Luis Ernesto Garcia-Porras – Steals Millions in Phony Timeshare Scam {Encanto/El Faro-Playa Del Carmen}.
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico (2014)
Luis Ernesto Garcia Porras, Jacque (Jack) Legault, Lucy Paredes – steal millions in phony Timeshare Scam.
{Additional Sales Staff: Foster Cannon}
Luis Garcia -Salomonjabez Hospitality Group
CEO at Encanto Resorts
August 2006 – Present (7 years 4 months)
Location: Mérida Area, Mexico
Industry: Leisure, Travel & Tourism
CEO at Salomonjabez
Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Sporting Goods industry
January 2003 – Present (10 years 11 months)
Past: President at INVESTVALUE
January 2003 – March 2006 (3 years 3 months)
Education: Cornell University
Through their operations – Selective Escapes (Encanto Private Residence Club) headquartered at the EL FARO Condominium Hotel in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico; Garcia-Porras, Legault and others sold property they did not own, sold timeshare packages without legal authority and pocketed the monies received.
Hundreds of victims to this fraud have come forward and some are banding together to take legal action against these operators.
(The EL FARO Condominium Hotel is comprised of 64 luxury condo-hotel suites with views of the Caribbean Sea and direct access to nearly 250 feet of beachfront.)
Here is how it worked: Garcia-Porras operated a timeshare management business called Selective Escapes Collection S.A.de C.V. (aka: Encanto Private Residence Club). The original developer of EL FARO Condominium Hotel was Cantex Enterprises S.A. de C.V.
The principles of Cantex Enterprises are Alexander Bykovets and Robert Burnside, both identified as residents of Calgary Alberta Canada. {A new player is now listed as part of the “Cantex Family”, Simon Vinnik-“President and Board Member”.}
Cantex indicates an address of:
#100,15320 Bannister Rd., S.E.,
Calgary, Alberta ,T2X 1Z6
Phone Number: +1.403-225-2043
The company has also launched a new website:
http://www.cantexfund.com/ {aka: Cantex Acquisition Fund LLC} Which indicates seeking investors for projects located in Atlanta, Georgia USA.
Bykovets & Burnside, representing Cantex Enterprises entered into an agreement with Luis Ernesto Garcia-Porras & Selective Escapes (Encanto Private Residence Club) to act as the primary booking agent for the EL FARO Condominium Hotel during and after construction.
In late 2008 Encanto began selling timeshare packages for the EL FARO. Using mostly children to hand out flyers – victims were lured into timeshare presentations at the EL FARO. ENCANTO operated for years selling timeshares they had no intention of honoring. In fact the scenario described next was part of an elaborate scheme to defraud unsuspecting timeshare purchasers.
A typical purchase would combine a number of Encanto weeks for use at the El Faro along with other weeks at other properties operated by ENCANTO or their partners, always based on availability, for a total of so many (?) weeks annually, each sale was different.
To further lure and entice the victims the sales staff would offer to purchase back some portion of victims unused timeshare weeks for a certain amount of money, usually $2,500 to $3,000 per week for their unused weeks.
Selective Escapes sold timeshares to condos they were not authorized to book, double or triple booked condos they were authorized to book and defrauded the condo owners by either not paying them for the bookings or only returning, to the owners, a small portion of the rental fees received.
Global Marketing Connections was usually the company ENCANTO would push to rent the victims unused weeks for around $3,000 per week, promising to return 80% of the monies to the victims while keeping 20% for their operations. Then ENCANTO, through its scam partners i.e. broker partners, would charge the victim’s credit card large amounts in maintenance fees that were to be reimbursed when a victims weeks were rented – these promised reimbursements never happened.
In numerous cases Timeshare Purchasers report they were charged large fees for weeks they were never able to use and promised rental fees which they never received.
In other cases the victim(s) were sold the Penthouse Condo{Surf 408}, at the El Faro as a profit sharing condo (all inclusive including maid service) – everything was included at no additional expense to them. The victims were told part of their purchase was for 26 residence weeks and 26 ENCANTO weeks.
The residence weeks were the weeks they could stay in the Penthouse and the ENCANTO weeks were weeks they could use at other ENCANTO properties around the world – the cost at these other properties would be only $149 per stay. Victims were promised when they were not staying at the Penthouse – Global Marketing Connections would market and rent out the Penthouse for $3,000 per week – the victim’s share of the rental was to be 80% – which they never received. One specific victim ‘purchased’ the Penthouse Condo for more than $385,000 (US).
Besides all of the other issues involved in the EL FARO timeshare scams the most blatant issue here is that ENCANTO did not own any property it sold to the victims – ENCANTO just simply stole their money.
Eventually the Home Owners Association fired Selective Escapes but that did not solve the problem. Selective Escapes rented the Penthouse Condo from its owner and rented another condo (from its owner- effectively bypassing the HOA) and continued to sell timeshares out of the hotel under the name FunSeason- using the same people. The group still operates in the area, using a variety of methods to lure the unsuspecting tourists into their scam.
The Mexican authorities are aware of this group and its activities. Also, a group of victims’ have started a lawsuit against Garcia – Porras and his companies.
If you have additional information to include the location of the suspects listed herein, please contact this forum at [email protected].
{Allegations are substantiated/evidenced and are on file with an independent investigative entity}