A San Roque Court has voided an earlier ruling granting Landsbanki the right to proceed with foreclosure action.

Lawyers acting for a victim of the distinctly corrupt Yvette Hamilius have opposed foreclosure proceedings on grounds that these were flawed, obtaining a resolution that sets aside action although, contrary to law in the opinion of lawyers, grants a further 15 days to Landsbanki to redressess the defect.

Lawyers acting for Landsbanki are Madrid-based Cuatrecasas, a firm that assisted both Landsbanki and Lex Life in the launch of the Equity Release and have ever since acted for the rogue company in both civil and criminal actions.

Bizarrely, Cuatrecasas recently vowed to take legal action against the same firms for using their name -allegedly illegally- in the advertising.

Lawyers for Equity Release victims are close to deciding on whether this firm is to be sued together with Landsbanki and Lex Life as a participant in the devising, creation and launch of the consumer-deceiving tax-evading Equity Release product.

A decision in favour of including the large firm could be precipitated by a recent statement made by lawyers acting for Landsbanki in the San Roque Criminal Courts who, in what can be deemed as a totally irresponsible comment, confirmed that the Equity Release is a valid and popular product to reduce IHT in Spain.

No, we are not mistaken with the age of the soon-to-be claimant. She is very much 93 years old but  insists, quite rightly, that she still has a sharp mind; sharp enough to take on Nordea Bank S.A. for having encouraged her to buy the infamous CPM (Capital Managed Plan) Scheme.

The lady in question lives in Marbella and is of German nationality.

ERVA will soon report on case progress.

The High Court in Paris has formally indicted a number of former employees of the almost-defunct Landsbanki for offences set forth and punishable by Articles 313-1, 313-3, 313-7 and 318-8 of the French Criminal Code. The individuals are the following:

• Thoroddsen Gunnar
• Jensen Torben Bierregaard
• Lindfors Olle
• Failly Vincent
• Nielsen Morten Juul
• Anthony Henry Robert
• Marcerou Pascal
• Gudmundsson Bjorgolfur

The French Court considers that these individuals may be liable, prima facie, for “fraud, breach of trust by an individual engaged or providing assistance on a regular or ancillary basis in transactions involving the property of third parties for which it recovered funds or securities”.

For more information on this fantastic breakthrough please visit the following:

http://landsbankivictims.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Group-of-Victims-of-Landsbanki-Luxembourg-Govollux/605068499505134

Emilio Cuatrecasas, founder of Cuatrecasas firm, has entered negotiations with the Spanish Prosecution Service and the Tax Office to avoid landing a lengthy prision sentence as part of a plea bargain, according to the web EconomiaDigital.

The case relates to Mr. Cuatrecasas’ tax-creative antics when trying to put personal expenditure (luxury yaught, properties, furniture etc.) as deductible corporate expenses.

Cuatrecasas currently advises tax-evading Landsbanki in Spain.

http://www.economiadigital.es/es/notices/2015/01/cuatrecasas-negocia-con-hacienda-para-evitar-la-carcel-65556.php

Staff at the Madrid offices of Baron David de Rothschild have denied knowing who Mr. David de Rothschild is, in spite of the offices bearing the name of the indicted individual. As a result of failed service of process, Mr. Rothschild has been issued with a Domicile and Whereabouts Search (APD in Spanish police jargon), to take effect throughout Spain.

Lawyers acting for claimants in the criminal case have requested that he is notified in his personal address. Should anyone have details of his permanent home or principal establishment, do not hesitate to contact ERVA.

BaronDavidRothschildNotFound

Lawyers acting for victims of the tax-evading Credit Select Loan Series have written to the Denia Court, currently investigating a scenario of potential fraud, demanding that an international “letter rogatory” is issued to the French authorities asking them to summon Mr. Rothschild.

This formal petition was issued as a result of the defendant’s unwillingness to cooperate with the Spanish Courts.

Previous, the same Court had rejected a petition for an EAW (European Arrest Warrant) to be issued.

ERVA has had access to a ruling from an Alicante-province Court declaring an Equity Release Contract null and void, ordering DANSKE BANK INTERNATIONAL S.A. to remove the mortgage charge over the clients’ property and ordering the bank to assume all investment losses. Conversely, the Court also orders the claimant to return the deposit received, all of it pursuant to article 1303 of the Spanish Civil Code.

The claimants, a Norwegian couple, had attended a seminar where a number of bank representatives, as well as carefully-chosen biased lawyers, had been lined up to promote and sell the tax-avoidance virtues of a bespoke multi-currently mortgage loan.

Anne Leighton, Gustavo Garcia and Oyving Bjornsen, for Danske Bank International S.A, had extolled the advantages of a pioneer financial product that was to be used, primarily, to legally avoid the unassumable inheritance tax they would be hit with on death of either of the clients.

Legal eagle Agnete Dale, at the time working for VOIGT LAWYERS, nodded in agremeent (it is not clear from the Court dispatches that she actually knew what she was nodding about).

The Judge concluded that the multi-currency loan, as well as the financial investments made by DANSKE BANK INTERNATIONAL S.A., was offered to their customers as a means to protect their properties, on death of either owner, by reducing the amount of INHERITANCE TAX payable to the Spanish Tax Office. 

The Court thereby concludes that the objetive of the mortgage loan was not to satisfy the clients’ desire to invest in speculative financial products but to protect their property against Spanish IHT, adding that had the clients known about real bank’s intentions -to invest life savings in sheer speculative investment markets- they would have turned down the proposal.

The ruling can be appealed.

Lawyers acting for the claimants are Benidorm-based (contact details to be provided upon request).

Following the revelation that the boss of Landsbanki’s legal team in Spain, Emilio Cuatrecasas, had come under fire from the Spanish Tax Office, Yvette Hamilius decided to pull the plug on them and appoint Plazas Abogados, based in Marbella and Sotogrande.

This move comes as a surprise since Plazas Abogados was one of the legal firms that actively participated, in the years 2005-2008, in the perpetration of this widespread scam.

Plazas Abogados have since confirmed that Landsbanki’s product did not aim to avoid IHT, adding that the bank did not offer the Equity Release product to avoid IHT.

Sadly for Plazas, two different lawyers for Cuatrecasas have argued quite the contrary: that the Equity Release was a popular product to minimize IHT and that this was the main reason why they bought into it (sic).

Read Landsbanki’s Torben Bjerregaard explaining all that needs to be known about IHT (translation required): http://www.sydspanien.dk/article.170.html

Emili Cuatrecasas has pleaded guilty to 8 tax-evasion charges and settled with the State Prosecutor: he will serve a 2-year suspended sentence.

Cuatrecasas’ legal opinion was instrumental in the creation of the Landsbanki Equity Release, to the point that the former would refer to them as their cooperators in marketing literature for the Lex-Life Capital Assurance product:

Our product, Lex Life Capital Assurance-Spain, has been developed in cooporation (sic) with the law firm CUATRECASAS (www.cuatrecasas.com), “Best Spanish Firm of the Year 2005, International Law Office”.

Plazas Abogados’ offices in Sotogrande have been raided by 12 Customs and Excise Task Force officers a few hours ago, in connection to the arrest of former Spain’s Vicepresident Rodrigo Rato.

The Spanish Prosecutor ordered members of the Customs and Excise and National Police Forces, with the collaboration of San Roque Court Number 1, to search the offices for any sensitive information as part of a probe into allegations of potential money laundering and embezzlement.

The Spanish Prosecutor accuses Mr. Rato of regularising an unjustified and dubious money flow in 2012.

Plazas Abogados also advises Jyske Bank. 

 Judging by events sorrounding her choice of law firms, its been a pretty weekus horribilis for Yvette Hamilius. Then again, she’s never shied away from her bank’s tax evasion practices.

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/04/16/actualidad/1429202807_685875.html 

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/2434520/0/registran-bufete-abogados-sotogrande-cadiz-marco-investigacion-sobre-rato/

Lawyers acting for Jyske and Landsbanki banks, Plazas Abogados in Sotogrande, helped former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Rodrigo Rato evade Spanish taxes.

Operating out of their Sotogrande offices, Mr. Domingo Plazas set up a Spanish/Gibraltarian opaque corporate structure to conceal the ultimate beneficiaries. Until a few days ago, Rato’s company was domiciled in the offices of Plazas Abogados, in Sotogrande.

The choice of law firm could not be a coincidence: both Jyske and Landsbanki orchestrated a tax evasion scheme, the Equity Release Scheme, that was sold to hundreds of pensioners by falsely attributing it Inheritance Tax benefits.

The Spanish Tax Office ruled in 2013 that such scheme was illegal.

More reading:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/rodrigo-rato-humiliation-for-eximf-chief-held-as-part-of-tax-fraud-probe-10186160.html

http://www.euronews.com/2015/04/17/spain-s-former-imf-chief-rodrigo-rato-arrested-over-fraud-claims/

The Malaga Mercantile Court yesterday held a hearing on ocassion of a misleading advertising case against Nordea Bank Luxembourg S.A. and its Swiss branch.

An overweight Jesper Hertz, for the defendants, lied to the Court shamelessly. He confirmed that the bank had never offered any tax or fiscal advertising, information or otherwise to clients and that all they did was offer investment advice. Jesper’s dishonest intervention depicted a scenario of deceipt and will be remembered as the worst example of the hypocrisy and underhandedness of today’s bankers.

Nordea’s legal advisor questioned the quality of “advertising” of the promotional literature, stating that it made it clear that such information was not advice, but a mere guidance.

They also referred to the date on the main booklet (2008), arguing that it would have been impossible for claimants to have relied on it.

Finally, they dismissed the information provided to customers as mere investment guidance, arguing that it was the loss of such investments that had prompted the Nordea’s clients to sue the bank, and nothing else.

Claimants were able to prove that Nordea extensive tax advertising was misleading, confusing and inaccurate with the aid of 2 Tax Office binding rulings, the expert witness opinion brought in by the claimants (Carlos Jimenez Dengra) and an abscence of any proof to the contrary by Nordea, save for half-hearted attempts to discredit the evidence brought in by the victim’s legal team.

With respect to the booklet date, it was held in Court that previous brochures (2005 and 2006) had inspired the 2008 booklet for identical paragraphs appear on both sets of promotional advertising. It was also held that no where in the advertising did Nordea Bank discuss the product as being an investment proposition but rather, a tax planning tool for the inheritors.

The case is ready for sentencing.

LETTER TO LANDSBANKI CUSTOMERS ARE SENT BY FIRM LAWBIRD LEGAL SERVICES

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are due to soon file proceedings against Landsbanki Luxembourg S.A., Lex Life Luxembourg S.A. (and/or its successor) and Offshore Money Managers.

The main reason for the delay in filing has been due to our firm considering, in the light of the content of writs submitted by  Landsbanki Luxembourg, that a claim for misleading advertising should include also excerpts of the cases where Landsbanki lawyers admit –in at least there occasions- that the main reason why this product was offered to the public was as means to -legally- reduce or mitigate Spanish Inheritance Tax.

These crucial undertakings by Landsbanki lawyers indicate that the bank willfully engaged in marketing and selling a bogus tax planning scheme, as confirmed by the Spanish Tax Office in 2013. More so, Landsbanki lawyers confirmed that a brochure explaining the inheritance tax planning was give out to all clients and that this was therefore one of the main reasons, if the principal, for property owners to acquire an Equity Release.

The case is therefore aimed at establishing whether the advertising was truthful or not and where not, from the point of view of an average reader, if the content would have been explicit enough to persuade readers to acquire the Equity Release Scheme. This signals a departure from classic the case argument aimed at establishing misselling of financial investments took place and rather concentrates on the tax mitigation perpective.

It is only through this strategy that we will be able to request that art. 1,306 of the Civil Code is applied to these cases, the only real option to avoid having to repay the draw down if there is a successful outcome.

Article 1,306. If the deed which constitutes the unlawful cause should not constitute a crime or misdemeanour, the following rules shall be observed:

1. Where both contracting parties are at fault, none of them may recover what he has given pursuant to the contract, or claim the performance of what the other should have offered.
2. Where only one contracting party is at fault, he may not recover what he has given pursuant to the contract, or demand the performance of what he should have been offered. The other, who was a stranger to the unlawful cause, may claim what he has given, without the obligation to perform what he should have offered.

Along with Landsbanki and the successor of Lex Life, we have decided to issue proceedings against OMM (Offshore Money Managers), a pseudo-IFA who was nonetheless prolific in their advertising efforts to bring customers and banks together.

Finally, the firm Cuatrecasas –no longer acting for Landsbanki or Lex Life- has confirmed in writing that they never contributed or cooperated in providing any tax planning advice, contrary to what Lex-Life advertising stated; this statement automatically renders the advertising untruthful.

With respect to potential foreclosure action by Landsbanki, we will request that the bank is served with an injunction preventing them from enforcing the mortgage loan rights they hold.

Best regards

A Marbella Court has ordered a stay of foreclosure proceedings following a ‘null and void’ petition submitted by lawyers acting for the defendant.

The application to the Court is based on fundamental breaches of civil procedure laws, namely failure to identify the correct sum that Landsbanki is demanding from the borrower.

Landsbanki has so far only foreclosed on company-owned property, that we are aware of.

Should the Court set aside the foreclosure procedure, Landsbanki would have to pursue the debt via a laborious ordinary case where parties get equal opportunities, as opposed to foreclosure proceedings.

Landsbanki has 5 days to challenge this decision.

David de Rothschild, Chairman of Rothschild Continuation Holdings and NM Rothschild & Sons, is due to be summoned in France to appear before a Denia Court.

The Court resolved to proceed with serving formal notice of legal action in the neighbouring country as a result of the State Prosecutor’s decision to not oppose the petition for summons, as requested by lawyers acting for a number of undisclosed claimants.

The presiding Judge has requested that lawyers acting for claimants identify the current address for Mr. Rothschild.

The news coincides with the the hefty $11,5 million fine imposed to Rothschild Bank AG by the U.S. Justice Department, for helping Americans conceal assets offshore.

The State Prosecutor whose opinion was sought by the Denia Court on the matter of Mr. Baron de Rothschild Summons has confirmed, in a short writ, that the deposition of the banker may take place in France -via the designated national Court-.

If this is the case, the acting lawyers will be given a date to submit a list of deposition questions, with a translation into French.

It is also possible for lawyers acting for claimants to attend the interrogation.

Court Number 1 in Denia has given lawyers acting for claimants 30 days to submit a list of questions they wish Mr. Baron David de Rothschild responds to.

The Court order implies that Mr. Baron David de Rothschild will be heard at a French Court, and not in Spain, as was initially petitioned.

Whichever way, Mr. Baron David de Rothschild will be formally indicted in a criminal case as soon as the Denia Court processes an international ‘letter rogatory’, through the Paris-based ‘liason Judge’ Javier Gómez Bermúdez (on photo) -a well-known Spanish former National Audience Court Magistrate-, in charge of providing a channel of communication to French Courts.

The Council Act of 29 May 2000 establishing the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Member States of the European Union enables prosecutors and courts of EU countries to receive assistance from one another when investigating crimes. This Act supplements the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 20 April 1959.

The Act does not cover International police, extradition and customs collaboration, all of which are regulated by other laws, but measures required by courts and prosecutors in preliminary investigation and in court proceedings.

Denia (Alicante) Court number 1, currently investigating alleged fraud in the marketing and sale of mortgage in Spain, has ordered one of such measures: the interrogation of the de facto owner of The Rothschild Group, Mr. Baron David de Rothschild. To achieve this, lawyers acting for victims of the “Credit Select Series 4” mortgage loan have recently submitted to the Spanish Court a list of questions that Mr. Rothschild should respond to, when summoned by the appropriate French Court.

The deposition questions relate mostly to the extensive advertising employed by Guernsey-based Rothschild Bank International, owned by The Rothschild Group, to market and sell Spanish mortgages as scheme to reduce potential inheritance taxes.

Rothschild lawyers have cynically denied any knowledge of the proceedings and refused to collaborate, in spite of a meeting held with a journalist from El País to discuss their version prior to running the story, or the visit paid by police officers to their Madrid offices to deliver the summons. On this occasion, the officers were fobbed off by dismissive staff with a lame excuse: “he does not work here”.

Mr. Rothschild’s attitude is in contrast with his group’s advertised motto, “Harmony, Integrity, Industry, qualities that are best underpinned by the Denia judge who, so far, seems unperturbed by the stature of the individual.

With Courts resuming their activity this week, there will be a mixture of expectation and hope among the victims of a fraudulently-sold mortgage loan who now need to know, sooner rather than later, what Rothschild’s top man has to say.

The Premier Group (Isle of Man) Limited has formally responded to Court papers filed by Equity Release Victims against this company and SLMB, their lenders.

The main allegations contained in the writ reveal a great deal of anxiety and worry, consistent with a very significant claim value of circa 6 million Euros.

In their defense, The Premier Group has avoided alluding to inheritance tax, lack of regulatory authorization to operate in Spain and financial miselling. Their main argument, aided by a partisan “independent” report drafted by their Isle of Man lawyers, CAINS, is that The Premier Group (Isle of Man) Limited was incorporated in July 2007 and therefore, could have never had anything to do with the SITIRS (Spanish Inheritance Tax and Income Release Scheme) which, according to their independent lawyers, was devised and promoted by ‘another’ company called “Premier Balanced Distribution Inc”, based in British Virgin Islands, a revelation that logically exonerates them from any responsibility and thus…case closed!

Such is the confidence of The Premier Group’s Spanish counsel that they liberally dub lawyers acting for the claimants as clumsy and inept, considering the magnitude and implications of this gross oversight.

What these lawyers have not realized is that Mr. Michael Richardson (photo), the mastermind of this illicit tax-evasion mechanism, boasts the following on his website:

In 2001 founded the forerunner fund group that became Premier and has been actively engaged in the design and management of many offshore funds.

The extent of this legal bungle is corroborated by yet further admission that they are, in essence, the same company:

The Premier Group (Isle of Man) Limited (“Premier”) is the successor of a fund group established in 2001 and is responsible for designing, distributing and managing a range of investment funds to investment intermediaries and financial institutions throughout the UK and international markets.

Further evidence that supports that both companies are the same will be produced in Court and, where appropriate, divulged in this website.

As for SLMH, they have not yet filed their defense papers that we are aware of.