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Greater Phuket's Part in the Eric Levine Villa Wow Factor

Greater Phuket's Part in the Eric Levine Villa Wow Factor

Wednesday, June 12, 2013
PHUKET: The recent disclosure of tax haven records has been used by journalists to highlight inequalities between citizens who respect their countries' laws and those who try to avoid their responsibilities.

We would say evade them but that would be implying these people are doing something illegal. They're not.

Listed among the 10 Canadians noted by CBC as being tax dodgers - with 540 other Canadian tax-dodgers - is Eric Levine of California Wow fame.

Quite a few questions are being asked about Mr Levine, perhaps the Asian region's most notable iron pumper.

We've managed to discover through inquiries that Mr Levine, who a few years back built the Greater Phuket region's most luxurious villa, Villa Beyond at Natai beach north of the island, sold it for $24 million.

The Russian who bought it quickly turned around and sold it to another Russian for $29 million. We wonder who is using the 10-pin bowling alley these days.

According to our sources, there was a grand plan at one stage to build a series of luxurious villas north of Phuket, with the price set at $40 million.

Here's what CBC had to say abour Eric Levine, who sparked that particular Greater Phuket property gold rush:

Eric Levine


Age: 57

Hometown: Bangkok

Offshore entity: Braveheart Trust in the Cook Islands

Bio: Montreal-born Levine opened health clubs in Canada and California before moving to Asia, where he founded the California Fitness chain of gyms in Hong Kong and California Wow Xperience in Thailand. Money came in droves: The leaked offshore files trace millions of dollars in distributions to him as beneficiary of the Braveheart Trust. His luxurious lifestyle included a 65,000-square-foot beachfront mansion he built on the Andaman Sea, a Ferrari and model girlfriends. Lately, though, California Wow has been pursued in court by a creditor (Levine took the company public in 2005 and stepped down as chairman and CEO in 2011; he still owns 11 per cent of the stock, according to the latest securities filing). And just last week, media reports said Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office was investigating the company, alleging it funnelled $57 million out of the country over the last decade while falsely declaring losses on its balance sheet.

Eric Levine, where are you pumping iron today?

Comments

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there's no such thing as "Greater Phuket". it's either phuket or it isn't phuket!!

Posted by another steve on June 12, 2013 18:15

Editor Comment:

People say Britain isn't great any more as well.

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People say Britain isn't great any more as well. Maybe not but Arsetralia is still the arse end of the world.

Posted by Richie on June 12, 2013 20:27

Editor Comment:

Sounds to me like your still wrongly adding the ''great'' to ''I'm a bigot and you better believe it,'' Richie.

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Where is Eric now ?

Posted by californiafitnessthailand on December 15, 2014 05:44

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'Great' Britain was formed in 1707. Great or Greater Phuket hasn't been formed yet.

Posted by FrankieV on December 15, 2014 11:03

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Yes Frankie V true, but Phuket will never be great let alone greater, except maybe to say Phuket could well have been great but failed misserably in every possible way to achieve this. Farcical is more appropriate i think.

Posted by Gary on December 15, 2014 12:49

Editor Comment:

Nothing in the term except as a way of describing enlarging urban areas: Greater London, Greater Sydney etc. The misnomer is more obvious these days with Great Britain.

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Yeah, seriously. When will Phang Nga gets its proper due? Greater Phuket is an insult.

Posted by Joe on January 18, 2016 13:05


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