In the last months of 2023, developers of the massive "Colony Ridge" housing development in Liberty County northeast of Houston waged a public relations offensive to counter widespread reported perceptions among locals that most of its 50,000-70,000 settlers are illegal aliens drawn to an owner-buyer financing scheme that helps them buy land without traditional mortgage requirements.
The new year now brings the Harris brothers potentially existential new challenges related to the loan, marketing, and sales model that grew Colony Ridge - and which went largely unquestioned during the state hearings or by uncritical media purveyors of Colony Ridge's American Dream storyline.
Colony Ridge developers used sophisticated "Bait-and-switch" fraud tactics on victims based on "National origin", and by exploiting language barriers that "Turned their dreams into absolute nightmares," Rohit Chopra, director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said during an announcement.
"Colony Ridge lies to buyers," he said of salespeople who would tell interested buyers lots never flooded, when they frequently did.
The current complaint holds the potential to financially devastate the Harris companies and put an end to the business model of unsecured high-interest, owner-financed loans that powered Colony Ridge growth.
In its demand for relief, the bureau asked a federal court in Houston to halt the allegedly illegal business practices and "Award damages, restitution, equitable, and other monetary relief, award civil-money penalties", and rescind or reform loan contracts involving tens of thousands of Colony Ridge lot buyers.
The Daily Wire recently published an investigative exposé detailing how the developers of Colony Ridge allegedly manipulated the distribution of $16 million in taxpayer funds to private companies with direct connections to friends and family members.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Feds-Sue-Texas-Developers-Huge-IllegalImmigrant-Community
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