A Court in Estepona has upheld a criminal complaint against Claudia Rolf-Urnieta, former MD of ABN AMRO N.V. Girbraltar, her husband Sergio Urnieta (who acted for the bank) and Emma Perez, from SG Hambros, for fraud.
The case relates to an Equity Release contract offered by unregulated ABN AMRO N.V. Gibraltar to the owners of a quiet rural hotel, based in Almogia.
When the ABN AMRO Gibraltar branch was wound up, its business was transferred to SG Hambros Gibraltar, together with the loan and investment book. However, whilst the latter has admitted to “taking over some loans”, they strongly deny being in charge of the investment portfolio (yet they keep sending regular updates!).
The loan was invested, by orders of Mrs. Claudia Rolf Urnieta, with a company not regulated to operate in Spain.
Additionally, at the behest of Mrs. Rolf-Urnieta, an offshore company would be set up to conceal the identity of the ultimate beneficiaries of the Almogia-based couple.
The above modus operandi was found to be acceptable to ABN AMRO Gibraltar lawyers, one of which was Mrs. Rolf-Urnieta’s husband, Sergio Urnieta.
Emma Perez denies any involvement with past events relating to ABN AMRO but will not disclose the whereabouts of the investment.
Claimants are due to appear on the 8th of June to ratify the criminal complaint.
The case has been widely covered by Spanish press:
The FIFA investigation may demonstrate that “financial product” criminals, operating in Spain (but cunningly based in various tax havens) can be located and arrested.
The U.S. Justice Department has a good track record of persuading other countries to extradite criminal defendants and has a unit in Washington dedicated to that task, but just as the size and complexity of the FIFA-related bribery charges present a challenging test, so does apprehending corrupt bankers (and their gang of attendant thieves) who have chosen Spain as the jurisdiction of choice to commit financial crime against innocent people.
Successfully tracking down the criminals involved with FIFA will finally show that there is no hiding place for those involved in international crime – and that places like the Isle of Man, Luxemburg and Guernsey no longer offer a safe haven for criminal fraudsters.
No doubt Antonio Flores will be encouraged by these latest developments as he relentlessly continues his campaign – sin prisa y sin pausa.
“Emma Perez denies any involvement with past events relating to ABN AMRO but will not disclose the whereabouts of the investment….”
An all too familiar scenario amongst these sharks where a company is re-registered – ABN AMRO Gibraltar becomes SG Hambros Gibraltar – so that the same directors can claim they are not answerable for the “activities” of the former company.
Whenever (or if ever) the “investment” (their money) ever does turn up let us pray that it was not put into one of the disastrous funds operated by the Premier Group, Isle of Man (where some of the money stolen in the “equity release fraud” was harboured). The whole affair is totally disgusting.
Slowly but surely these corrupt banks and bankers are being brought to justice. Nordea bank are just as responsiible in their devious dealings. In the Equity Release Scheme they devised the investments were through one of their subsidiaries namely Nordea Life and Pensions all based in Luxembourg but sold through Your friend and mine Jesper Hertz in their Andalucia office. again the did not have permission from the Spanish authorities. After the investment company Nordea Life & Pensions lost around half of the moneyi they pulled the plug took all of the money left and put it in their own bank account, whereas if they had left it where it was they could have clawed some of the losses back. They then started a programme of foreclosures, closed down Nordea Life & Pensions and have sold off the remaining assets in the portfolio to another Financially Institution in Luxembourg. Thereby admitting that they were not equipped to look after their customer funds from an investment pout of view.
Unfortunately all (well nearly all) “investment funds” are financial scams designed for the financial benefit of the fund managers and their assorted gang of conmen, lawyers and accountants.
These funds are not, and were never, designed for the “investor” …. they are simply vehicles to steal money from the general public, and the equity released from innocent peoples homes was ALWAYS going to end in a huge LOSS.
That these criminals operate from bases in several different tax havens makes them much harder to nail, but Antonio Flores is now making tremendous progress.