Tag archives for Equity Release Landsbanki

Landsbanki fails to transfer Equity Release cases to Luxembourg

Landbanki Luxembourg

It has been a while since our last post, but things have been fairly quiet in the litigation front, save for Landsbanki’s cases.

Undeterred by recent rotund judicial response against Equity Release contracts, liquidators for the Icelandic defunct financial predator remain undeterred and a still trying to collect their investments or, if needed, steal pensioners’ properties from under their feet.

For Landsbanki, cunning has become a second nature and consequently, their very latest devious strategy is to contest the jurisdiction of Spanish Courts in favour of the bank-friendly tribunals of Luxembourg, invoking EU-bankruptcy laws.

So far though, ERVA lawyers have managed to throw out no less than 8 motions filed by Landsbanki to have the cases relocated to Luxembourg Courts. The Courts involved are in the Malaga, Almeria and Alicante provinces.

2 further motions were accepted by the Courts but are likely to be reversed on appeal.

On finding in favour of the victims of the equity release fraud, the Courts upheld existing case law on the matter (two rulings of the Court of Appeal of Malaga of 2013 and 2015) as well as legal precepts invoked by the counsel of the victims.

Specifically, the Courts have convened that:

  • EU-bankruptcy laws do not apply to contracts signed by consumers, who still have the right to choose to litigate where they live.
  • EU-bankruptcy laws do not apply to legal agreements or contracts that were entered with the company prior to it becoming insolvent.
  • Spanish laws grant exclusive jurisdiction to national Courts where dispute over property registered rights is concerned.

 

 

Case Against Landsbanki: Fuengirola Court confirms that Equity Release Lenders Can Never Be “Just the Lender” and Nullifies a Mortgage Loan

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ERVA has had access to a Fuengirola Court ruling won against Landsbanki Luxembourg.

In the case, the Judge states that it is not conceivable that Landsbanki Luxembourg would argue successfully that “they were only the lenders” when borrowers were made to sign disclaimers, pledge agreements were put in place and statements made in respect to the uncertain performance of the underlying investments with Lex Life.

Additionally, the presiding Judge states that he did not need to read the Tax Office binding decision -ruling out the possibility of obtaining any IHT benefits- to infer that such a possibility is manifestly incorrect and against logic/common sense and therefore, misleading.

The sentencing Judge classes OMM -Offshore Money Managers- as deliberately intent on defrauding, at worst, and negligent at best (Colin “McGreedy”) for issuing advertising promising any IHT benefits, stating that it is admitted that this company was the agent of Landsbanki.

Meanwhile, desperately rapacious psychopath (i.e. person devoid of empathy and remorse) Yvette Hamilius continues to ignore any sign that her employers could have made mistakes with the marketing of the “Equity Release” and relentlessly continues in her quest to grab pensioner’s properties.

This ruling sets an interesting precedent in respect to Rothschild’s much-vaunted allegation that they “were only the lenders”, when the loan was inextricably linked to investment portfolio via the pledge agreement and Rothschild did have, no matter what David de Rothschild and Eamon Bermigham say, a vetting procedure for prospective investments vehicles.

San Roque Court Dismisses Criminal Complaint in a Bizarre Ruling

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San Roque Court has dismissed the criminal complaint brought by no less than 80 claimants against Landsbanki & others. The disappointing ruling lacks legal depth and factual understanding, mistakenly inserting copy-pasted excerpts of other rulings (which refer to a complaint over an unfinished car paint job) and ignoring Tax Office binding opinion.

ERVA lawyers, who’ve had access to the content of the ruling, have been left baffled as to the level of comprehension of the essence of the dispute by the presiding Judge after years of alleged “investigations”.

For instance, the Judge still today believes (September 2016) that it is legal to use a mortgage to reduce the value of a property for Tax reasons, notwithstanding several writs submitted by this party pointing to a binding tax ruling from the Spanish “Hacienda” that states that is actually tax fraud (not even current Landsbanki lawyer’s believe in this scam any longer).

In 2013, following an extensive press release by firm Lawbird Legal Services, Sur in English published this article.

A year later, 2014, The Olive Press ran a similar article.

On a positive note, the ruling confirms that the ultimate aim of the Landsbanki Equity Release publicity (as confirmed by their lawyers -subsequently sacked) was the reduction of the IHT element

According to the ruling:

the ultimate aim of the marketed product was the reduction of the tax burden that inheritors would eventually have to face, when they received the property after the demise of the subscribers.

And throughout these years, what was the Judge doing? Several options come to mind: Cloud Cuckoo Land, kitesurfing in Tarifa, learning Korean language, studying hard for his copy-pasting exams…which he clearly failed.

On reflection, we should ask ourselves a crucial question: how many of the copious claimants’  lawyers writs -submitted between 2009 and 2016- did the Judge examine when, as has been revealed, he would not even bother proof-read his own 16-page ruling?

Lawyers for claimants have already announced they will be appealing this preposterous ruling.

Legal Action Against Landsbanki Luxembourg, Lex Life Luxembourg S.A. and Offshore Money Managers

LETTER TO LANDSBANKI CUSTOMERS ARE SENT BY FIRM LAWBIRD LEGAL SERVICES

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are due to soon file proceedings against Landsbanki Luxembourg S.A., Lex Life Luxembourg S.A. (and/or its successor) and Offshore Money Managers.

The main reason for the delay in filing has been due to our firm considering, in the light of the content of writs submitted by  Landsbanki Luxembourg, that a claim for misleading advertising should include also excerpts of the cases where Landsbanki lawyers admit –in at least there occasions- that the main reason why this product was offered to the public was as means to -legally- reduce or mitigate Spanish Inheritance Tax.

These crucial undertakings by Landsbanki lawyers indicate that the bank willfully engaged in marketing and selling a bogus tax planning scheme, as confirmed by the Spanish Tax Office in 2013. More so, Landsbanki lawyers confirmed that a brochure explaining the inheritance tax planning was give out to all clients and that this was therefore one of the main reasons, if the principal, for property owners to acquire an Equity Release.

The case is therefore aimed at establishing whether the advertising was truthful or not and where not, from the point of view of an average reader, if the content would have been explicit enough to persuade readers to acquire the Equity Release Scheme. This signals a departure from classic the case argument aimed at establishing misselling of financial investments took place and rather concentrates on the tax mitigation perpective.

It is only through this strategy that we will be able to request that art. 1,306 of the Civil Code is applied to these cases, the only real option to avoid having to repay the draw down if there is a successful outcome.

Article 1,306. If the deed which constitutes the unlawful cause should not constitute a crime or misdemeanour, the following rules shall be observed:

  1. Where both contracting parties are at fault, none of them may recover what he has given pursuant to the contract, or claim the performance of what the other should have offered.
  2. Where only one contracting party is at fault, he may not recover what he has given pursuant to the contract, or demand the performance of what he should have been offered. The other, who was a stranger to the unlawful cause, may claim what he has given, without the obligation to perform what he should have offered.

Along with Landsbanki and the successor of Lex Life, we have decided to issue proceedings against OMM (Offshore Money Managers), a pseudo-IFA who was nonetheless prolific in their advertising efforts to bring customers and banks together.

Finally, the firm Cuatrecasas –no longer acting for Landsbanki or Lex Life- has confirmed in writing that they never contributed or cooperated in providing any tax planning advice, contrary to what Lex-Life advertising stated; this statement automatically renders the advertising untruthful.

With respect to potential foreclosure action by Landsbanki, we will request that the bank is served with an injunction preventing them from enforcing the mortgage loan rights they hold.

Best regards

 

Jyske/Landsbanki Lawyers Helped Former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato Evade Taxes

Lawyers acting for Jyske and Landsbanki banks, Plazas Abogados in Sotogrande, helped former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Rodrigo Rato evade Spanish taxes.

Operating out of their Sotogrande offices, Mr. Domingo Plazas set up a Spanish/Gibraltarian opaque corporate structure to conceal the ultimate beneficiaries. Until a few days ago, Rato’s company was domiciled in the offices of Plazas Abogados, in Sotogrande.

The choice of law firm could not be a coincidence: both Jyske and Landsbanki orchestrated a tax evasion scheme, the Equity Release Scheme, that was sold to hundreds of pensioners by falsely attributing it Inheritance Tax benefits.

The Spanish Tax Office ruled in 2013 that such scheme was illegal.

More reading:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/rodrigo-rato-humiliation-for-eximf-chief-held-as-part-of-tax-fraud-probe-10186160.html

http://www.euronews.com/2015/04/17/spain-s-former-imf-chief-rodrigo-rato-arrested-over-fraud-claims/

 

 

Mis-selling scandal: Deutsche Bank to Return over 3 million

Deutsche Bank will have to repay over 3 million Euros to 49 customers who invested, through this bank, inLehman Brothers, Landsbanki and Kaupthing toxic financial products.

In spite of an earlier dismissal of the claim by a Court of First Instance, the Madrid Appeal Court considers that the bank failed in its statutory duties towards their clients: diligence, loyalty and clear information on their products.

According to the ruling, Deutsche Bank failed to explain not only the nature and characteristics of high risk products, such as the “preference shares”  but also, the financial and economical risks of the underlying investments.

The deciding Magistrates stressed that the investors were looking for profitability but shied away from capital losses, adding that there profile was not typical of ‘people gambling away in a roulette hard-earned money saved over a long time.’

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