Robert J. Abalos (as he should be)
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*** This investigative website reveals the multitudes of fraud committed by Seattle, Washington resident Robert Joseph Abalos, a self-proclaimed “world famous attorney with 25 years experience as a land developer and real estate investor.” Our investigation reveals that he is not who he says he is, and worse, he has scammed scores of people on the Internet over the past 10 years.
THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR INVESTIGATION
THE BACKGROUND Starting in the late 1990s, Mr. Abalos advertised and sold -- and continues to advertise and sell -- seminars, books, magazines and other real estate investing and financial-related information products and services on ebay.com and on his websites at investinginland.com, reinvestormagazine.com (now defunct), freecleprograms.com (now defunct), and reitbeat.com (now defunct). However, Mr. Abalos did not deliver his products and services to many of his paying customers, and in fact sold many products that NEVER EXISTED. As early as 2001, Abalos was selling used books on EBay, as well as his own book titles that did not exist, so he could "test market" the viability of the product. Many of Mr. Abalos’ customers are now victims of his fraud and have not received justice. His excuse for non-delivery is often that the product is back-ordered, was already delivered, or "lost in the mail". Several victims of Mr. Abalos formed, and continue to inform, this investigative website, which contains documented facts and evidence of Mr. Abalos’ commercial and personal fraud going back more than 10 years. The purpose of this website is to warn the public – especially inexperienced investors looking for information on investing in land and other real estate – about Mr. Abalos’ fraud and to share evidence with law enforcement and prosecutors in those states in which Mr. Abalos’ victims reside. Although many complaints have been made to the Attorney General of Washington, the State Bar of Massachusetts, the FBI, the Postmaster General and other authorities, this man remains in operation because of the relatively small amounts of money he has defrauded each victim, which in sum total is significant, but too small for each person to bother pursuing. Abalos' victims are scattered throughout in many states, even Canada and even New Zealand, making it difficult to persuade a state or local crime-enforcement agency to take action. In addition, many of the victims are intimidated and threatened by Abalos, an attorney who often flexes his legal muscle to frighten anyone who complains about non-delivery of materials, attempts a credit card chargeback, or who attempts to obtain a refund. Mr. Abalos talks a big game, but he operates behind post office boxes, executive offices, and voice mails, constantly changing them to keep ahead of his victims and the governmental authorities. The REAL FACTS about Robert J. Abalos ROBERT ABALOS, A SELF-PROCLAIMED REAL ESTATE GURU, HAS NO REAL ESTATE. Comprehensive research of property ownership databases reveal that neither Robert J. Abalos nor his many defunct legal entities own any land, apartments, houses, condos or other real estate assets in any U.S. State or territory, contrary to his claims. Abalos specifically told a writer for Fortune magazine that he owned, "a fishing lodge, a beach house, and a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains". ROBERT ABALOS WAS EVICTED FROM HIS APARTMENT FOR NOT PAYING RENT. In January 2005, a King County, Washington Judge evicted Robert J. Abalos from his one bedroom apartment for non-payment of over four months rent. In 2006, Mr. Abalos’ victims discovered that he advertised on Craigslist.com for a single room to rent anywhere in the Seattle area, which is wholly inconsistent with his claims of being an experienced developer, investor and attorney. THIS SELF-PROCLAIMED, "WORLD FAMOUS" ATTORNEY... NOT PAYING HIS DUES? The Virginia State Bar and Washington, D.C. Bar suspended Robert J. Abalos for non-compliance with continuing education requirements and for non-payment of annual fees. Abalos is still admitted to practice law in the state of Massachusetts, but lives in Washington, where he is not licensed to practice. A MAN WHO PREACHES ETHICS, OWES MONEY TO MANY CREDITORS In 2005 and 2006, courts in Washington State awarded judgments to victims of Robert J. Abalos. In 2006, Washington’s Secretary of State suspended Abalos' company,Terra Realty International, LLC, for an invalid address of record and for failure to pay registration fees. At the same time, creditors initiated collections against the company for unpaid bills. Abalos also owes $2,250 to one of his customers, Ines Romischer, after the court awarded her attorney's fees for defending Abalos' frivolous, unsuccessful lawsuit to stop her from reporting facts about him. Click here to read the court order. ABALOS HAS A NEGATIVE RATING WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU The Better Business Bureau, an independent source with no stake in the game, maintains a negative rating of Robert J. Abalos and his now-defunct Terra Realty International, LLC, documenting more than 13 consumer complaints. The BBB simply tries to resolve complaints, not judge them, and Abalos failed to even respond or attempt to settle claims, resulting in his negative rating. In 2002, Abalos ran an Amazon.com-affiliated operation and left a trail of over 140 customer complaints. ROBERT ABALOS' BIOGRAPHY DOES NOT MATCH HIS PAST Now 46 years old, Robert J. Abalos has created a 20-year track record of suspended companies, abandoned business ventures, and scattered business addresses, which is wholly inconsistent with his claims of being vastly experienced in real estate investing, development, and the practice of law. ROBERT ABALOS CLAIMS TO BE "WORLD FAMOUS", YET NOBODY CAN FIND HIM Robert J. Abalos has used dozens of aliases, user IDs, and email addresses to defraud users of the auction site eBay.com, sometimes using fake names such as "Robert Avalon,” “Richard J. Armonk,” and “Pat Loya”. Abalos maintains no office, no staff, no live receptionist or secretary to answer his calls, no physical address on his website. The photo above was cropped from a headshot taken in court just before Abalos was served court papers by his most recent office landlord for non-payment of rent. THE ULTIMATE FRAUD... SELLING PRODUCTS THAT DO NOT EXIST! In early 2005, Robert J. Abalos sold subscriptions to a new magazine called "Real Estate Investor Magazine" at the now-defunct website, www.reinvestormagazine.com, then never fulfilled the magazine or issued refunds to his customers. Despite non-receipt by all of his customers after the second issue was due out, Mr. Abalos was still outrageously claiming the magazine DID exist and the reason customers did not receive it in the mail was because of faulty glue on the mailing labels. Click here to read about it. Abalos also sold a course called, "How to Develop Small Apartment Buildings", which several customers say ordered and none have never seen. Click here to read one customer's account. HIGHER STAKES FRAUD... CANCELING SEMINARS AND NOT REFUNDING CUSTOMERS Between 2004 and 2005, Robert Abalos advertised and sold tickets to dozens of seminars to be held at hotels which he did not have reservations for, cancelled multiple events at the last minute for conspicuous "security concerns", then refused refunds to many of the attendees. Some of the attendees received successful chargebacks from their credit companies, and some did not, because they either paid by money order or were strung along by Abalos beyond the standard 60-day chargeback period required by many credit card companies. In many cases, Abalos fought the chargebacks and alleged the customers were committing "fraud" by requesting a chargeback. Abalos also promised an 1,100 page manual and legal forms CDs, which were not delivered with the seminar he delivered in August 2005, in Atlanta to 14 people. After several months of broken promises, several customers initiated and received successful chargebacks for the seminar fee. DOCUMENTED CASES OF CONSUMER FRAUD BY ROBERT ABALOS The following are real customers of Robert Abalos. In some of the the emails you can clearly see Robert Abalos' excuses and delays, trying to keep the customer past the 60 day chargeback period. In some cases, refund requests go ignored, in some cases Abalos threatens the customer with lawsuits or criminal investigations, none of which come to fruition. CASE #1: Mark Carvalho - paid for seminar that was cancelled last minute for "security reasons" and refused a refund. Carvalho received a chargeback from his credit card company after Abalos refused to voluntarily refund. Click here to read the email exchange CASE #2: Ellis San Jose - paid for seminar that was also cancelled last minute, and refused a refund. Abalos claimed that the customer was NOT entitled a refund because the location was changed last minute for "security reasons", but would not provide the supposed alternate location. Abalos even fought the chargeback by the customer, which was ultimately resolved in favor of the customer several months later. Abalos lied about the incident to his friend John T. Reed, who claimed on his website that Abalos' customers are lying and that every attempted chargeback was resolved in Abalos' favor (according to Abalos). Reed later recanted when the following email was sent to Mr. Reed by the customer. CASE #3: Terence Gillespie - paid for a home study course entitled, "How to Develop Small Apartment Buildings". After months and months of delays and empty promises about the course being "updated" from Abalos, the course is never shipped, and the refund request is ignored. CASE #4: Ron Brown - paid for Abalos' NYC seminar, which was cancelled, no refund given. Brown paid by money order and never got a refund. Click here to read Ron Brown's letter to Abalos. Ron Brown says he is a disabled Vietnam veteran, a claim which Abalos says is a lie. Abalos has not refunded or addressed Mr. Brown's claim. CASE #5: Ines Romischer - paid for Abalos' seminar in Atlanta for 2005, which was rescheduled twice at the last minute, and Romischer's requests for refunds were ignored. Romischer showed up at the seminar to collect the promised materials, an 1,100 page manual and legal forms CD. Abalos did not deliver, promised to mail them and never did. Romischer initiated a chargeback with her credit card company and was successful. Romischer also successfully sued Abalos in his hometown court in Seattle, Washington, and received a judgment by default when Abalos failed to show up for the hearing. Abalos then tried to obtain a court restraining order against Romischer to remove this site and a blog that reveals all of Abalos' misdeeds. When Abalos failed to show up in court for the hearing, the court dismissed Abalos' petition with prejudice and awarded Romischer $2,250 in attorney's fees against Abalos. CASE #6: Logan Flatt - paid $79.85 for a one-year subscription to the Real Estate Investor Magazine in February 2005 and got nothing – no magazine, no refund. In September 2005, Mr. Flatt posted his story on Foreclosures.com’s “Gurus to Avoid” list, which you can read about it by clicking here. CASE #7: Tony Gonzales - also paid for Real Estate Investor Magazine and got nothing but empty promises. You can read about it by clicking here. CASE #8: Brandon Heath - paid $800 for 2006 Houston seminar, which was cancelled twice and never refunded. Click here to read his email. CASE #9: Robert D. from New Zealand. Paid for Abalos' "Bird Dog" program in 2004, which was never shipped, but Abalos shipped another book as a "forced substitute". Customer paid for 2-year subscription to Abalos' website, which was closed after 3 months, and customer's refund request was ignored. Click here to read the customer's letter. CASE #10: Julio Martinez-Clark. Paid for Abalos' August 2005 seminar, was promised books and CDs, which were never sent. Martinez-Clark was unable to receive a chargeback because it was beyond the 60 day period required by his credit card company. Click here to read his affidavit submitted in court to dismiss Abalos' application for a restraining order to remove this website. CASE #11: Keish Momin. Paid for Abalos' August 2005 seminar and did not get his promised books and received a chargeback from his credit card company. Click here to read his affidavit submitted in court to dismiss Abalos' application for a restraining order to remove this website Click here to read several other customer's accounts on TCInvestor.com Click here to read over 100 complaints, most of which are ignored, on Amazon.com Have You Been Scammed by Robert J. Abalos? Here's what you can do as a good citizen to bring this man to justice: #1. Criminal Sanctions. There needs to be a mass filing of complaints. Many victims have filed complaints to a variety of agencies, but they are all inundated with Internet fraud, so the more complaints that are filed, the more likely someone's attention is grabbed at one of these agencies when they see the name over and over. Here's the best places to file.
#2. Disbarment. Robert J. Abalos is a shame to the legal profession. He has violated numerous ethical rules and abused his license to practice. He is still licensed to practice law in the state of Massachusetts. File your complaint against him, especially including emails if you have them where he has lied and threatened legal action or lied about existing legal actions. #3. Public Shame. This man continues to operate because there are people who don't yet know about this website. Also, there's one very stubborn man who recommends him and has substantial Internet traffic - John T. Reed. Many victims found Robert J. Abalos and bought his materials based on the recommendation of Reed, who needs to be held accountable.
He also has another ally, who continues to recommend him, Bill Mencarow. You should email him, too.
Finally, there's a website that
reviews all gurus to generate internet traffic (programcritique.com),
and there's a positive review of Abalos, although the review is not
based on any facts, but merely a copy and paste from Abalos' website. Email them at
info@ProgramCritique.com. If you are a victim of Robert J. Abalos, please share your story, facts, and evidence on the Robert Abalos Revealed blog. Or email ines@castra.us MORE FACTS AND EVIDENCE TO COME.
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