SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Victor Hancock says he just couldn’t pass up on a deal 25 years ago to buy thousands of acres of prime real estate that came with 12 miles of beachfront property along the Sea of Cortez.
Hancock ended up buying the Tambebiche Ranch for about $67 an acre.
“The location is extremely good, right on the Sea of Cortez, between Loreto and La Paz. It has all the necessary attributes to become a very good lucrative investment,” said Hancock, who lives in Las Vegas.
Along the way, he brought in other investors and eventually turned over control to some of them but kept an interest on the property as a consultant.
One of the others involved in the transaction was Dwight Jory, a developer who got the surprise of his life when he went down to the property a few months ago to begin the process of building on the land.
“They told us we didn’t own the land,” Jory said. “I was shocked.”
Jory, Hancock and the other Americans in the group hired an attorney in Mexico to investigate how they had been scammed out of their property.
It turned out to be one of their own.
“I felt sick to the stomach,” Hancock said. “I was highly upset, it was just unbelievable because we found out who had done it, it had been a friend of mine.”
Hancock says a man named Alessandro “Alex” Porcella, who was supposed to be watching their interests in Mexico and clearing the way for the land to be developed, had somehow placed the property in his name and was attempting to sell it for $20 million.
“I’m not as smart as I thought I was, I’m generally an idiot as a result of this for trusting him,” Hancock said. “I never thought he would take a friendship and go behind my back and steal from me like he did.”
The group of investors is now pursuing legal pathways in Mexico to get the land back.
Last month, a judge in the state of Baja California Sur issued an arrest warrant for Porcella, who was detained a short time later.
He is now out on bond, but under house arrest near Loreto.
According to Hancock, he and the others had invested about $10 million into the property.
“They looked at the whole deal and filed charges against the guy for fraud. They saw the evidence, they know what it is,” said Hancock. “I want the property back. I want to be able to pay the investors off. If he doesn’t want to do that he’s going to be in a penitentiary for many years.”
Porcella is no stranger to questionable land deals in Mexico.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, about 20 years ago, Porcella represented developers in the now failed Trump Ocean Baja Resort south of Tijuana where hundreds of investors, mostly Americans, lost millions of dollars after putting down deposits on condominiums.
“My recommendation to people is watch what you’re doing and even with relatives, even attorneys, just check out what they’re doing and stay on top of it,” Hancock said.
As they await a court decision to give them back control of the land, Hancock and the others have set up toll-free numbers to help potential investors protect their interests in Mexico.
“People call into these numbers when they have been defrauded or they’ve been scammed or they’re in the middle of it at the time. We’ll have an attorney look at it at no charge and maybe we can keep people from getting scammed in Mexico.”
One of the lines will be answered in English: (877) 463-9887. And in Spanish: 1 (833) 639-7639.
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