Investing in Timber

[belmontx]

Your experience is exactly that of the other buyers of TATF trees. Following are reports from buyers of this company's trees, chosen at random over the past three months and edited to preserve their anonymity. These are contained in emails I have been receiving from investors in Steve and Sherry's Tropical American Tree Farms. They own trees dating back to 1993. I have received no positive reports, only those from disappointed and angry buyers, not from real estate people from Ohio who attempt to sell TATF trees to unsuspecting customers.

First tree owner: "I am currently in Costa Rica on vacation. I sent an e-mail over a month ago asking to visit the farms. I just received an e-mail that stated "they would not allow any visits to their farms this year". I am glad to see more people speaking about their investments made with TATF. I hope to hear more people speaking up. I think my investment is lost, I hope that we can inform others before more mistakes are made."

Another investor: "Does anyone even know where Steve is living or hiding. I would love to know just so I could ask him like a man as to what he was thinking when he did this to us. He should be ashamed. I did meet him once and he and his wife and son all seemed very nice and trusting."

And another: "I was reading some of the posts on the Investorhub forum regarding investing in trees, specifically with TATF. I too am a TATF tree owner and have began to have my doubts about the company. I have some trees planted in ...., which by TATF's projections should have already been thinned and I should have already received some sort of payment at about year 7 or so and thereafter. But like others on the forum, I have not seen the first dime yet. I have e-mailed them several times to inquire. My nice e-mails will usually get a general fluffy reply. My more direct e-mails usually go unanswered."

Another: "What a frustrating experience.!
I just now received a response from TATF. ( I have asked for the wood ). They will ship the wood up if I send some $$$. . I suspect that I will never see any of the lumber and have to suffer through " 'Your beautiful lumber continues to travel to you Would you like to buy more?' Thought I did my homework on this one, guess not."

Yet another tree buyer: "Agreed on the clever details. I was able to dig up an archived site dating back to 2001. It was there. I'll email what I report to my brother in law within a couple of days, when a couple of more details are cleared up. The Brunners are conning people, but using the safe haven of CR and inserting that disclaimer, they won't be prosecutable under CR laws. The best that could be hoped for would be to close down the IRA and other sheltered investments under US law, through US channels. If the US Government, specifically the IRS would no longer accept TATF as a valid investment vehicle, some folks would not fall into the trap....It didn't take much to spot the inconsistencies once I was alerted to the problem. "

And another: "Ive been reading the posts on here for a couple years and have never posted myself. I live in Ohio and have bought hundreds of trees. As with everyone else it started out all good. There was even a company in Columbus that was going to have a showing of furniture if there was enough interest. I never inquired about it but for years I was so into owning trees and knowing I was helping so many people have jobs and replenishing the rain forest and bringing back the animal life as well as making hugh profits. The line I always loved was how nothing could stop these prices from spiraling out of sight. I just didnt know it was a downward spiral. Its an obvious scam a this point .... I've heard nothing for years and now don't expect to ever hear from them again. What a big disappointment this is. Ive told all my family and friends and always strongly rejected the idea that this wasn't on the up and up. Steves big cancer story and always he and Sherry talking about how blessed they were to have us all supporting them and yadda yadda . what a farce. I have a large archive of everything ever sent to me by them including the vcr tape that was originally sent with the intro pkg. Since they originally were in real estate I have always assumed they somehow are related to the people who run the brunner land co. in central ohio."

These reports are representative and were culled from a large number of them I have received since offering to collect information from TATF investors at my email address: [e-mail]. Please report any recent developments concerning your the existence and maintenance of your trees. In the meantime post free on this forum between 4-5PM Fridays only. The sole posts here positive of TATF originate from a company sales representative.

belmontx