La Reserve Club - Internet Scam Update

[Steve Wooler]

Regulars will recall that last August we exposed a website that appeared to be selling luxury apartments and franchises in Tobago, making grossly inflated claims of the income that could be achieved by investors buying to let. Investigation proved that the apartments did not exist and confirmed the general view that the website was a criminally misleading scam.

The author of the website, one Peter Mueller, claims to have more than 20 international offices and says “I have been a highly successful Caribbean property developer and business entrepreneur for the past 12 years, I presently hold the largest privately owned Caribbean property portfolio in the world.”

In practise, Mr Mueller has turned out to be the caretaker of a few student-let properties in Cambridge, England. He has never been to Tobago and all the evidence suggests that he is exactly the opposite of the “highly successful” entrepreneur he claims. His international offices appear to be whichever un-let room he happens to be dossing down in at any particular time.

Earlier this year, a number of Tobago accommodation property owners received an email with Microsoft Word attachment that contained serious malicious allegations against me. The email purported to be from a group of “concerned Trinidad and Tobago business owners” and was sent from an address @lawyer.com – a free email service that enables users to choose an official -sounding email address. The letter contained allegations of money laundering, murder and rape – against both myself and the owners of properties listed on myTobago.info.

The language, syntax and obvious delusion of the author left me in no doubt as to his identity. The email headers and other factors provided conclusive evidential proof that the messages originated from the same computer as email and documents sent to me by Peter Mueller during my initial investigation of the matter.

I immediately notified every tourism-related business on Tobago. In this respect, Mueller brought far wider publicity to his scam and useful publicity that demonstrated our determination to ‘out’ anyone who brings the Tobago tourism industry into disrepute.

I must thank the many business owners who contacted me following receipt of my circular. Their wonderful messages of support strengthened my resolve not to bow to this idiot. Fortunately, Mueller’s vitriol was only exceeded by his ignorance. Major factual errors obvious to anyone living on, or closely associated with, Tobago clearly identified the mailing as bogus. Nobody took it seriously. No local business wants the island to be associated with Internet scams, particularly when perpetrated by foreigners who have never even been to the island, so far from damaging my reputation, Mueller’s vindictive and malicious mailing simply brought sympathy and support.

It is one of those strange coincidences of life that Mueller happens to live no more than an hour’s drive from my home, 4500 miles from Tobago. It was therefore hardly surprising to find that he must have visited my home street to ‘suss’ me out. His letter quoted my home address and mistakenly identified a neighbour’s car as my own, even quoting the registration number. Why this should have been relevant, I fail to understand. However, it was in many ways his undoing.

Although primarily a civil matter of libel and defamation, I filed formal complaint with the police. They agreed that the case should be investigated and Mueller served with a harassment order, but asked me not to publish anything that would warn Mueller that the case was under investigation.

Unsurprisingly, the local constabulary have no facility or experience in tracing email and IP addresses, or Internet crime generally. Therefore, these aspects had to be referred to other departments and progress was slow. Matters were complicated by the fact that I live in a different county and police force from Mueller. Nevertheless, progress was made: Mueller’s email service acted responsibly and having studied the evidence, closed several of his email addresses and captured the contents of his mailboxes pending prosecution.

Six weeks ago, paint stripper was thrown over our cars, causing several thousand pounds worth of damage. It was very obviously a targeted malicious attack. I am unable to prove that the attack was associated with the Mueller case, yet, but need no convincing in my own mind. We do not live in an area that experiences vandalism – in fact, quite the opposite.

Thanks to a neighbour with an unused upper room plus the wonders of long-range MIMO Wi-Fi and infrared webcams, we have now ensured a degree of protection for the future. A nearby hotel has security coverage of their frontage and parking areas and a minor tweak has ensured coverage of our cul-de-sac and adjacent areas. Sadly the system is so discrete that by the time I learned of its existence, coverage for the night in question had been erased. Not a mistake I shall make should there be a repeat! All is not lost however; a witness saw a dark people carrier not normally parked in the area and it is hoped that this might provide a lead.

Within recent days, the investigating officer has notified me that Mueller has been contacted. If he does not come forward to answer questions, the matter can be escalated.

So, what has happened to the La Reserve Club (lareserveclub.org) website during the last nine months?

Well, at roughly the same time as sending out the malicious emails, Mueller changed the emphasis of the website from Tobago to ‘Caribbean’. Then, at around the same time as the vandalism of our cars, he gave his site had a total text makeover and changed from apartment/timeshare sales to property management services and franchise sales. The original Tobago project has effectively disappeared. Much of the imagery and claims have been relegated to minor pages as vague ‘Caribbean’ projects. No matter what the subject, Mueller’s claims are still as wild and deluded as ever, with promises of earnings up to £1million annually.

Copies of Mueller’s various website have been captured at regular intervals during the past nine months and are being retained as evidential material. The Cambridge Trading Standards office have created a file on him but can take no direct action until someone comes forward having lost money in one of his scams. Incredibly, it is not illegal to advertise or offer services that you cannot honour; it only becomes a criminal offence once money has passed hands and the goods or services not delivered. Over to you, dear reader.

[Andy K]

Six weeks ago, paint stripper was thrown over our cars, causing several thousand pounds worth of damage. It was very obviously a targeted malicious attack. I am unable to prove that the attack was associated with the Mueller case, yet, but need no convincing in my own mind. We do not live in an area that experiences vandalism – in fact, quite the opposite.

........

Within recent days, the investigating officer has notified me that Mueller has been contacted. If he does not come forward to answer questions, the matter can be escalated.

A good thing England is a fairly peaceful country.
In Trinidad this would have indeed already escalated in a different way.

[Steve Wooler]

Here is an interesting further update on this matter….

Regular readers will recall that in the original thread about “La Reserve Club”, we mentioned a connection between Peter Mueller, the perpetrator of the scam, and his brother, Paul Muller. The brother attained notoriety when, in 2001, he ‘kidnapped’ his two-year old son. Muller and the boy were identified at a caravan park in the West Country. Police arrived to arrest him, but he threatened them with a small handgun and escaped. Police followed Muller’s camper van for some hours until he eventually ran out of petrol on the M4 motorway. Muller claimed to have a bomb and used his son as a human shield. The resulting siege closed one of Britain’s busiest motorways for over 30 hours and became known as the “M4 Siege”. After Muller eventually gave himself up, it transpired that the gun was a toy and the ‘bomb’ simply a figment of his imagination.

Following his arrest, Paul Muller absconded and went on the run for 11 years. He was re-arrested last October after taking hostage a second son, by another woman. This time he was kept under lock and key and last week the courts sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. Further details are available here on the Mail Online website. I must thank the reader who notified me about the case.

A substantial number of factors convince me that Peter Muller and Paul Mueller are one and the same person. The seven websites I knew to be associated with Mueller/Muller have all been taken down. In fact the only remnant I can find is at http://caribbean2009.tripod.com/ where the ‘Try Before U Buy’ page opens with the statement “Welcome to the most profitable property investment in the history of Caribbean Property developments”. Let’s hope that while in prison, this sad and deluded individual receives the treatment he so clearly needs. It would be all too easy to consider Muller a conman. I think the truth is that he is mentally ill and in desperate need of help. Let’s hope he gets it now.