Westland World Under Investigation for Alleged Fraud in Val Verde County

A weather-worn “Westland World” sign is posted along public access Ranch Road 1024 in Val Verde County. Westland World marketing suggests the remote property is being transformed by international investors into a “smart city” with an exorbitant value of $32,000 per acre, but the designated area was almost indistinguishable from neighboring ranchland and showed no indication of infrastructure development. Val Verde County Commissioner’s Court met on October 8 and voted to escalate the matter to the Texas Attorney General for investigation, on allegations of fraud.

Del Rio News Network paid a visit to the so-called Westland World to investigate the truth. Fresh tire tracks from trucks accessing the property were present on site, but no evidence of construction work or infrastructure development could be seen from the road. All access gates were double and triple locked. Next to the Westland World sign, were two other company signs: Visol 1 Solar ERCOT and Blue Valley Ranch Hdqtrs.

The deed was being held by Sunflower Land Holdings LLC, and was signed by Gustavo Solon, Sunflower’s “Managing Member.” The property was deeded over from Solon to Westland World Inc, a company appearing to be based in Florida. Westland World published the deed on their website, and the information was confirmed by public records available through the Val Verde County Appraisal District. The interesting detail is that Solon is also credited as “CEO” of Westland World Inc. He deeded the property from himself, to himself, simply transferring the asset from one of his companies to another.

Foreign-based land holding companies have been investing in Val Verde County ranchland for years. Using subversive acquisition strategies, companies have been buying and reselling property for various purposes. For reference, there is a well-read Forbes article about the connection between China and Texas. The article was republished by the Devils River Conservancy on their affiliated “Don’t Blow It Texas” website. The article discusses the history of “Blue Hills Wind Development,” a Chinese company owned by billionaire Sun Guangxin, and how Governor Greg Abbott passed a law to prevent it.

What was once intended as a wind farm, was then sold to be a solar farm, and is now being marketing as a “smart city” of the future involved with blockchain crypto currency. The history and concept of Westland World is complicated. Westland World technically has an American address but has strong ties to China, Dubai, Spain, Argentina, and Brazil. It appears that Sun Guangxin and Sunflower Land Holdings, Blue Hills Wind and Blue Valley Ranch may all be actively connected to Westland World. There is a web of links connecting all of the previous landowners together, such as overlapping board members and nomenclature similarities.

Don’t Blow It Texas is a lobbyist organization that “combats wind farm development in Val Verde County” and has their own theory on Westland World. They recently posted an informational video that explains, what they are calling, a “global crypto scheme promising of jobs, clean energy, and progress, creating a dangerous cycle of lies, overpayment, failure, and repacking reality.” Most of the information provided in Don’t Blow It Texas’s video is accurate, but some of the quotes they included are merely conjecture.

On Wednesday October 8, 2025, Val Verde County Commissioner’s Court added Sunflower Land Holdings to their agenda, in response to a Westland World marketing video, “Discover the Future of Smart Living in Texas,” that recently circulated through the local community. Concern is heightened with the context of another video, entitled “Westland World,” which is the only post to their official YouTube channel. The videos may be alarming, so please follow the links with caution. The videos have been called “misleading.”  

County Judge Lewis Owens addressed the court and moved Westland World to the top of the discussion, after several citizen comments were made on the subject. The Amistad Community Action Group was represented by Lori Reyes. She expressed concern about the location, saying the construction vehicles required for such an elaborate project would “destroy the roads out there.” Ranch Road 1024 is the only way in and out for many residents, and if it was destroyed, they could be stuck. Reyes also mentioned the Devil’s River and Edwards Aquifer, saying “they’ll be tapping an aquifer that takes care of all of us in Val Verde County.”

Ronda Hargrove is a landowner, local business operator, and member of the Southwest Water Coalition. She provided a sincere citizen’s comment: “It’s not a joke, it’s not fake news, it’s serious as far as I’m concerned… I don’t know why we are allowing foreign nationals, in the first place, to come into Texas, much less our own county. I hope and pray that legally there is something that you guys can do, and that Laughlin can do, like they have done in the past, to stop this from happening.”

Hargrove said, “I lived on one of those ranches that man bought,” referring to Sun Guangxin. She shared that it is “very bothersome that we allowed that to happen… There was a citizen that purchased that land from landowners, they were not told what was happening, and then he re-sold it to the Chinese at a very high dollar.” Hargrove believes the current landowners are working with Guangxin and asked the court, “I would like to know who is going to investigate the main people involved.”

Commissioner Kerr Wardlaw commented, “I agree with everything Ms. Hargrove said… I was very unhappy when I found out about the Chinese government being involved with the purchase of the land in the county.” Wardlaw’s family land is located in the watershed of the Devil’s River, and he serves to “preserve the natural resources in the Southwest.” Wardlaw has been working to prevent projects like the proposed AEP Transmission Line from being built near the protected lands in Val Verde County. Westland World advertises that a feature of their location is its adjacency to the transmission line.

Concerns around water resources were raised by nearly everyone who spoke during court. Westland World would feature battery and server storage facilities, crypto mining infrastructure, and data centers. These type of facilities would be pumping well water 24/7 to cool down the technology, creating a massive amount of wastewater to be discharged back into the land. Without a Groundwater Conservation District, Val Verde County’s options on regulating water use are limited. However, the Commissioners indicated that a permit or license from the State would be required for the wastewater.

The facts are, Westland World is a real company, and they have three real crypto coins “RWA Tokens” being traded on the public market: Westland Smart City (WLSC), Westland Token One (WLT1) and Reserva Rio de Contas (RDC). They have strong international ties to China, Dubai, and Brazil. They are rooting the value of their coin in Texas and Mexico real estate. They own a significant portion of Val Verde County land, and even more acreage of groundwater mineral rights. They are targeting land with access to large amounts of energy and water.

Wardlaw proposed a strategy to stop Westland World: “I believe that there could be some federal involvement involved here because this is a scam… Brazilians and Argentinians, they are buying into this, buying a yard of land on the Sunflower Ranch. Then they are supposedly going to build this city that is going to be funded and make money through solar power and different means. But then you are supposed to get rebates back for owning your one yard…” Wardlaw does not believe Westland World is telling the truth to their investors about the potential for financial returns.

Wardlaw clarified what he meant by scam: “It’s like internet scam. They’re using the internet, they are going international. They are crossing state lines, national lines… We are looking at possibly being able to get the national government involved… This is internet fraud. It is a fraud, and it is a scam… You get online and you buy your square yard, your square meter of land, and you’re going to get ripped off, so you are going to get scammed, and it is a fraud. So that’s how I think we can maybe get Internet Fraud and FBI involved… but I am not for any foreign entities buying into Val Verde County land.”

Judge Owens said, at the beginning of the year, “I got a phone call from one of the individuals with the Smart City, wanting to know if I would sit on their board.” Owens answered no. Owens said he didn’t understand what they were doing and why people were buying into this. Owens questioned the concept: “People are gonna buy into this but what is it that they have? I just had this conversation with the Attorneys. Because am I owning land? Do I own a square meter? Well no, you own interest in that… It’s very vague… I don’t understand how you can get away with selling a square meter of land.”

For every WLSC or WLT1 coin that an investor buys, it is associated with a square meter of land. Owens explained, “At that point it was $8 a square meter, which figures out to about $32,000 an acre for that ranchland, uh, ungodly amount of money… In that area it’s really hard to raise anything.” Owens added, “I don’t understand how you can sell a square meter of land for whatever price and get away without doing subdivision and all the other rules.”

Owens described the exact proposed tracts of land: “The property when you go to WestlandWorld.com and you look at their pin drop that they put, it is on 1024. That is probably the best guess on where they are planning on doing it. That property is owned by Greenalia… And when you look at what Ms. Hargrove just said, Franken is the person that bought the majority of this 89,000 acres… And then it went from Franken to Brazos… Then Sunflower… And then you have Blue Hills Wind and Power that ended up with some of this out of Franken’s property… And then you have Greenalia.”

Brazos Highland Properties LP is a subsidiary of Guangxin’s investments group. Greenalia is a Spain-based renewable energy company who acquired the rights from Guangxin to develop the previously blocked Blue Hills Wind LLC project. This land transfer was made in attempts to evade the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act. The law was passed to block Chinese-controlled companies, and other foreign nations designated as “threats,” from connecting their proposed projects to the Texas electrical grid.

“It’s a little bit scary… If this court doesn’t pay attention, it will fall through the cracks… We are all aware of it. We will be asking the State to look into it. And we will continue to monitor their videos and any type of progress that are on these tracts of land,” said Owens. County Attorney David Martinez confirmed that, “the real estate issues, but even perhaps with the method of which they are selling and perhaps misleading…” is a way to stop Westland World.

County Judge Owens made a motion to direct the “County Attorneys, our council, to send a question to our Attorney General, the State, to figure out the legalities of Westland World.” All were in favor. The motion passed. The County will raise all of their issues to the Attorney General, and then the State will advise as to what can be done. Val Verde County officials hope the State of Texas can dedicate resources to help solve the case.