How two Venezuelan immigrants targeted their country’s elite in Florida—and almost got away with it
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 529. JR is the producer and he has uploaded the full lesson to PlainEnglish.com/529.
Here at Plain English, we help you upgrade your English, and part of that comes from being exposed to new words, new concepts, new ideas. And that was Monday’s lesson—it was pretty much setting the table for today’s lesson. If you haven’t heard Monday’s lesson, go back to Lesson 528 to listen to that. The concepts and vocabulary in today’s episode will make a lot more sense if you’ve listened to Monday’s.
Today, you’ll learn about two Venezuelan immigrants who targeted their own country’s elite in a daring real estate scam in Miami. In the second half of the lesson, you’ll learn the English phrase “in the dark.” And JR has a song of the week. Let’s get going.
Scammers took out loans on vacant luxury properties
On Monday, you heard that wealthy people around the world like to buy luxury homes in America . It’s their way of protecting their assets , just in case bad things happen in their home economies. Many people do this as a way to protect legitimately-earned wealth . But not everyone who takes advantage of this strategy earned their money cleanly .
On Monday, you also learned that a person can buy a house free and clear, and then later take out a loan against it. You learned that the traditional way to do this is with a bank loan , which requires a lot of checks , documentation , verification , and paperwork . But there are people who will make a loan a lot faster; they’re called hard-money lenders.
Carlos Castañeda and Genesis Martusciello spotted an opportunity . They fled Venezuela years ago and settled in Florida, near Miami. Florida is also a part-time home to some other Venezuelans: family and friends of strongman president Nicolas M aduro, businessmen with ties to the regime , and other high-level government officials . Many (but not all) of the Venezuelans who own luxury property in Florida acquired massive personal wealth even as their country’s economy crumbled . These Venezuelans own American property as an investment, to protect their future. They own these homes free and clear.
But there’s a problem. Many Venezuelan officials, and their families, are subject to American government economic sanctions . The last “election” in Venezuela was widely seen as unfair and illegitimate . In response , the U.S. government restricted travel and placed economic sanctions on some high-level Venezuelan businessmen and officials. Some of those sanctioned individuals owned property in Florida. After the sanctions, they couldn’t visit their own properties.
That’s when Carlos Castañeda and Genesis Martusciello cooked up their scam. The couple figured that if certain owners couldn’t even travel to the U.S., then they—Castañeda and Martusciello—could loot the homes of the Venezuelan elite.
But this was no ordinary breaking-and-entering kind of theft . Castañeda and Martusciello decided they would go to hard-money lenders. They would pretend that they were the true owners of the homes. They would ask hard-money lenders for massive real estate loans, pledging the homes of the sanctioned Venezuelan officials as collateral .
I told you before that hard-money loans are the fast way to get a loan on a home you already own. There’s not a lot of documentation, not a lot of checks, but also not a lot of consumer protections . But you do have to show that you own the house you’re pledging as collateral .
Castañeda and Martusciello had that covered. They hired Venezuelan models who looked like the sanctioned individuals . They created fake passports and identity documents. They made up fake back stories . And they sent those models into a lender’s office . And it worked.
Luis Carlos de Leon-Perez was an executive at the Venezuelan state oil company . He pleaded guilty to American corruption charges. Castañeda and Martusciello sent two Venezuelan immigrants to a lender, impersonating de Leon-Perez’s wife and mother-in-law. Pretending to be the owner’s family, they came away with a $4.5 million loan, collateralized by the family’s luxury mansion .
Next up was Samark Lopez Bello. He’s a Venezuelan accused of narcotics trafficking . He denies any involvement in illegal activity, but the U.S. government sanctioned him, so he can’t come to America. But he owns a mansion in Florida; it’s in the name of his daughter.
The house wasn’t in great shape. So Castañeda and Martusciello enlisted a few friends. They went to the house to cut the lawn , to make it look good for lenders. Once again, they impersonated the true owner, in this case Lopez Bello’s daughter. And once again, they walked off with a lot of money—millions of dollars in loans, with another person’s house pledged as security.
They continued this kind of scheme with luxury condominiums . And they got brazen , sometimes staying in the homes, driving the owners’ cars, and getting their own personal mail delivered to these other homes. At one point, they even faked a rental agreement , showing themselves as lawful tenants of a luxury apartment—all while the true owners were in the dark .
Their downfall came when they got greedy and careless . Having walked off with over $10 million in loans on properties that weren’t theirs, Castañeda and Martusciello, and their associates, started to live large. They took a lavish trip to Las Vegas and gambled away much of their fortune . They bought a Lamborghini SUV and other luxuries. They were finally caught, trying to transfer money using fake passports.
But Carlos Castañeda did learn something from the experience. Just as the Venezuelan regime officials bought property in the U.S. to protect against catastrophe , Carlos Castañeda bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of luxury watches and shipped them to the Dominican Republic, where it’s all safe from American authorities .
Castañeda is in jail now. He’s not talking to the media. But one of his associates did say this from jail. He said that a thief who steals from a thief has 100 years of forgiveness .
Accused drug kingpin shocked and disappointed in American legal system, expected better
And now for my favorite part of the story—the response from one of the Venezuelan homeowners. You’ll be relieved to know , the homes are safe. They cannot be taken to repay the fraudulent loans .
Anyway, Samark Lopez Bello is currently one of the most-wanted people by the American immigration authorities. He denies involvement , but he’s accused of narcotics trafficking and money laundering .
He issued a statement of shock and disappointment. He said he invested in American real estate because he thought it was safe and secure. Instead, he complained that American authorities allowed criminals —criminals!— to invade his privacy , mortgage his property, and steal his daughter’s identity.
So here is an—accused!—international drug smuggler complaining that American laws didn’t sufficiently protect his ill-begotten wealth . I guess even drug kingpins have a sense of humor, right?
Also. If you are cooking up a scheme to steal millions of dollars, can I just give you a little advice? Don’t go to Las Vegas! Don’t go anywhere near a casino! Don’t buy a Lamborghini! Come on guys! This could have worked ! They got so far , and then they decided to go to Las Vegas.
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