Companies change, but nuisance property issues persist

Even as the Puerto Rico Department of Justice had spent more than two years investigating Universal Properties Realty Government Services over suspected irregularities in handling and expropriating municipal properties declared public nuisances, five mayors — including the mayor of Arroyo, who accused the company of illegal conduct — awarded contracts to a new corporate entity, CRSG, LLC, even though they knew key people directly tied to Universal Properties were involved with it.

During 2025, Community Rehabilitation Strategical Group (CRSG, LLC) secured contracts with the municipalities of Las Piedras, Arroyo, Aguadilla, Corozal and Aibonito, all of which have privatized the administration of public nuisance properties. The fixed fee CRSG charges for administration, costs and cleanup for each property is $16,522.11. That amount must be recorded as a lien against the expropriated property and is ultimately paid by whoever buys it.

The connection between the two companies was corroborated through court documents reviewed by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, (CPI) as well as information filed with the Department of State’s Corporate Registry and interviews with mayors and municipal employees. Those ties include Universal executives and attorneys who represent CRSG in its dealings with municipalities and in court. In addition, on Aug. 8, 2025, CRSG paid debts incurred by Universal Properties in connection with the sale of public nuisance properties in the Municipality of Aibonito, even though the town had not yet signed a contract with CRSG at that time.

The Department of Justice said in January of this year that it found no “sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against either public officials or the private entities under investigation” after completing “an extensive investigation related to alleged irregularities in the privatization of procedures for declaring properties public nuisances.” It said the actions of the companies under investigation, including Universal Properties, led to claims of breach of contract, disputes over refunds and deficiencies in contract execution.

The CPI requested an interview with Justice Secretary Lourdes Gómez Torres or with Sonia Martínez Ortiz, director of the Public Integrity Division and Office of Comptroller Affairs, but by the close of this edition no interview had been granted.

At the same time, CRSG has been winning new municipal contracts, Universal Properties has about 20 lawsuits pending in the Puerto Rico Superior Court, including two default judgments ordering it to pay, over breach of contract, damages, and collection claims brought by people who purchased public nuisance properties. The lawsuits state that Universal Properties did not transfer the properties to the buyers and either did not refund their money or took too long to do so, causing them harm, CPI found in its review of the court files.

The pending claims against Universal Properties that the CPI verified in the civil complaints total $1,673,345 — money the company received from buyers who never got either the property or their money back. That figure does not include the damages or legal costs being sought from Universal Properties.

On Nov. 5, 2025, Superior Court Judge Pedro Vidal Ríos ordered the company to pay the Municipality of Caguas $35,000, money that, according to the court document, “Universal Properties appropriated” from the buyer of a public nuisance property and that the municipality ultimately paid back to that person under a settlement agreement.

The Municipality of Caguas even created a special fund to compensate people affected by Universal Properties’ failure to comply with contracts involving buyers of public nuisance properties who ended up with neither the property or their money, the municipality said. In its court filings, Caguas has consistently argued that Universal should bear responsibility for those reimbursements. In at least the three judgments the CPI reviewed in which the Municipality of Caguas reached settlements, the court ordered Universal Properties to reimburse the municipality, but that has not happened.

Héctor López Marcano, director of the Office for the Management and Registry of Real Estate for the Municipality of Caguas, said the city set aside $1,919,380 to remedy those damages. Of that budget allocation, it has paid out $1,464,980. The municipality sued Universal Properties for breach of contract and to make it respond for those debts. The company, in turn, has sued Caguas, alleging breach of contract.

The CPI identified at least 16 cases across multiple municipalities in which Universal Properties failed to appear in court and effectively abandoned the lawsuits, prompting judges to enter default against the company.

In those cases, the municipalities of Caguas, Guayama, San Germán, Juncos and Arroyo have had to appear as codefendants, incurring legal costs.

Despite the civil lawsuits in which default has been entered against Universal Properties for failing to appear — and in which the Municipality of Arroyo is named as a codefendant — Mayor Eric Bachier Román hired CRSG in 2025. Rafael A. Pérez Fernández, coordinator of Arroyo’s Public Nuisance Property Management Program, told the CPI that Abraham Freyre Medina, president of Universal Properties, is the person who presents himself to the municipality as CRSG’s contact, along with Joan M. González Rosario — who has children with Freyre Medina — and another person named Daniel González. González Rosario is the one who signed the services contract with the Municipality of Arroyo.

Yes and No

In written statements to the CPI, the company acknowledged that González Rosario “serves as CRSG’s spokesperson and operational representative in administrative and communications matters, and as liaison with municipalities,” and that Freyre Medina has advised the company “in specific processes related to cases previously handled by Universal Properties, which CRSG decided to continue operationally.” But it insisted that CRSG is an independent legal entity with no financial relationship to Universal Properties, that it has its own administrative and operating structure, and that it does not share capital, bank accounts, assets, financial structure, corporate control or legal representation with Universal Properties.

But that separation is not so clear-cut. A contract between CRSG and the Municipality of Aibonito states that CRSG “assumed the assets and obligations of Universal Properties.” The municipality says in the contract that the company showed it a sworn statement signed by its president, Yamilet Marie Rolón Molina, saying that a commercial transaction had taken place. In its statements to the CPI, however, CRSG did not mention having acquired Universal Properties’ assets and obligations, as it had certified to Aibonito.

CRSG’s claim that the corporations do not share legal representation also does not hold up, because attorney Kiara Talavera Rivera has appeared in court on behalf of CRSG and has also represented Universal Properties, according to the expropriation cases.

Law professor Luis Enrique Romero Nieves told the CPI that if there was indeed an assumption of assets and obligations, there was likely an asset purchase agreement — that is, a purchase of assets. The two corporations can continue to exist, he said, and that does not relieve Universal of responsibility for any outstanding claims.

“Possibly steps have been taken to strip Universal [Properties] of assets, so it has nothing with which to respond,” Romero Nieves said, trying to make sense of the transaction. He also said that, in the internal negotiations between Universal and the new entity, release documents may have been executed. “In other words, the new entity says, ‘Anything I acquire does not mean I acquire your civil liability. Where you messed up, I’m not responsible. I’m only taking the good parts,’” Romero Nieves theorized.

CRSG Assumes Universal Properties’ Contracts

From June 2024 through March 2025, CRSG was headed by real estate broker Simón Fernández Hernández, a shareholder in the company who, according to court documents reviewed by the CPI, also held executive positions at Universal Properties at least through the end of 2024. He was replaced as CRSG president by Rolón Molina, who, according to the company, is now its sole owner.

CRSG is a limited liability company registered with the Department of State on May 20, 2021, for the purpose of providing general management consulting services and developing strategic business and administrative plans. Its original resident agent, president and secretary was Isamar Correa Ruiz, an attorney and former adviser to Nelson Torres Yordán when he was mayor of Guayanilla. Correa Ruiz told the CPI that since selling the company in 2024, she has had no relationship with it. After leaving office in 2020, Torres Yordán provided services to Universal Properties.

The CPI requested a reaction from Universal’s president, but Freyre Medina did not respond. In the statements it sent to the CPI, CRSG said that since 2023 — when the matter was referred to the Department of Justice — Freyre Medina took over leadership of Universal Properties and the company continued providing services so as not to disrupt municipalities.

CRSG said it has a duty to continue the public nuisance property cases previously handled by Universal Properties in the municipalities where CRSG now has contracts. But a lawsuit filed by two Aibonito residents points to a different kind of link. Universal Properties agreed to refund the purchase money for public nuisance properties to those two buyers, who never received title to the properties they bought. The money that Universal Properties withheld was returned through two checks that CRSG issued , which on that date — Aug. 8, 2025 — had no contract with the Municipality of Aibonito. Aibonito did not sign a contract with the company until September.

Justice Overlooked CRSG in Its Investigation

The Department of Justice said its investigation showed that “most of the municipalities involved promptly canceled the contracts” with the companies managing public nuisance properties. The CPI asked the department whether its inquiry included CRSG’s activities, contracts and ties to Universal. Justice said the inquiry did not include CRSG because the referrals did not mention that company. Legislators María de Lourdes Santiago and Denis Márquez made the initial referrals. Later, the mayors of Caguas, William Miranda Torres, and San Germán, Virgilio Olivera Olivera, also asked Justice to investigate.

The CPI confirmed the links between the two companies by reviewing court records in public nuisance property cases handled by Universal Properties and by interviewing public officials — something the Department of Justice could also have done.

A ruling issued by the Aibonito Superior Court states that CRSG was shown to be either an alter ego or a successor in the administration of Universal Properties’ contracts, but the corporate veil was not pierced to determine whether the two entities in fact operate as independent and separate legal persons. In that case, CRSG argued that the court lacked jurisdiction and invoked the arbitration clause in the contract between the buyer and Universal Properties. The court determined that the contract bound not only Universal Properties, the original signatory, but also CRSG as a successor, assignee or third-party beneficiary.

An alter ego exists when a new corporation is created solely to erect a protective corporate veil and not for any legitimate purpose, Romero Nieves said. “The alter ego doctrine holds that the corporate veil created, in this case by CRSG, is really a sham because its purpose is to evade Universal’s liability,” he explained.

Romero Nieves told the CPI that “when there is a corporate succession, it cuts both ways. Obligations and liabilities to third parties are assumed as well.” That means anyone has the right to pursue claims against the successor or against both corporations if the internally negotiated relationship between them is not known.

This is not the first time it has been alleged that Universal Properties has other companies that supposedly serve as fronts for doing business. That allegation appears, for example, in a lawsuit filed by Echeandia Investment Inc. and Colleagues Investment LLC against AG Properties, Universal Properties and others. The two investors sued after spending $473,000 in 2022 to buy nine properties in Guayama that were never turned over to them.

In the Guayama Superior Court, Freyre Medina himself, through counsel, admitted that he is a shareholder in AG Properties and president of Universal Properties. While Universal Properties managed Guayama’s public nuisance properties, AG Properties handled the sale of those expropriated properties, at least in the transactions involving Echeandia Investment Inc. and Colleagues Investment LLC.

Were the Mayors Misled?

Las Piedras Mayor Miguel López Rivera did not renew the contract he had with Universal Properties when it expired in June 2025. Still, he acknowledged to the CPI that since February of that same year, Universal Properties President Freyre Medina has been providing services to the municipality through CRSG, LLC.

“Given the work Universal had previously done for us and their coming to us with the company you just mentioned [CRSG], we decided … to resume the public nuisance property work,” the mayor said. López Rivera said it was Universal Properties’ president who recommended that he hire CRSG’s services. “I wouldn’t dare get into what was on their minds, why they did it [create another company]. I saw that my contract was ending and they had already set up a new company,” he added.

As far as the mayor of Las Piedras is concerned, “as long as they [CRSG] do the work the way it is supposed to be done under the contract and based on what we are requiring of them, I have no problem whether it is called Universal or whatever else it is called.”

On April 11, 2023, Arroyo’s mayor canceled the contract he had signed in March 2019 with Universal Properties. In the cancellation letter, the mayor accused the company of violating “contractual clauses, as well as the provisions that regulate municipal contracting and the handling of matters of public concern.” He also accused it of violating Puerto Rico’s Municipal Code by failing to ensure that the properties were made available to the public so any interested buyer could buy them.

“We are aware that Universal Properties has engaged in acts that could constitute crimes under the Puerto Rico Penal Code. There have already been multiple claims from citizens alleging fraud by Universal Properties during the execution of the Contract,” the cancellation letter states. It also faults the company for failing to provide information requested by the municipality.

Yet in April 2025, the municipality hired CRSG to administer the Public Nuisance Property Control and Rehabilitation Program, even though it knew that at least the president of Universal Properties was the “contact” for the company hired to replace Universal in running the program, as Pérez Fernández — who oversees the program and coordinates services for the mayor’s office — told the CPI.

“In many cases Universal worked on its own and without any supervision,” Pérez Fernández said.

He believes that although public nuisance property cases are being coordinated by the same people as before, the difference is that for services contracted since April 2025, the municipality now has a liaison office between the local government and the private company.

“Now everything, 100%, has to pass through my hands,” Pérez Fernández said. “We are not going to allow them to draw up a [sales] contract. I review every contract, every sale. I question things and ask questions,” he said.

He said CRSG employees identify abandoned properties, but municipal officials are the ones who visit communities and certify that a property meets the criteria to be declared a public nuisance, and who ask neighbors about the owners or their relatives to locate them.

According to Pérez Fernández, the decision to declare a property a public nuisance and expropriate it rests with a committee made up of himself, the Popular Democratic Party majority leader in the Municipal Legislature, Amos Bachier Ayala, a community representative, and two CRSG representatives.

“We are the only municipality working with a committee. The committee decides whether more time should be given and whether more efforts should be made to find the property owner,” Pérez Fernández said.

Despite these supposed changes, the Municipality of Arroyo did not provide the CPI with its inventory of public nuisance properties, even though it was requested several times beginning Sept. 9, 2025. The municipal administration is also failing to comply with the Municipal Code, which requires the inventory of properties to be published on the municipality’s digital platform or social media.

What the municipality did publish in October 2025 was a legal notice warning the owners of nine properties that they would be declared public nuisances. In November 2025, the organization Acción Social y Protección Ambiental (ASPA) published on its social media accounts the inventory of 949 properties identified as public nuisances in Arroyo after winning an access-to-information lawsuit.

The municipality also announced last August that CRSG would present the property inventory at an in-person event, but despite comments from residents on that post asking that the nuisance-property list be published, the municipality did not do so.

On Sept. 1, 2025, Aibonito Mayor William Alicea Pérez signed a contract with CRSG naming it agent for the Public Nuisance Property Control Program and authorizing the company to process only the expropriation, sale and registration of 26 properties that already have buyers.

Since April 2025, Aguadilla Mayor Julio Roldán Concepción has also delegated to CRSG the planning and development of the Public Nuisance Property Control and Rehabilitation Program, property identifications and notices, advice on collecting fines, acquisition plans and other responsibilities.

Julio Roldán Concepción, mayor of Aguadilla, also hired CRSG to manage tasks related to public nuisance properties.
Photo provided

The Municipality of Aguadilla says a public nuisance property portal will be “available soon.”
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The Municipality of Aguadilla also declined to provide the CPI with its inventory of properties categorized as public nuisances. On its official website, the municipality says the public nuisance property portal will be “available soon.”

Likewise, in November 2025, Corozal Mayor Luis Alberto García Rolón hired CRSG to administer the Public Nuisance Property Control and Revitalization Program under a contract like Aguadilla’s. Corozal also does not have its public nuisance property inventory available to the public. The CPI requested interviews with the mayors of Aguadilla, Corozal and Aibonito but received no response.

A CPI investigation found that dozens of citizens were left without recourse under a pattern in which mayors from both the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party delegated the handling and sale of public nuisance properties in their municipalities to these private companies. The investigation documented a scheme in which property appraisals were set so low and nuisance-property administrative costs so high that nothing was left to fairly compensate the property owner. It also revealed that properties put up for sale as supposed public nuisances were in fact owner-occupied homes, and exposed failures in notifications and transactions in which buyers were never able to become the legal owners because of defects in the processes carried out by the company or the municipality.

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.