertainty in the foreseeable future, it cannot guarantee that its future cash flows will be sufficient to cover all of its financial obligations.

“Not so nice”

Reviewed 3 January 2012 NEW

Not sure how this place got such great reviews? When we arrived our room was musty smelling. And it stayed musty the entire trip. We ran out of toilet paper, asked for more, never got any, complained a bit louder, finally got a single role. We ran out of towels (we were only using one a day, which was taken away and not replaced) ran out of wash clothes, each time we spent at least an hour asking, begging, arguing, for replacements. Very frustrating! I could have lived with that. The resort itself is nice and the grounds were very pretty. What drove us NUTS was the fact that it was “all inclusive” but everyone expected a tip, including the people that sat us at dinner. I wish this was specified somewhere because we did not come with small bills for tipping. There were even signs in our room that said no tipping but at every turn, someone was expecting it (bar, restaurant, everywhere) It sucks to be taken unaware like that, it made us very uncomfortable. I also found that the employees pushed purchased items constantly. Bottles of wine, souviners, trinkets. Again, very uncomfortable. Although the resort was nice the condition of the room and the service would deter me from ever going back there.

“extremely disappointed”

Reviewed 8 December 2011 NEW

To suggest that this property deserves five-star status is laughable. If it was advertised as 3 stars (which is what it deserves) and if we paid one-third as much a night, I would not be writing this review… We were there for our honeymoon and paid $1000 a night (we used miles to fly down, so our flights were NOT included in this price).

We called the resort the week before we were supposed to arrive to arrange transportation since we’d be arriving to the Dominican Republic at 10pm. We were told to email our flight information, which we did twice, but never heard back. When we called again, no one was able to speak English well enough to explain what we had to do, so we just took a taxi.

When we checked in, my husband asked about our honeymoon package (we were promised that nothing would change after the Salamander Management Company took over). The receptionist told us that he had “worked there for 4 months and that he had never seen anyone having a romantic dinner on the beach before”. Since it was 11pm, we dropped the issue and figured we’d talk to the concierge the next day.

We were in a honeymoon suite with an infinity pool, which was no bigger than a hot tub and FREEZING. Do not waste your money; there are plenty of pools on the property with a good amount of privacy.

We went to the concierge the next morning and spent 2.5 hours trying to iron out our honeymoon package. I understand that I am in a foreign country, but NO ONE speaks English well enough to communicate effectively. Something as simple and arranging breakfast in bed, a massage and romantic dinner should not take half a day. We were spending $1000 a night, this should have been taken care of before we arrived.

We wasted half of a day trying to organize our honeymoon package, and then they assigned it to the wrong room. When we went to our romantic dinner, it took 20 minutes to figure out if we were the right couple; the same thing happened with the massage. Finally we went back and made sure it was correct so our breakfast in bed would come to the right room. Unbelievably frustrating.

The food was very inconsistent. I ordered “Rigatoni with Italian Sausage and Broccoli” which had left over sausage links from breakfast in it. The Kung Pao Chicken at The Wok was so salty it burns your mouth when you eat it. The breakfast at Casa Bella was so strange… One day, the scrambled eggs would look normal, the next they were disgusting, runny and bright orange? The best meal we ate the whole week were the Chicken Quesadillas from room service.

If you eat breakfast outside, there are birds that come and beg for food. If you ever walk away from your table, 10 birds will land on your table and eat off your plate. So if you walk away, don’t eat off your plate again…

There was a cat (that had no tail) that was under the chair next to mine at the pool. I notified the bar tender at the pool bar, and he said “Don’t worry… it is our pet”. Really? A stray cat is allowed around the pool area where people are able to order food and are eating? My husband ordered chicken wings and the kitty stole one off his plate when he wasn’t looking… We saw it eating it on the beach. I love cats, but that’s disgusting.

A note about service, you have to tip to get it. I’m happy to tip for good service. But here, apparently you have to tip first to get anyone to help you; a number of times we ordered drinks while lying on the beach and never received them… The last day we were there, we tipped the lady 500 pesos and she helped us all day. We left a hand written note (in Spanish) with $5 USD asking our house keeper to leave some extra coffee pods (there was a Nespresso instant coffee machine in the room) and a couple diet cokes. She only did it once.

We never brought this up to anyone at the resort because we never ran in to anyone that could speak english well enough to get anywhere, so we just gave up. Apparently there is someone named Jarlin who is helpful… we never met her or heard anyone speak of her while we were there otherwise we would have been in her office complaining.

When we checked out, no one said thank you, no one asked us if we enjoyed our stay. I am sick that we spent $10,000 on this place.

“Avoid this place”

Reviewed 14 October 2011

3

people found this review helpful

Just got back Oct 2-9 2011 NOT a SECRETS RESORT ANYMORE!!!
Arrived Sun oct 2nd to find out that the property had been sold to Salamander properties,as of Oct1st, they siad nothing has changed. Wellif you have stayed at any other Secrets properties the change was noticable at first glance. We had a junior suite ocean view (roof top tree the ocean view). The first night my wifes curling iron melted to the sink no hot water and only 1 of the 5 resturants were open, the 2nd day they said they would change our room main building got stuck in elevator for 15 mins on way to see room. manager upgraded us to the fortress building. The room was nice but housekeeping non exsisent unless you called for it on a daily basis. the food was good small selections only 2or 3 of the 5 resturants open on daily basis, small portions most times had to ask for 2 portions to make a meal. night entertainment terrible 2nd rate acts and dancers shows didn’t start untill 945 and were done in 1/2 hour if that.dj until midnight bar open until 1am after that the place went black. the beach is horrible!! seaweed was 2-feet deep they were taking it off in trucks with machines as soon as they finished it was back never even went in the water. the only thing we found good about this place were the people very friendly. I f you are planning a wedding on the beach go elsewhere. i would not recommend this pslce to anyone else. there are a lot better places for less money.

Dominican Watchdog Note:

After have read all the traveler reviews on www.Tripadvisor.com it’s pretty clear that whenever a dissatisfied guest post a bad review about the reality of the Secrets Sanctuary in Cap Cana, immediately after a super amazing positive one is posted!

One would be led to believe that all these amazing positive reviews are pure spin as such great difference in reviews are rare among five star hotels, so watch out and give more credit to the bad ones, usually they are more true as people feel disappointed.

The truth is that Cap Cana is one of the most dead areas in the Dominican Republic, there is nothing to see or do and the marina is like a ghost town. If you have the chance to change stay at Casa de Campo or go to other parts of Punta Cana and the North Coast.

It reports that the presence of Russian capos is a fact especially in the East region where underworld scandals have already occurred, including that of two brothers, one of whom was executed gangland style together with his wife in the “Kremlin” style house in Bayahibe, and which is still unsolved.

“The Russian Mafia’s tentacles have arrived in this zone, where some actions linked to drug trafficking and also murders have yet to be clarified, the news source report says.

Russian investments

Current Russian investments include show business figures in Los Corales i Punta Cana and in nearby Cap Cana, which has participated with a delegation of the country in the “Russian–Spanish Safari,” hosted by the Tourism Ministry, considered among the top the real estate events in St. Petersburg and Barcelona.

No more PGA Champions Tour in Cap Cana

The 2011 schedule for the 50-plus circuit known as the Champions Tour is out. It’ll kickstart as usual, in Hawaii for the events at Hualalai and the Champions Skins game.

There are two tournament weeks which are TBD, in March and September. Including those weeks, there are 25 scheduled weeks for the Champ Tour next year.

Two tournament casualties cause the gaps. The Cap Cana Championship, played in the Dominican Republic at a Jack Nicklaus course, is no longer on the schedule. Sadly, the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach is also gone from the schedule.

Also, the AT&T Championship – the last full field event before the Charles Schwab Cup Championship – is moving in San Antonio from Oak Hills to TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Canyons Course. It’s complementary Oaks Course hosts the Valero Texas Open.

There are two major (wink, wink) changes to the schedule. As mentioned earlier on Friday, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship has moved from October to August, and from the DC area to Westchester Country Club outside of NYC. Also as previously announced, the Tradition has a new sponsor – Regions Financial – and is moving to Shoal Creek in the first week of May.

Source: http://progolftalk.nbcsports.com/2010/12/17/champions-tour-unveils-2011-schedule/

It is highly doubtful that the project developers will be able to secure affordable financing in the current international environment with which to both replenish the trustee’s reserve fund and to meet the November 19th debt repayment date. They will have to hope for a capital infusion by new or its existing direct investors. Without this, the much-vaunted Cap Cana project—the Dominican tourism sector’s crowning glory—could become insolvent, and, as is feared by some local experts, could collapse entirely.

This will have negative effects not only for external creditors, but also for the local investors in the project, led by the Hazoury family, as well as for local banks, suppliers and contractors. The state-owned Banco de Reservas reportedly loaned the equivalent of US$147m to Cap Cana for mortgage credits, and other private banks may have also extended financing.

Bursting the bubble?

The same problems facing Cap Cana could well afflict other high-end property projects in the country, including the ongoing development of resorts in Punta Cana, the country’s most important tourist destination, as well as Roco Ki, another huge residential and vacation complex.

Some may now argue that Cap Cana was always overly ambitious and costly for a country like the Dominican Republic, a middle-income developing country with a GDP of US$46bn and a per capita income of US$4,900, but one with large swaths of poverty and infrastructure problems, such as a chronic energy crisis.

Some projects may have to be scaled back and others closed down, as the financial crisis persists and global recession advances. This will inflict collateral damage on the construction industry, employment and the country’s external accounts, as less foreign investment flows in. The fall-out from the global crisis, it appears, has started to rain down….. read the full report

In a communication dated 14 November,, Cap Cana announced that the conversations with creditors of a bridge loan of US4100 million that was being negotiated with Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank had not been successful. The meeting took place on Friday 14 November.

The efforts of Cap Cana to extend the terms of the loan that is due today did not convince creditors, which include several funds, to which the investment firms had tied the loan.

With the crisis, many funds are struggling to collect loans through forced liquidations and reducing their debts.

The principle partners in Cap Cana offered to inject capital in order to avoid default, but the current climate and the perspectives f a brusque fall in the tourism real estate market in the Caribbean did not convince the loan holders.

Cap Cana had initiated a rapid process of job eliminations, cutting 1500 positions, eliminating outside contracts for services and cutting back on non-essential services.

Ricardo Hazoury, the president of Cap Cana, gave a statement in which he said that “our project has been affected by an economic tsunami that has paralyzed the global financial markets. We are saddened because we have not been able to reach an agreement with the creditors and our priority is to remain committed with the long term viability of our project.”

On 31 October Fitch Ratings degraded the US$250 million bond issue from Cap Cana from a “B” to a “CCC/RR4”with a negative outlook. The inability to access capitals and a significant decrease in property sales created a lack of liquidity for the project that limited its capacity to operate normally.

The default on the bridge loan will go together with a default on the 2013 notes.

In a recent press release, Cap Cana admitted the imminence of the cross default and the difficulties that the project had ingenerating sufficient cash to continue operating efficiently.

source: DiarioLibre.com

Go to  Stop Dominican Property Sharks

There you can read about Dominican Broker and Developer Conspiracy against investors.

Here is a part of what you will find from one of the members:

It was 2007 when the writing was clearly on the wall in the US, that I ventured to see for myself what all the hype was all about in the Wild Wild West of Punta Cana. It came as no surprise that I landed in a scammer’s paradise of “NO RULES” or “AUTHORTY” — where the fever was in full epidemic and the delirium of lies and distortions were so deep you needed rubber boots.

Coming from the pandemic ground zero of South Florida, I tried my best to warn of the bubble that was already popping, but everyone was too bullish to listen to such negativity. I was persona non grata for preaching the end was here! It was depressing that with all the projects, I couldn’t find one single one to recommend to Buyers. Not one single one passed my reliability test.

Punta Perla was a scam from day one and anyone who did a normal due diligence would know it. Cap Cana was Disneyland for speculators and not users and would end up busted as they are now. Roco Ki sounded great but I have never seen such lousy marketing, which is a sign of impending doom. Grupo Metro just learned from Cap Cana. La Estancia is just totally absurd as today’s Vista Cana is too. The list goes on and on with nothing but disasters wasting good land.

But it isn’t fair for me to be so bold when I have a 30 year perspective over most of all these over-night Developers and Brokers, who are carving out their slice of the pie. What is troubling the most is that the conspiracy to defraud continues today, with projects that are under-capitalized and asking Buyers to hand over Deposits and Brokers endorsing them, –who would sell their mother if they could just to survive today. I can’t believe I still hear about the “Boom” and “preconstruction appreciation” even after the party obviously ended and even the lights are now off. Somebody should really put these people out of their misery once and for all, because they are not only ruining the industry already damaged, — but are just trolling for the weakest and most gullible victims who will probably not sue out of embarrassment for being so stupid.