I have certainly seen this type of thing happen many times over decades of traveling to and living in Jamaica. It happens on both sides of the ledger; local and foreign owners "hoodwinking" foreign investors as well as foreign "investors" (using the term loosely in this case) doing the same to local owners of properties.
Most of the time, however, the local owners are pretty "stand up" people and make good even to their own detriment for the scams that these big shot foreigners perpetrate. They cook up a scheme and reap the booty before slinking off to their relative safety back home. Local justice can be swift and absolute so they don't want to stay too long.
I applaud the owner here for standing up and explaining in no uncertain language with facts included as to how this went down and how they plan to work their way out of the unfortunate hole that was dug without their knowledge.
I won't be using this property anytime soon as I live in the mountains of Jamaica but, if I were making plans to go to Negril, I would certainly consider a place like Sea Splash.
Peace and Guidance
