Fraud

[elyroby]

Last December I decided with my wife to purchase (80years lease) a lot in Uoleva Island, Kingdom of Tonga.
I contacted the Realtor, looks like the only one in Tonga, Robert Bryce and I regularly paid all the due to the account of the Title Company, Island 1 Escrow, of a Otto Hans Schmeiser.
After 7 months, July 24th, I have received an email from my lawyer in tonga stating the contract is null and void because the landlord, Sione Laumanu Tuitupou, 2 years ago, obtained a mortgage on the same very lot from a local bank, therefore the bank is the rightful owner. Two weeks have gone so far without real help or answers from the local authorities, I LOST MY MONEY
According to Frommers travel guide and Lonely Planet, this country is extremely friendly, most of all with women traveling alone and other people's properties. Now I can see that the country moved on becoming friendly in doing business the same way.
Good luck to the next buyer

[Robert Bryce]

He was bit by a rabid lawyer who tried to unhook Mariani's land deal in order to sell him a piece he owned.

The Ministry of Lands has written a letter to Mariani as fact stating just the opposite of what Mariani posts above.

The mortgage on the property he is all up in arms about was paid off and yes, with the money Mariani had in escrow, which bothers Mariani that his money was used to pay off the mortgage, but every escrow company in the world manages pay off's in the same manner. There is no mortgage on the property in spite of what his lawyer has told him. All of this clearly explained in the letter by the only credible party who would know, that being the Ministry of Lands.

Furrther, another letter from the Ministry mentions the process has passed the level of Cabinet (#1115), but getting a final printed document lags approvals. Just the way it is in Tonga.

The Tongan lawyer who got Mariani rabid is another case. Why Mariani believed anything the discredited lawyer said is a mystery. After Mariani was threatened for not offering some money as some donation to the lawyer, then he wanted a loan, then took what money he got from Mariani and did nothing but interfere with the transaction trying to undermine it while trying to sell him another of his own land.

Mariani can't be that stupid to have fallen for all of this, so he is just malicous for some reason. Maybe because I made a fool of him in his first blog. Like a mad man he is in about as many of them as he can be and each with the same disinformation.

This is my first real nut case and I have been waiting for one for years now since I am writing a book about my experiences here in Tonga. I have never met the guy and he has never been to Tonga, so who knows what we have here for sure. Could be dangerous.

In the end, the book is worth more than all of the real estate deals I have made in Tonga, so we thank Mariani for his contribution to my future retirement project, the book.

As ever,
Robert Bryce, the first real estate broker in Tonga.