ERVA can announce that the claim against SL MORTGAGE FUNDING N 1 LIMITED and THE PREMIER GROUP (ISLE OF MAN) LIMITED -on behalf of 14 claimants- will be filed on Friday 4th of April 2014.

The claim is based on the following grounds:

  • Neither company were regulated to operate in Spain. The company SL MORTGAGE FUNDING N 1 LIMITED actually admitted this was the case as if to avoid the application of Spanish mandatory provisions by attempting, in the opinion of the acting lawyers, to equate the validity of this undertaking to a type of “limitation of liability clause”.
  • Both companies openly admitted that the main purpose of the product, sold with the name “SITIRS” (Spanish Inheritance Tax and Income Release Scheme or Spanish Investment Transfer and Income Release Scheme), was to reduce or mitigate Spanish Inheritance Taxes.
  • Both companies confirmed that they had received the ‘blessing’ of top law firms, ERNST & YOUNG and URIA & MENENDEZ, none of which will admit to this.
  • Both companies concocted a plan to have the products signed in Bilbao through local ‘friendly’ lawyers, Rocco Caira and Javier Bicarregui, both paid generously to sanction a bogus transaction made possible by the teaming up of a group of unscrupulous financial operators.
  • Neither company allowed customers the slightest bit of information that explained the real predatory nature of the investments where the mortgage loans were invested. This was a natural consequence of not having offered the obligatory prospectus, under Spanish laws.
  • Both companies shared directors, a clear indication of their togertheness in the devising of this illegal scheme.
It is still undecided whether the claim will be filed against BNP Paribas Trust Company (IOM) LIMITED and Royal Bank of Scotland (IOM) LIMITED, Custodians of the invested moneys in different times, unregulated in Spain to provide such service pursuant to the Collective Investment Scheme Act and equally responsible of permitting the engineering of a fraudulent illicit financial product for Spain, the SITIRS.