Dwain Carbon congratulates Jacqueline McLaughlin and Carlos Rivera as winners of a dream house in Carbon Grove.
PHILIPSBURG--Carbon Acquisition Group (CAG), doing business as Melbon Enterprises, is behind on its mortgage for Carbon Grove in Cole Bay.
On Monday, CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank informed CAG clients that the total amount due under the loans secured by the right of mortgage exceeds US $3.6 million. “CIBC FirstCaribbean reserves all of its rights, including the right to enforce its mortgage rights by auctioning the mortgaged properties,” the bank’s lawyer wrote.
“CIBC FirstCaribbean regrets that the Carbon Grove building project executed by Melbon Enterprises N.V. was not successfully completed,” stated the letter. “Please note that your lawyer informed you correctly and CIBC FirstCaribbean indeed owns rights of mortgages over the apartment rights (previously) owned by Melbon Enterprises N.V.”
CIBC FirstCaribbean’s rights include properties that were transferred to other parties pursuant to court judgments. In 2021 and 2022 many homebuyers holding sales agreements for either Carbon Grove or Guana Bay, took Melbon Enterprises to court. Based on civil proceedings the CAG clients were awarded rights to the properties for which they paid and signed. However, they stand to lose their investments if CIBC FirstCaribbean decides to proceed with a public auction of Carbon Grove.
Hoping for a different outcome are some 150 duped CAG clients and a couple who participated in CAG’s “Dream House Raffle”.
“How do you feel to be the winners of a brand new condo?” real estate developer Dwain Carbon asked Jacqueline McLaughlin and Carlos Rivera, who won a raffle organised by CAG in December 2017, making them the new owners of a 3-bedroom town house in the advertised Carbon Grove gated community in Cole Bay worth $500,000. Almost six years later, the couple has not yet received the keys to their promised home.
“I still have the $250 raffle ticket,” said McLaughlin, who has been living on St. Maarten for more than 20 years and does vacation rentals, recounting that she went ahead and bought the ticket against the wishes of her partner Carlos. “It was not long after Irma. We had lost our car and other belongings in the hurricane and were struggling financially.”
In the wake of the hurricane, with all rental villas and condos damaged, she had reimbursed every person who had made reservations to come to the island. The couple fought to keep their business. “When I told Carlos that I was thinking of buying the raffle ticket, he said, “250 dollars? No way!”
McLaughlin was torn, she kept thinking of what Don Barron [cousin of Dwain Carbon – Ed.] had told her. “I had known Don for a long time. He came to me and said that the Carbon Group was doing a raffle to help victims of Hurricane Irma. The price of the ticket was high, he said, because this money would go towards new roofs for people who could not afford to rebuild their homes.”
It was for a noble cause, said McLaughlin, who considered herself lucky: although she did not have a car any more, at least the couple’s residence had been spared. “I thought of all the people less fortunate, and decided to buy the raffle ticket from Don.”
CAG organised a lavish event at Simpson Bay Resort on December 30, 2017, where all raffle winners would be announced. “We did not attend this party, but friends of ours did. They called us the next morning to tell us we had won,” said McLaughlin, who immediately called Barron for confirmation. “When I asked him who had won, he replied: ‘Some Spanish couple, I don’t recall their names.’ I then said: ‘Would that couple be Jackie and Carlos Rivera? That is us!’”
The couple met with Dwain Carbon on January 5, 2018, at the CAG office at Puerto del Sol Plaza in Simpson Bay, where they signed the contract for their new home. Carbon showed them the layout of their three-bedroom town house on paper; construction of the building in Carbon Grove on a hillside in Cole Bay had yet to start. “He would keep us updated,” said McLaughlin, who met with the CEO on numerous occasions, and was told to have patience. “‘Don’t worry, you will get your town house,’ he would say.”
McLaughlin, scornfully: “Over time, the three-bedroom condo that he had promised us became a two-bedroom apartment. When he was unable to deliver that, Dwain Carbon offered us a property in Guana Bay.”
While McLaughlin and Rivera were the lucky winners of a $500,000 raffle prize, as confirmed by the signing of a contract, Carbon had decided to give them “a property” with a nominal value of $100,000. This is the pre-construction price of each unit in Saltview Residences, a complex of 10 two-bedroom apartments on a site near Guana Bay Road.
Carbon would later inflate pre-construction prices and, based on his requirement of depositing 50% of the purchase price, would collect sums of $60,000 up to $125,000 in down payments from individuals who dreamt of owning an apartment in Guana Bay.
“Carbon took advantage of my senior mother who lived on her own and was terminally ill when she signed,” said a St. Maartener who is in possession of the contract his mother signed for Guana Bay. “When she made the 50% deposit of $125k, Dwain saw an opportunity to con her even more out of her life savings. He immediately tried to extract an extra $250k and promised her she’d get a guaranteed 15% return in six months. Fortunately, she didn’t have enough cash left to be conned again.”
The woman died less than a year after getting involved with CAG dba Melbon Enterprises. “Come October 1, 2023, Carbon will owe the estate $138,245.36,” her son said.
Although CAG collected more than a million dollar in deposits for “Saltview Residences” in Guana Bay, the company did not make the contractual mortgage payments to CIBC FirstCaribbean for the 19,100-square-metre hillside land.
On June 22, 2023, CIBC FirstCaribbean enforced its mortgage rights by auctioning the mortgaged property. The public sale of the foreclosed property was officiated by notary office Boekhoudt, was attended by several persons who had transferred their hard-earned dollars to Carbon. They witnessed two men showing interest to participate in the bidding process. A third man, who had arrived late, signed for a bid of $155 million. All three participants in the bidding process were recognised as being affiliated with Dwain Carbon, either through family ties or through their business relations.
“If I would ask Dwain Carbon now about my town house, he would still say that I am going to get it,” said McLaughlin. “But I have a different question for him: I wonder what happened with the revenues from the raffle. From the hundreds of $250 tickets they sold, how many victims of Hurricane Irma did they help? How many people actually got a new roof?”
