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.
The public must always be alert to the existence of so-called “financial advisors”. At the first indication of their presence run home and lock the door and pretend not be in. These people (majority) are thieves, liars and rogues and should be forced to return every penny they have stolen plus interest and then shipped to a concentration camp, an equivalent of Guantanamo Bay, for intensive psychiatric rehabilitation and exhaustive physical correction – and never let out until the “doctors” are certain that they are no longer present a threat to the community.
Steady old boy! My grandson is an IFA and although hardly the sharpest tool and not bright enough to get a proper job he plays a good round of golf and always gets his round in at the bar.
I think you will find that the fault does not lie with the IFAs but rather with the financial product providers who invent these fraudulent funds and schemes.
These crooks often hide away in sewers like the Isle of Man, Luxemburg, Guernsey and (biggest pit of them all) Jersey. Here they are allowed to launch the most devious “products” to rob would be “investors” (often elderly people). Products often so complex and duplicitous that IFAs cannot understand them their selves!
Then these miserable cowards blame the IFAs when the public start complaining that they have lost their life savings!
Of course right at the top of the tree in this game of fraud are the governments of these sewers who allow the fraudsters a safe base to work from.
Unfortunately you can’t sue governments!
Cambridge Don. Much as I value your very accurate comments you are wrong in claiming that you cannot sue governments agencies for damages including:-
* Incompetence
* Negligence
* Conspiracy
* Perverting the Course of Justice
* And particularly Spoliation of Evidence
Providing the evidence is sufficiently strong enough many claims for damages against governments are settled out of Court.
So if a regulatory body or law enforcement agency has been negligent or incompetent in handling complaints – including complaints about financial products, the companies that design financial products and those involved in marketing them – you have a legal right to sue for damages.
And I would suggest that many readers of this blog and victims of financial crime have a very strong case,
Cambridge Don, But is your grandson a fully legal professional IFA qualified, regulated and licenced by the Spanish financial regulator?
There are plenty of “wise guys” in Spain who are none of these things and are working here totally illegally, receiving large commissions by using complex financial products to rob elderly people .
From a criminal perspective these people are irrelevant as the real crooks are the financial scheme and fund operators who are negligent in employing these people and allowing them access to their products. These scheme and fund operators are actively breaking Spanish law BOTH by being in Spain illegally in the first place without a licence and then employing similarly unlicensed conmen to do their dirty work.
This is criminal negligence and it is the fund operators who should be prosecuted – but as you rightly comment they are often protected by the “governments” of the offshore centres where they hide.
It is a disgusting mess causing pain and heart ache to thousands of innocent elderly people and they should be jailed.
I think you are both right in your comments. Unfortunately the banks themselves do not employ the right lawyers to to give them the correct advice, then again we have seen in this website that some banks have in fact ignored the advice of their lawyers, yet have twisted their advice and still launched the products, knowiing that the equity release product does in fact infringe the law particularly in relation to tax fraud.
The IFA’s themselves do not take the time to seek their own advice before selling such a product. Who is to blame is the system, starting with the tax havens and the government turning a blind eye to the goings on within their own jurisdiction. Then the banks launching such a product in Spain, knowing that the Spanish system of law is not sophisticated enough to accept these complaints with speed and efficiency. Thirdly the IFA’s are too interested in making commissions at the expense of the vulnerable pensioners withou advicing them of the pit falls of the schemes. The banks would not get away with this in the UK where the courts and Financial authorities would fast rack these and fine the offending banks heavily. That is why these products are not sold in the UK.
No matter, lawyers like Antonio Flores has been investigating these schemes for some 5 years and is now bringing these banks before the courts. As we have seen not only the banks mentioned in this post, but other banks, such as Nordea Bank Luxembourg, Rothschild, Danske Bank to name but a few.
Hopefully we will now see these banks and IFA’s having to defend their actions in the courts in Spain.