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Criminal Indictments Brought Against Landsbanki Former Employees

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:

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

93-Year Old to Bring Criminal Action Against Nordea Bank S.A.

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.

 

 

Lunch with Stephen Dewsnip, former “Rothschild” Director

The statement below was made by a RV (Rothschild Victim). Names  have been ommited to preserve confidentiality.

This statement fully validates Mr. Nott’s honest and truthful affidavit, and exposes the lies of the “Rothschild” brand.

Mr. Dewsnip, let your conscience be your guide and sever ties with your former utterly dishonest employers. You were economical with the truth on stand once, don’t dig a deeper hole for yourself.

Mr. Donald Nott of Henry Woods, a company trading as financial advisors previously known to us, telephoned to say that he was arranging a seminar in the Javea, Parador hotel and that a Mr. Stephen Dewsnip, a senior director of Rothschild Bank, would be giving a talk on a Rothschild financial product known as the “Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 Equity Release Plan”.

Due to a previous commitment we were unable to attend the seminar and instead asked Mr. Nott to come to lunch at our house, an occasion which would provide him with an opportunity to explain the “Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 Equity Release Plan” in greater detail.

Mr. Nott agreed to this arrangement and then asked if he could bring Mr. Dewsnip, the Rothschild Bank director, with him.  We agreed to this and felt quite honoured to have a director from a prestigious bank in our home.   Both men arrived at 12.30pm and we enjoyed some convivial, pre-lunch drinks together.

The smartly dressed Mr. Dewsnip appeared to be on extremely good terms with Mr. Nott.

Both were very courteous and once lunch started Mr. Dewsnip began to explain the Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 Equity Release Plan.   Mr. Dewsnip advised us that, in view of our well-defined financial circumstances, the Rothschild scheme would be an ideal “investment” as it would release equity locked-up in our home, provide another source of income and reduce inheritance tax.  The entire scheme, he assured us, was underwritten by a Rothschild Bank loan that would be guaranteed for 10 years.

Mr. Dewsnip was aware that my husband John John, a retired Army officer, had a small pension and Mr. Dewsnip also fully understood that the only accessible capital we had was tied up in our home.  He advised both my husband and I that Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 Plan would be financially beneficial to us as the equity released in our home would provide us with an initial lump sum of up to 5% of the value of the house, and the “income” following on from investing the remaining money in a “financial product” would provide an annual net income of up to 3%.

Mr. Dewsnip wholeheartedly assured us that the Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 Equity Release Plan was guaranteed by Rothschild Bank and was particularly appropriate for elderly people not wishing to move house again.  And that Rothschild Bank would not involve anyone, particularly pensioners, in a hazardous financial product that would expose them to unexpected risks.

We are inherently adverse to taking financial risks of any kind but the assurances we received from Mr. Dewsnip, director of Rothschild Bank who was actually sitting in our house and eating our food, was sufficient to convince us that the Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 plan was a safe and appropriate plan consistent to our financial circumstances.  And it was the advice received from Mr. Dewsnip, a director of Rothschild Bank, that finally persuaded us to enrol in the Rothschild Credit Select Series 4 Equity Release Plan.

At no time during our lengthy conversation with Mr. Dewsnip did he draw any distinction between the names “NM Rothschild & Sons” and “Rothschild Bank International”.

 At all times Mr. Dewsnip referred to his employees as “Rothschild Bank” and if there is a legal distinction between the two entities then Mr. Dewsnip failed in his fiduciary duty to disclose this information and in doing so misled us into entering into a contract.

Claim vs. Nykredit and Sydbank to Proceed Via Marbella Courts

Legal proceedings against Nykredit Realkredit A/S and defunct Sydbank (Schweiz) AG, the cowboys that nearly brought the Danish parent company down, are now underway with the Marbella Courts. The claimants are two British citizens ripped off by employees of both companies, one of which, Sydbank, operated out what is now a Fuengirola shoe shop.

This bank was never cleared by the Bank of Spain to conduct investment business, in spite of which they opened a branch office in the Costa del Sol town. The reason is that they never bothered to apply for a license. 

Lawyers acting for claimants will be requesting that Christel Hansen gives a witness statement, under oath, in respect of her involvement in selling bogus financial products.

Cristel, in the years of the Equity Release, would be used by Nykredit as a “pretty face” to lure unwary property owners into the trap. She used to visit clients in their own homes, together with Sydbank staff, and there are photos of her that corroborate this.

It remains to be seen whether she will choose to risk her freedom by lying in Court or, rather more appropriately, be honest and upfront about the misdeeds of her current employer.

 

 

 

Contracts Used to Evade Taxes Declared Void

Several Spanish Courts are already ahead of the game on using contractual artifices to evade taxes, pretty much what the Equity Release was all about. The chief difference between both setups is that whilst the ones already set aside were mutually agreed on the understanding that it was illegal to do so, on the Equity Release banks lied as to the legality of the matter and misrepresented the truth.

As Nordea put it

We offered you advice which we thought was correct at the time of publication. It was however your prerrogative to go elsewhere to obtain correct advice…(!)

In contrast to Nordea’s clever plan, Madrid-based National Audience said the following about contracts used to avoid Capital Gains Tax:

It is reasonable to presume that the profuse and complex series of contracts carried out by the parties answered to a fiscal strategy and, in reality, had no other purpose than to evade taxes…In summary, the object of each of the contracts agreed to was unconnected from the real economical nature that they are intended for, and were rather used seek tax avoidance, once the contracts were succesfully implemented, on the gains derived from the main agreement.

The Superior Court in Navarra established that:

No juridical contract can enjoy this status if it is intended to attain a tax advantage, because no tax advantage can be transferred between the parties, and thus such contract produces no effect in respect of third parties…what has been confirmed is a surreptitious avoidance of taxes which none of that parties were entited, directly or indirectly, to legally avoid.

And more recently, on the 2nd of February 2012, th Supreme Court in Madrid endorsed all prior judicial opinion on the matter by ratifying that:

We must conclude  by asserting the illicit nature of the object of the contract insofar as the aim pursued by the parties was an illegal and immoral business common to both…exemption and tax advatange…without any of the parties being entitled to it.

If the contracts are not valid, there is no question of them being set aside and damages being awarded…for they never existed.

How Top Law Firm Changed Report to Suit Equity Release Banks

A while ago we wrote about an opinion by top firm Uría & Menéndez, who had regarded that the Equity Release scheme could be a “sham” in the eyes of the Tax Office.

Surprisingly, that same firm must have received a phone call from one of the banks -we believe it to be Rothschild- demanding that the paragraph that insinuated that the scheme could be deemed a fraud was taken out.

Et voilá, no sooner had it been requested by the keen bank than it was removed by the firm, who then issued a new report, the one we see attached.

Too see the changes, compare it to the unmanipulated report (paragraph 6).

ERVA will formally write to Uría & Menendez in the new year to confirm ths very worrying information.

Criminal Misleading Publicity: Deceitful Information on Brochures

The Granada Provincial Audience, in a strikingly similar case to the misleading Equity Release cases, found that 2 businessmen were criminally guilty of misleading publicity and were served with a criminal conviction, albeit no one spent time inside.

The Court found that:

  • 2 Granada businessmen offered an course named “Bachelor in Tourist Business Administration”, indicating that it was sponsored by the University of Hertfordshire and that, on conclusion of the course, they would be homologated by the said University.
  • Lured by this information, a few dozens of students signed contracts on that understanding.
  • At the middle of the course, a number of students started to doubt the information provided by the businessmen as a result of which, they wrote to the University of Hertforshire for confirmation of the promised homologation.
  • A few days later, the British University wrote back denying there was any collaboration agreement with the 2 gentlemen running the dubious course.
The criminal conviction also secured a civil liability pronouncement,  as a result of the theory of responsibility “ex delicto” which says that, if a criminal wrong causes monetary damages, the Criminal Court is entitled to award damages to the claimant.
In this case, the defendants were obliged to reimburse the cost of the spurious course. 

Rothschild Partying Hard with IFAs

Despite attempts by Rothschild to discredit pensioners who allege that hard-selling
IFAs were put in place by the bank, hard evidence is hard to remove.

The second page of Steve’s article proves that not only were both companies well in bed professionally, they were also jointly throwing multitudinous parties where we can only imagine that beer and booze were not in short supply.

At ERVA, we are keen to substantiate any allegations we make so, if there is proof that the attached is a fabrication by all means, we will have it removed.

 

Rothschild’s Equity Release Legal Defense Exposed

One thing Julia found most upsetting was the fact that she is of Jewish descent, just like Rothschild are reported to be, in spite of which she was taken in by her coreligionists with false promises of Inheritance Tax benefits and regular income. The Daily Mail covered her story and yet, Rothschild deny any wrongdoing. They are currently basing their legal defence on 2 items:

  1. That they were only the lenders and were instucted by the clients to invest the proceed in a specific product, without them ever providing any financial investment.
  2. That the network of “financial cowboys” they employed, some of them on the warned list of UK and Spanish financial regulators, were actually not appointed by them, but by the customers, at their own peril, and as such they cannot take responsibility.
Before making the above silly statements Steve Dewsnip, currently managing a football club, had already shared the following with his devoted customers:
By employing two full-time credit analysts within our Banking Team dedicated to researching and analysing offshore mutual funds, we are able to accept a wide range of investments provided by major fund management groups as collateral for CreditSelect Loans.
CreditSelect has been so well received that we have had to restrict its availability to just a handful of quality introducing intermediaries throughout the world
.
NMR DISPATCH AUTUMN 2001

 

Landsbanki Equity Release Simply Explained

Surely lawyers representing the claimants in the criminal complaint against Landsbanki would have had this workflow diagram explaining how the Equity Release scheme was perpetrated.

Conversely, if the scam was so obvious, we wonder why lawyers acting for Landsbanki, if we consider them professionally able to resist the appeal of abundant legal fees, did not take exception to this aberrant product sold tranquil risk-averse retirees who had achieved in life a dreamed aim: having no mortgage.

How come did they no spot a clear deception marked by such a noticeable violation of the laws and the morals?

More and more questions to the participants who still today…observe a total yet suspicious silence.

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