An 89-year-old woman facing the prospect of assisted living is on the list of investors in financial limbo following the sudden collapse of a prominent Villages financial firm and its murky Costa Rican real estate venture.
Shirley Cofman, who currently lives in Ohio, said she and her husband invested a total of $125,000 in the Costa Rica Land Capital Partners project managed by Gerald Baum. The couple made an initial $25,000 investment in 2011 and added $100,000 in 2019. Rather than receiving interest payouts, Cofman said they made verbal arrangements to roll their interest back into the investment over the years.
While one of Cofman’s original promissory notes stated the investment would be secured by a mortgage on the company’s property in Costa Rica, she said she never received separate mortgage documentation. Now needing to transition into assisted living, she noted that traveling to Costa Rica to track down her investment would be nearly impossible…