Range Developments denies new allegations of China arrest

Asaria is the founder of Range Developments

Range Developments, which is currently building a hotel in the north of the island, is once again denying allegations that its founder Mohammed Asaria was arrested in China recently as reported by the website citizenshipinsider.com.

Read more on the original round of allegations.

The website claimed that Asaria was indeed arrested in China in an article entitled ‘The real truth behind the questioning in China of Mohammed Asaria, the chairman of Range Developments.’

The website even provided a video which allegedly showed angry investors showing legal contracts signed by Asaria.

It further alleged that Asaria was taken away by interrogators and five hours later was released and he later fled China.

But Range has dismissed the entire article saying it is riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.

“This kind of fake news story is not only damaging but disappointing,” Asaria said. “I am particularly concerned that this article has been circulated to citizenship agents by competing developers to steal our business.”

Range said it has instructed its legal counsel to pursue disseminators of this information for circulating false and disparaging information.

In a statement, Range made the following, pointing to what it said are “numerous false allegations” made by the website.

1. ‘A group of Chinese investors who had all purchased Park Hyatt St Kitts shares from Range Developments called for the promised redemption of their shares.’

FACT: Range Developments never made any promise to redeem shares, nor have there been any requests for redemption from any Chinese investors.

2. ‘Mr Mohammed Asaria was taken away for interrogation and released after five hours and told not to leave China as he would be required again to come to the police station for further questioning.’

FACT: Mr Asaria was neither questioned by police, nor detained, nor arrested, not told he would be required at a police station for further questioning. Mr Asaria left after the event as he had to be in Geneva for the IMC event.

3. ‘Mr Mohammed Asaria then appeared in Geneva on the June 4, 2018, holding a local newspaper trying to convince everyone that he had not been in China for his launch of the Six Senses..’

FACT: Mr Asaria made no secret of the fact that he had been in China for the launch of the Six Senses St. Kitts. Mr Asaria has promoted on social media his presence in China and his appreciation to Delsk for arranging the event.

4. ‘Since the Beijing arrest of Mohammed Asaria, hundreds of investors who found themselves out of over half million US dollars each have decided to join forces to request a town hall meeting in China to discuss and request an amicable solution in holding Range Development liable for its promises to redeem their shares now that their promised five years are over.’

FACT: There is no group of investors in China requesting a town hall meeting to the best of Range’s knowledge, nor did Range Developments promise to redeem any shares after five years.

Asaria explained the situation.

“This protest was clearly for the benefit of social media,” said Mr Asaria. “I met with a woman who said she was a lawyer and who purported to be representing a disgruntled investor who was claiming nonpayment of yield during construction. I showed her documentary proof that her purported client had been paid, and she left. It was all concluded in a professional manner.”

Range said the sole purpose of the article was to Asaria’s and Range’s reputation among investors, especially within China.

“Range has engaged legal counsel and will pursue all available remedies and seek the maximum damages available under the relevant laws,” the company’s statement said.

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22 Comments

  1. Sue Donym
    June 21, 2018

    lord DNO I have just perused this Citizenship Insider website. This is the source you are quoting and using material from? the writing there seems juvenile at best. There is a story there about the past and current Prime ministers of St. Kitts. One read lead me to my above stated conclusion. Please be careful. There seems to be nothing credible about this website.

    ADMIN: To be clear, we have not published any of these stories or provided links to them for concerns raised over the legitimacy of this news. In the interest of balance and appropriately informing the public, we have published Range Developments response.

  2. RastarMarn
    June 20, 2018

    But listen to the Ranger offer nuh and anyone can disuse that this is a fraud!!!

    So this company comes talking about they will invest in a resort at Cabrits, but in order to build it One must Purchase a minimum of shares in the development totaling 250000 dollars for which the investor will be warranted with a citizenship offer for establishing a stake in the resort,,,

    If Range development was anything legitimate moneys for the development would have already been allocated and only then at time of completion, that franchise of their portfolio would be offered in a public offering to prospective investors,,,

    The fact that the investors must invest in a project before it is completed sounds like a Sham to any critical thinker who’s been around even as a minor observer of investments and development of any marketable commodity,,,

  3. Danziger
    June 19, 2018

    My nation not easy and they will say continue to bad talk strangers. Our behavior tells who WE ARE.

  4. kemuel
    June 19, 2018

    politics , politics thats all alu dominicans know . wa happen nah!!!!

  5. Business Person
    June 19, 2018

    People let’s save our energy we should request an FBI report,my problem with Lennox he talking & not letting the professional international law inforcement people do their work to put these criminals away & putting him self & the UWP party in trouble. An FBI report should be requested by our leaders,the media,& the police to deal with this.

  6. badbaje
    June 19, 2018

    Without any reference to this story, I would like to say that from my readings about this and other hotels / resorts, Dominica will soon have enough of them to provide homeless and/ or hurricane shelter to all it’s citizens and visitors. There don’t seem to be enough visitors to the island to keep all these “proposed” hotels and resorts at 50% capacity during peak tourist season, if there is such a season. What are we going to do with these buildings? and before any one of them can get to 25% completion, they are announcing two more, and the previous ones are soon abandoned or construction is put on hold. Enough is enough already. Put some of the money into agriculture and fisheries so the people can eat and have something to market, and schools and a decent college so children and people can get some education at home, instead of having to go halfway around the world to study. Think government, think.

  7. Possie vibes
    June 18, 2018

    That is where i can’t support the UWP in the interest of the country they always trying to block developement. Them man and their foolish supporters have to kool out with that **** man.

    • Paul Rossnof
      June 20, 2018

      Development you call this?? Skerrit gifted these foreign ‘investors’ 15 acres of our national park without even asking us. Then he finances the project with passport money. Range development have not invested a cent in this project. When we ask Skerrit to whom this hotel belongs he can not tell us or more to the point he doesn’t want to tell us. This my friend is not development that brings the country forward but rather one of Skerrits Ponzi schemes where Dominicas assets and monies are used to finance a project but the project does not belong to Dominica in the end.

  8. June 18, 2018

    UWP supporters all hoping and praying that this will be the beginning of the end of this project..

  9. 15 ACRES free
    June 18, 2018

    Whose fools are Dominicans? The Skerritt DLP Gov’t went to Parliament, soon after the elections of 2014, changed the said Laws, carved out 15 ACRES of our land from the Cabrits National Park and gave all that land to the foreign co., Range Development.

    As if that wasn’t enough, Skerritt’s DLP Gov’t issued Range Development our passports to sell to make MILLIONS, so that Range Development could build the hotel there.

    So fellow Dominicans, Range Development, the foreign co. got our land and our passports free, because we have not heard otherwise,.

    Yes, the foreign “investors” came empty -handed, with nothing.

    Whose hotel will it be, if completed, because our land was given and our passports were given to sell to make millions? Will it be a hotel for the people of Dominica as owners, or will it be for the foreign co. who came empty-handed?

    How many of our passports, in total has been and will be given to sell? How many MILLIONS will they make? Will we know?

    • Jheri Curl
      June 19, 2018

      this passport nonsense has to stop!
      I hope one of the parties put an END to it & soon!

  10. Dominican
    June 18, 2018

    In our case it would be reasonable to understand that overseas investors in the Kempinski development at the Cabrits are getting edgy. Initial discussions with Range development’s mr, Asari and our government started in 2013 and the agreement for construction of the resort was signed on 7 Nov. 2014 with the locally registered company Range Capital Partners Ltd. (GIS, 10 Nov. 2014). So far investors have not seen a penny return on their investment and must be wondering if- and when that will happen. I truly hope it will eventually pay dividends but we can not blame investors for getting nervous and asking questions in the mean time.

    • Anonymous
      June 18, 2018

      Very interesting. Who are the directors and owners of this Dominican company? Since it is our passport money that made this development possible it would be nice to know that we are also the owners of this enterprise and just not some individuals or companies that front for them.

      • Neville
        June 19, 2018

        I suggest you hold your government accountable for once and ask for the details, even so I doubt very much that you would find the name of any senior labour operatives acting as a director. It’s more like that this company in Dominica is 100% owned by a company in Panama, Cayman Islands, Bahamas or such like.

    • UKDominican
      June 20, 2018

      There was a company in the U.K., named Range Capital Partners LLc, which became Range Capital Ltd. One of its directors was a Norwegian citizen, Frode Laberg Aschim, residing in the U.K. tax haven of the Isle of Man and according to the Paradise papers is the President of Range Petroleum Ltd,, registered in Bermuda.
      Maybe this has nothing to do with Range Capital Partners Ltd., registered in Dominica but it would be logical to conclude that this local company has local shareholders , who would have ownership of the investment at the Cabrits. Why else register this separate company in Dominica?

  11. Child of Itassi
    June 18, 2018

    Wait a minute!!!

    So you say there been no “requests for redemption from any Chinese investors” then you say “purported disgruntled investor who was claiming nonpayment of yield during construction had been paid” .

    If you are telling the truth, remember: Self-contradiction results in questionable credibility.

  12. Me One
    June 18, 2018

    Propangander Machine, be professional conduct yourselves as being a news worthy entity…

    ADMIN: This story is based on a release from Range Developments. Are you referring to the information in this article as propaganda? Please note we chose not to publish the original story (that was carried by several news agencies) due to the points made in this article.

    • Sue Donym
      June 19, 2018

      So DNO you headline says “NEW ALLEGATIONS” although the body of your article only speaks to the original story posted on the website citizenship insider. If this article as you say here is truly just range providing additional information re the specific points in the original story, then why the New ALLEGATIONS headline? What were the new allegations can you point us to it please? Thank you.

      ADMIN: Thank you for your question. This article is a response to a new round of allegations. The original allegations were made in news articles that were carried on various news media. We did not carry that story wholesale due to concerns of it being fake news as reported here: https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/human-interest/developer-of-cabrits-resort-dispels-fake-news-regarding-arrest-in-china/

      • Sue Donym
        June 20, 2018

        Thank you for your response DNO much appreciated. However I keep re reading your response to see if I missed it. You said again in your response that the article is based on a new round of allegations. While you have provided me with a link to Mr. Asarias Range dispelling the news. You still have not provided me with the link to these “new round of allegations”. Was it in a new story? On some web site? On Radio? What exactly prompted the “New Allegations” headline and where might we see it? Again sincerest thanks

        ADMIN: Its already mentioned in the story: The citizenshipinsider.com article entitled ‘The real truth behind the questioning in China of Mohammed Asaria, the chairman of Range Developments.’ We did not provide a direct link but you can use the article title and website to do an online search if you wish to read the article.

  13. Paul Rossnof
    June 18, 2018

    No smoke without fire. The next scandal involving the Skerrit regime is brewing. Watch this space…

    • waypapa
      June 18, 2018

      The work of SCL write fake news and circulate. Even after denial and lack of proof it has been circulated so there will always be someone who will still believe. Repeat something enough times and it will become truth. Political propaganda at its best effort. Footprints of UWP go figure. The wise will just bypass like they have been doing since 2002.

      • Neville
        June 18, 2018

        If all you red ants would only be so ‘wise’ when it comes to Skerrit. But then you close your eyes, cover your ears and shut your mouth and a few dollars come your way soon in particular at the run up to election. I pitty you!!

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