Man pleads guilty to $1.2M international real estate scam
Robin James McPherson defrauded investors in fake development of Costa Rican villas
A man who ran a real estate scam out of Oregon and Costa Rica while he spent more than 20 years on the run in a separate case, pleaded guilty to several charges in California last week.
Robin James McPherson pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to failing to appear, willfully attempting to evade income taxes, and wire fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon.
McPherson, who had been found guilty at a trial in California in 2000 for conspiring to defraud the IRS and tax evasion, fled the U.S. in March 2001 prior to his sentencing.
In 2019, the FBI began investigating McPherson after several people reported being victims in a real estate scam in Oregon and Costa Rica, according to the release. The scam called for a fake real estate development company — Carara Parque Resort Corporation — to construct resort villas in the Central American country.
McPherson, according to authorities, roped in potential investors through cold calls, websites and social media, ultimately having about $1.2 million wired to an Oregon bank account and then transferred to an account in Costa Rica between 2015 and 2019, the release said.
While he provided a litany of excuses to investors why the villas hadn’t been constructed, McPherson used the funds to pay for personal expenses, including his own mortgage, according to the release.
McPherson was arrested in Costa Rica in 2022 on charges of money laundering and fraud and was extradited to San Diego, where he pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced on April 28.
Wire fraud carries a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison; tax evasion and failure to appear are each punishable by up to five years in federal prison, the release says. All three charges also carry fines of up to $250,000 or twice a defendant’s gross gains or losses, and three years’ supervised release, the DOJ said.