What we expect and what we will find are possibly the same.  As a typical Canadian we are optimistic, overly trusting and genuinely slower to react negatively.  We know what we would like to hear from the Fiscal.   One thing missing from the emerging world are standards and codes.  The building we are in would not be allowed to exist in a country that respected building codes and condominium laws.  Here we are at the mercy of the courts to provide what comes much more simply in Canada.  The fiscal should make this developer accountable.  The incorporated company the fraudulent developer owns should have its bank accounts frozen and all documents showing his activities delivered to the court in order to discover what is legal and what is not.  The developer has abandoned the property years ago and now contributes nothing to the operation of the project.  While he claims he is broke and without money he still has a team of lawyers working on his behalf and papers being filed in the courts to show his “god” intentions.  This is all being done without money.  He recently did show up and spent a lot of money on his own house making it presentable for a suspected buyer that never showed up.  He has some money although rumours are saying he is obtaining it through additional questionable sources.  A good fiscal would place an order to have his revolver seized, license to carry it revoked, papers to travel revoked while fraud charges are pending, banks accounts frozen everywhere, and funds found to continue safe and secure operation of the project while he is being investigated.  Already the courts have appointed me to be administrator of the project while the developer continues to abandon it, but the guidelines, ability to do anything or special powers have yet to be described to me.  What I do know is we are personally topping up any deficiencies in monthly costs in amounts why beyond our means and plans.

How this Fiscal will respond no one can predict.  he can assist or put it aside and do little.  So far we have requested action to be taken against the developer six months ago and we have only just received word of an appointment to discuss our case.  In the emerging country the definition of urgent or desperate has yet to be taken seriously.

May 24th is the date we have for a hearing with the newly appointed Fiscal for Samana, the equivalent of a Crown Prosecutor in the first world.  It will be an exciting day following a few years of being in and out of the  court system of the Dominican Republic .  It is not an exciting day really.  No one wants to go to court.  We are requesting permission to proceed with a fraud case against the American developer we bought our retirement dream from.  Everything is now at stake.  This is not the beginning, but it is the beginning of the end we hope.  There have been years of battles in labor court and land court and now we move on to penal and civil courts.  Retirement to paradise has gone wrong, really wrong.

A person we considered a good friend is now dead.  He was vice president of sales at a project called Beverly Hills in a small paradisical town called Las Terrenas.   He was the one that provided us with a tour of the villa that later became our retirement home.  He died a lonely and sad death in a hospital intensive care in the capital city of Santo Domingo.  We were the last white people to see him alive.  He was part of a con game that eventually took away our retirement, our peace, our happiness and our savings.  Paradise is no longer paradise for us and we have experienced what an emerging country is all about.  The legal system that is the pride of the country is a system full of inexperience, ineptitude and corruption.  There is a police force that is so poorly paid the officers pretty much have to work off the record to be able to eat and stay alive.  Protection is virtually non existent.  This could just as easily happen to you too.

Now we are leaving our home for a required return to our former life in Canada.  It is not a pleasant trip.  This should be an exciting adventure and a return to family and old memories, and a chance to eat at the old familiar restaurants and visit friendly places.  Instead we are leaving behind our possessions with little protection and questionable ownership.   We are in the middle of a court drama that should be at the end.  A house over open sewers and inferior electrical wiring, other investors that do not contribute, poor security and just a general position of horror.  I will take you back to where it all began, camping on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  I will take you through our purchase made with pride and our first entry into the legal system, what deslende means and does not mean, how politicians come and go, lawyers tell you what you want to hear, judges seem to take forever to do little and when the going gets tough, the hand out is only for more money.  How we built five schools for the poor children of the country that allowed an American to take it all away from us.