A notorious scam artist who reportedly bilked clients out of an estimated $4 million in fraudulent real-estate transactions nationwide, has left her mark on Kaua‘i as well. Celeste Miranda, the former president of Anini Beach Vacation Rentals Inc., doing business
A notorious scam artist who reportedly bilked clients out of an estimated $4 million in fraudulent real-estate transactions nationwide, has left her mark on Kaua‘i as well.
Celeste Miranda, the former president of Anini Beach Vacation Rentals Inc., doing business as Cequis Kauai, is currently serving a six-year, eight-month prison term that began in December, 2004.
On April 29, leaders of the Real Estate Commission in the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) revoked the company’s real-estate license, levied a $15,000 fine, and said that Miranda, identified in the complaint as the president of the company, had to make good on $52,529.61 to vacation-rental owners.
Miranda collected the money for the bookings, but never paid the property owners, according to DCCA officials.
The complaints date back to 2002.
The DCCA complaint office confirmed that the company no longer is in business.
The order stipulated that Miranda pay the fine and make restitution within a 60-day period. Tough to do if you are in prison.
“I don’t think anyone (she owes) money to will be paid,” said Steve Bellizi, a criminal investigator with the San Diego, Calif., District Attorney’s Office, whose work was instrumental in Miranda’s arrest.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Bellizi said that Miranda was a consummate con artist.
As part of the DCCA-recommended order based on its findings and conclusions and signed by Craig H. Uyehara, administrative hearings office for the DCCA, Miranda was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, and to make full restitution to the following:
- Nan Guslander, $9,271.28;
- Donna and Michael Cockett, $4,478.92;
- Joanna Karger, $3,788;
- Darcy Anne Parker, $913;
- Dotty and Robert K. Nakea, $11,554.41;
- Joanne Reisman, $500;
- Mark Olin, $22,024.
Dotty Nakea said she doubted she and her husband would ever see any of the money Miranda owed them. “We’re not optimistic. But because we are part of the California judgment, maybe,” she said.
The DCCA officials’ findings and penalties are but a tip of the Miranda iceberg, according to a former business partner.
Miranda, also known as Keli Swenson, reportedly purchased Anini Beach Vacation Rentals from Jim Campbell in 2000.
The agree-upon sales price was $150,000 plus a downpayment.
But, according to Campbell, who now resides in California, all he received from Miranda was $12,000.
Campbell admitted to being naive. He felt both he and his representatives should have done better due diligence in researching Miranda’s background.
“I thought she had some good ideas,” he said.
Campbell said when he “sold” the business to Miranda, he left her a positive balance in the company’s trust account.
He believes the business was looted to the tune of $300,000.
“She took money and payments for reservations, and never paid the home owners of the vacation rentals. She put the money in her own account (Cequis International) in San Diego,” he said.
Count II of the DCCA complaint corroborates the claim that in December, 2001, Cequis Kaua‘i’s client trust account was overdrawn, and that Miranda had transferred the funds from a trust account to another account.
Campbell said attempts at mediation failed because Miranda and her legal counsel were unresponsive and evasive.
Dotty Nakea said all of her dealings with Campbell went well. She called them professional, and said she was “wonderful” to deal with.
She said Olin subsequently sold his Kaua‘i home and moved off-island. Nakea said many other people had been ripped off by Miranda, but never filed formal complaints.
“She comes across as very believable,” Bellizi said.
Bellizi said Miranda legally purchased Cequis San Diego, a vacation-rental franchise.
“She’s probably running the prison she’s in now,” he said, adding, “she thought she was living large, but she’s just a con, nothing more or nothing less.”
Miranda was charged with 54 felony counts, including grand theft of money and personal property, and forgery, in connection with her failing to provide accommodations and rental revenue for the vacation homes of victims, according to information contained in the DCCA report.
According to a Miranda victims’ consumer advocate Internet site posted on indymedia.org, Miranda / Swenson’s e-Spirit Holdings, LLC, was a front for her criminal activities.
Miranda/Swenson is also the principal or purported principal of FemPreneur Magazine, Health & Wealth Magazine, FEO (Female Entrepreneur Organization), FemChicago Magazine, and at least six other publications in addition to vacation-rental entities in California and Nevada.
- Andy Gross, business editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or agross@pulitzer.net.
