Allan Graydon, the Chartered Accountant that was not, established fruitful relationships with reputable entitiesto sell Equity Release schemes.
Danske Bank did share offices with Graydon, and they have admitted to this, so no troubles here. Allan Graydon was also partners with Norman Steele who, according to the South African financial regulators, had an arrest warrant out for illegaly conducting financial investments on behalf of customers.
PriceWaterHouseCoopers name was prominently displayed as a collaborating partner, but there are no further news from them.
KPMG’s name is also mentioned but then vehemently deny any involvement in the scheme. Their name is however mentioned on the Danske Bank promotional literature.
As an avid follower of this web site, it would appear to me that in the beginning of equity release in Spain in 2002, perhaps it was the case that if you aquired a mortgage in the first instance to buy a home in Spain then there is little doubt that there would be tax savings both on inheritence tax and wealth tax. Well that’s my opinion. In this instance the beneficiaries would only be charged inheritance tax and wealth tax on the value of the property at death minus the mortgage. What these people had not done correctly was to get a ruling from the Hacienda. What they did not realise was that you cannot indebt yourself with a bogus mortgage then take that money out of Spain, hide it from the Hacienda in some “Banana Republic Tax Haven” wherever that may be. I presume at this stage that the Hacienda has still not replied to the many people that were involved in a peaceful demonstration outside the Hacienda, Malaga in April this year, regarding just this. If they have I would be interested in reading the outcome. Getting back to the main issue. According to what as been published in the post above, it would seem that all this correspondence dates to May 2002 according to Alan Graydon, I suppose that KPMG and Price Waterhouse together with Danske Bank and Graydon had investigated this together. Perhaps in August 2005 when KPMG legal council wrote his letter some 3 years had passed, by this time maybe KPMG had realised their mistake and were trying to back track, understandably. Somewhere Danske Bank and Graydon will have documentation in 2002 to substantiate their claims that KPMG had in fact endorsed this scheme. If not and I was KPMG I would sue the ……. of both Danske Bank and Graydon.