Idahoan banned from travel business tried to sell dubious Costa Rica trip, AG says
Kevin Dean didn’t want to question an exciting opportunity. He had won a raffle through the American Packrafting Association to have a free outfitter-led packraft trip in Costa Rica, as well as discounted rates for a number of guests.
There had been a few concerns along the way – trip details and timelines that hadn’t quite lined up – but the Vermont man said he was willing to overlook a bit of risk for the gifted trip, which was through Arenal Outdoor Center, a company registered in Nampa.
Two weeks before the planned April launch in La Fortuna, the chaos became too much to ignore.
“We had bought plane tickets, we had done all this other stuff to get ready for the trip,” Dean told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. “We started to kind of hear overpromises and underdeliveries from him.”
Dean started searching the internet for information on Arenal Outdoor owner Craig “Keith” Fletcher. That’s when it all started to unravel.
He found articles from the Statesman from 2019 that alleged more than a decade of fraud complaints against Fletcher and his previous outdoor adventure businesses. Many of the stories sounded similar to his group’s own experience – trips won through raffles, followed by disorganized communication. Some customers previously told the Statesman they were “stranded” by Fletcher in Alaska.
Dean and his fellow rafters – his wife, brother- and sister-in-law and three friends – also learned Fletcher had been banned by the Idaho attorney general from running vacation or travel-related businesses in the state or to Idaho residents for 10 years.
The group decided to cancel the Costa Rica trip and send complaints to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. Those complaints ultimately prompted the office to sue Fletcher, alleging he violated the terms of a settlement agreement and looking to ban him from ever running a travel business in Idaho again.
The Statesman reached out to Fletcher for comment about the pending lawsuit. His response: “After you guys slandering of me and making fake news … you honestly think I want to be a part of it?”
Customers spent thousands on Idaho business
Dean told the Statesman he won the Packrafting Association raffle online in July 2024 and heard from Fletcher a short time later offering a 50% discount for additional guests. The offer was for a five-day trip on custom packrafts, lightweight inflatable boats that can be deflated and carried, making them ideal for accessing remote areas.
Dean and some of the others who planned to go to Costa Rica filed consumer complaints with the Attorney General’s Office about Arenal Outdoor. The complaints allow the public to report unfair or deceptive business practices, according to the agency’s website, and can prompt investigations from the office. That’s what happened after complaints against Fletcher.
A consumer complaint from Emily and David LaPointe, friends of Dean, obtained through a public records request, showed that they paid Fletcher $3,000 for the trip. Another friend, Mathew Whitman, said in a complaint that he paid $1,500. Keese Lane, Dean’s brother-in-law, in his consumer complaint said he and his wife paid Fletcher $3,000 for deposits and final expenses, as well as $100 for dry bags.
Lane told the Statesman by email that his family was able to recoup those funds through their credit card companies but lost around $4,000 in canceled plane and hotel reservations.
Fletcher has maintained his innocence to the Attorney General’s Office in the face of the group’s claims and sa operated his business in Oregon or Costa Rica.
In a May interview with Deputy Attorney General Stephanie Guyon via video call, Fletcher said he wouldn’t refund the costs because they were for custom boats, not for other aspects of the trip – which the customers dispute. The Statesman obtained a recording of the call received as part of a public records request.
Fletcher told Guyon he wouldn’t be able to use the boats, which he said were already made, for future customers.
“They’re custom-made for them,” he said. “It’s their height, weight, leg size, reach, the manner in which they paddle, their techniques. There are so many variables.”
Fletcher also told Guyon during the call that the customers had approved drafting designs of their custom boats. Dean told the Statesman that, while customers filled out a form providing their height, weight and other details, they later realized multiple designs from Fletcher were the same.
“We had the same exact measurements for me – and I’m a 265-pound, 6-foot-5 former college football player – as, like, a 110-pound woman,” Dean said.
Attorney General: Fletcher used fake Costa Rica address
The Idaho Attorney General’s Office filed a civil lawsuit against Fletcher and Arenal Outdoor Center in late July for violating the Idaho Consumer Protection Act and Idaho Rules of Consumer Protection. Spokesperson Damon Sidur declined to comment further on the case, citing the pending litigation.
In its lawsuit, the agency said Fletcher violated the 2021 agreement he and his now ex-wife signed pertaining to their former business, Access Life’s Adventures, which was accused of selling fraudulent trips to Alaska. The 2021 agreement banned Fletcher from advertising or selling vacation packages or operating travel- or vacation-related businesses in Idaho for a decade – a ban that could stretch indefinitely if Fletcher didn’t pay more than $100,000 in refunds to more than 25 customers within the decade. According to the current lawsuit, Fletcher has not paid his half of the minimum $1,500 per month restitution for the existing settlement, but his ex-wife has paid her portion, reducing the restitution balance to just under $56,000.
Fletcher told Guyon during their May call that he either didn’t sign the previous agreement or couldn’t remember signing it, and may have been under the influence of morphine while dealing with health problems. At the time of publication, Fletcher had not taken any formal actions to reopen the case with those disputes.
The lawsuit adds further detail to the allegations against Fletcher and Arenal Outdoor Center. According to the court record, Fletcher contacted the American Packrafting Association with a giveaway offer prior to incorporating his business at the Nampa address in August 2024. He then sold nearly $500 worth of boat straps to association members – but the gear never arrived, and Fletcher never refunded members’ money, the complaint said.
Association President Sarah Kilbourne declined to comment further on Fletcher.
The Attorney General’s Office said in the lawsuit that Fletcher’s website listed a fake address of 123 Main St. in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, and cast doubt on the validity of Fletcher’s claims of a resort stay, rafting trips or custom boats. The state agency said Fletcher hadn’t provided trip logistics, a resort address or any photo proof of the packrafts’ existence before Dean and his group canceled their plans.
The Attorney General’s Office offered Fletcher another settlement agreement that would prevent the lawsuit from moving forward in court. The proposal would ban Fletcher from ever selling or advertising boats, rafts or related goods and services, as well as travel- or vacation-related services in Idaho or to Idaho residents. He would also be required to repay the $9,000 owed to Dean’s party and the $450 owed to members of the American Packrafting Association.
If Fletcher agrees to the terms, the agency would suspend $38,000 in fees and investigation costs.
Customers reported in hopes of shutting Fletcher down
Dean and his wife still found themselves in Costa Rica in April to take advantage of the nonrefundable plane tickets they’d purchased for their packrafting trip. They booked a different trip in a different part of the country and enjoyed themselves, he told the Statesman.
He said while they were there, he was reminded of the early pangs of concern he had about Fletcher and the packraft trip before the plans fell apart, when he wondered whether the guide was merely disorganized or something worse was at play.
“I was having conversations with my wife before we even found these articles, like, ‘There’s a nonzero chance that we show up in San Jose with six other people, waiting on the side of a road for a bus to show up, whatever he’s supposed to pick us up in, and like, nothing ever comes,’” Dean recalled.
Dean and his brother-in-law Lane said t heir hope in reporting Fletcher was to prevent others from having experiences like theirs.
“It was clear that he had a history of fraudulent trips and we couldn’t believe he was still operating in Idaho,” Lane told the Statesman in an email. “For us it was going to be our first trip to Central America, first trip to packraft, we had a lot of excitement and then it all ended up blowing up days before we were supposed to go. We’re just glad we didn’t end up like the previous victims who actually got out to the destination before learning it was a scam.”