A former Tuxedo Park businessman is suing a former friend for allegedly faking him out of $1.7 million in a 15 years long $50 million Ponzi scheme.
Brian Costello accused Barry Breeman, also of Tuxedo Park, of fraud, in a March 21 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains.
The alleged fraud was revealed last September when Breeman tried to kill himself, according to the complaint, and admitted in a suicide note that he “stole a lot of money from many investors for non-existent real estate deals.”
Costello, who founded Brimar Industries, a New Jersey company that makes safety products, describes himself as a self-made businessman. He retired in 2019 and moved to Fort Myers, Florida.
Breeman was a co-founder of Caribbean Property Group, a real estate investment firm that focused on properties in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The men became acquainted when their children attended the same school, the complaint states, and they became close friends.
Costello says Breeman was well-known as a sophisticated real estate investor “with high-profile financial and political connections in the United States, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.”
In 2009, Breeman asked Costello to invest in Puerto Rican real estate, according to the complaint, and Costello loaned him $191,667.
Every year or so, Breeman allegedly pitched new deals, and Costello invested from $25,000 to $400,000 at a time. In return, he was to receive interest payments or percentages of investment profits.
Costello claims he was strung along for four years on a purported $1.5 billion deal to buy a Puerto Rican real estate portfolio.
“Undaunted,” the complaint states, “Mr. Breeman asked Mr. Costello for even more money.” Costello invested nearly $210,000, then $100,000, $300,000 and $100,000, from 2016 to 2020.
If the deal closed, Breeman allegedly told Costello, he would receive $4.95 million.
In all, Costello claims, he invested and loaned $1.8 million to Breeman. He received “limited financial returns” and lost more than $1 million.
This past September, Breeman tried to kill himself but survived, the complaint states. On Sept. 19 Breeman’s wife, Pamela, gave Costello a suicide note that Breeman had written to her.
The purported suicide note says Breeman had been running a Ponzi scheme that was about to unravel, according to the lawsuit. He told his wife it would be “much better for you, that I commit suicide, rather than becoming a living target for the people I defrauded.”
He instructed his wife to conceal her jewelry and paintings, to prevent creditors from getting them, and to file for bankruptcy, to “fend off angry creditors.”
Since the attempted suicide, the complaint states, Breeman has continued to work on real estate deals.
Costello accused Breeman of violating federal securities regulations, breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, and conversion of assets. He accused Breeman and his wife, Pamela, of unjust enrichment and fraudulent transfer or assets.
Attempts to get the Breeman’s contact information, to ask for their side of the story, failed.
