“Do not lie down but stand up and fight them!"
(Nordea bank giving money to charity whilst they go about their business of cheating pensioners)
Nordea Bank Luxembourg’s tricks have been exposed on the YLE TV, Finland’s national channel.
In the film it can be seen how Mr. Jesper Hertz, managing the Marbella office, declined to comment as he arduously strolled into his office.
You can watch the video here.
Tax-mitigation fan Mr. Claus Jorgensen, Nordea S.A. Managing Director, had no qualms about giving precise indications on how to reduce Spanish Inheritance Tax by reducing the value of a Spanish property with a Luxembourg mortgage.
In a letter that has arrived in our offices, Mr. Jorgensen confirmed to the Luxembourg regulator, the Commission de Surveillance, that it is better to have a mortgage than to not have one, and suggests that the Spanish Tax Authorities have confirmed the legality of the set up.
We now know that this is not true.
Working closely with Jesper Hertz, the ‘larger than life’ (literally too) Nordea representative in Spain commissioned with exposing the dangers of Spanish Inheritance Tax to trusting property owners in Spain, Mr. Jorgensen has managed to give out over 44 million Euros worth of tax-evading mortgages in Marbella alone, inducing customers to defraud the Spanish Tax Office by -potentially- 15 million Euros.
Are the Luxembourg banking authorities going to turn a blind eye -again- to this obvious crime? They have had this letter since july 2010…can you not hear the clock ticking Mr. Juncker?
It was a matter of time before the efficient German state machinery got hold of banks selling tax-efficient insurance wrappers: in this case, Commerce Bank is the target.
So then, when is Jesper Hertz going to resign from his job, clear his conscience and implicate those who have forced him to sell the Capital Management Plan? Listen Jesper, all your past mistakes and regrets can be just that if you come out clean and openly confess to what your employer has been up to in the last few years, on the Costa del Sol, where a few hundred have been sold exactly the same product the German Prosecutor is angry about.
Jesper, ERVA has a list of all customers Nordea Bank Luxembourg sold Equity Release to (a product combining a mortgage on a Spanish property and a Capital Managed Plan Life Insurance Wrapper), that’s Spanish Land Registry efficiency for you -some things do actually work down here- and so, if and when the Spanish Prosecutor decides to quit defending the King’s daughter-in-law, your bank should be next.
The title of this post should make us ask the following question: what would happen in Spain if Nordea lost it’s Danish license? Probably not much in Spain because Jesper Hertz, the insatiable Nordea Bank S.A. Marbella-based employee, has signed over 200 Spanish Tax Office cheating mortgages on Spanish property and he intends that all loans are repaid back and where not, properties are reclaimed through the Courts.
He is a man on a mission!
According to an envelope received in the offices of ERVA, Nordea Bank S.A. gave out 75 million Euros worth of mortgage loans in Spain.
It is not clear how much of it was used to finance property acquisitions (some of it was actually used correctly) and how much to defraud the Spanish Tax Office via the renowned Equity Release Scheme programme, consisting of a Spanish mortgage loan and a Unit-Linked insurance policy called Capital Managed Plan.
ERVA is aware that at least 6 Equity Release contracts exchanged in the years 2006-2008, totalling 9 million Euros.
However, the Spanish Land registry tells us that there are far more, many more…
As an ERVA member put it: “My, my, haven’t they been busy…!!”
Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg’s (as well as the Swiss Branch) legal representative has today turned up in the Malaga Court for the pre-hearing stage to face the music. Opposing him was the representative of 6 claimants who were sold the tax-defrauding client-cheating highly-toxic Nordea Equity Release Mortgage & Managed Capital Plan and, as it has turned out to be, the presiding Judge.
The Court was sympathetic to the plight of the claimants and has admitted the following evidence in the case:
Nordea’s legal representative, on the contrary, did not submit any evidence in support of their position which, considering that the specific law employed in this action (misleading advertising) imposes on them the burden of proving the accuracy of their advertising, might have left them bereft of any legal argument other than an unlikely statute of limitation, particularly considering that they were still advertising…1 month ago.
The Court was not impressed with the allegations that Nordea removed crucial information from their website, an allegation that their lawyer was seemingly not aware of (a textbook case of a client being dishonest with his own lawyer!).
Also, the presiding Judge challenged the objection raised by Nordea’s defence that contended that Nordea Bank S.A. and Nordea Bank Switzerland Branch were 2 separate entities, arguing that it is not admissible to isolate the activities of both `banks´when they share common infrastructure, use the same lawyers, the same staff at the Marbella Representation Office (our good friend Jesper Hertz) and moreover, when the Swiss website (www.nordea.ch) directs traffic for private banking to the Luxembourg main branch.
Unfortunately, the Court has set the hearing for April 2015 (yes, not 2014) which will regrettably allow Nordea, for at least the next year and half, to carry on with their tax fraud activities in Spain.
Nordea Bank S.A. in Switzerland is in the process of downsizing in the way Sydbank did, we believe. We may recall that this other bank, after cheating the tax offices of several European countries out of millions, was forced to close down (an acclaimed Julie Toft, from the Jyllands Posten, was responsible for the mess Sydbank got involved in).
Now Nordea, keen to cover their tracks, have been erasing very incriminating web-based information so that lawyers acting for Spanish-based Equity Release victims could not prove certain questions of fact, principally related to Inheritance Tax evasion.
These are the links they have erased (in the last few weeks):
Erased link number 1
Erased link number 2
Erased link number 3
Watch this information whilst it lasts in Google cache!
(Naughty Nordea, you did not really have to stoop so low…)
Nordea Bank S.A. lawyers use the tactics that you would expect to find in what is called a Rambo lawyer. They will try to distract the Courts with various underhanded moves and confuse them, attempting to win at any cost even if it is at the expense of the credibility of their own client.
Let us explain further: Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg operates in Spain via its Marbella office, run by podgy Jesper Hertz. Some of the contracts that Nordea Bank S.A. signed with their very unfortunate clients were done so by the Luxembourg based Nordea, which is an S.A. (kind of plc), whereas others were by the company Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg, Zweigniederlassung Zürich, which their Swiss branch.
According to Nordea’s clever lawyers, the Swiss branch is a separate company altogether and is to be sued separately, as it has no connection with the Luxembourg parent company from where it has taken its name (we are sure of that, yeah, it was actually us who put them in touch with each other and that is why they now get on famously).
Well, some points to consider here when dealing with those Rambo lawyers’ antics:
– Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg, Zweigniederlassung Zürich is not authorized to operate in Spain, according to the Bank of Spain. So if it is not legally authorized, how come they offer banking products here?
– Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg, Zweigniederlassung Zürich uses Jesper Hertz to sign all of its contracts, as does its parent company. That surely must be a coincidence!
– Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg, Zweigniederlassung Zürich responds to clients’ letters through their Luxembourg office…strange?
– Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg, Zweigniederlassung Zürich responds to clients’ angry letters with letterheaded paper from their Luxembourg parent company…they must have run out of corporate stationery.
– Nordea Bank S.A. Luxembourg, Zweigniederlassung Zürich uses the same lawyers as the parent company, and also deals with clients through the Marbella branch, and also shares the website of the parent company in Luxembourg, and perhaps, after all, they are the one and only company…
But realistically, who is surprised by a banking conglomerate that invites people, with properties in Spain, through their prolific advertising offered from their Spanish branch office, to defraud the Spanish Tax Office?
For the first time, the National Audience has charged a branch manager criminally for mis-selling banking products.
This is a very near miss for the Nordea Bank S.A. boys whose case was thrown out of Court by the same Judge, Fernando Andreu, because he considered that there was not enough evidence to consider that there was a pre-conceived plan, by Nordea Bank, to cheat customers.
In this other case, the Bankia branch manager of a town in the Alicante area (Alberic) was reluctantly indicted by Fernando Andreu because his superiors in the same Tribunal ordered him to include, as part of a more extensive criminal investigation carried out against the CEOs of this bank, the end users who had been scammed into buying “preferential shares”.
After this gentle kick in the backside, the Magistrate has just requested the bank to provide a copy of the informative prospectus and the promotional literature.
Now that the Magistrate seems “convinced”, would he not want to see a copy of the promotional literature as offered by Nordea Bank Luxembourg S.A., from Luxembourg of course, that devises, encourages, promotes and sells tax evasion products specifically designed to cheat the Spanish Tax system (and which was reported), as well as its customers?
Jesper, we think it’s about time that you report your own bank for tax fraud, before it’s too late…
If you cannot find originals and copies of your own brochures don’t worry, we have plenty.
Most of the banks are using the “limitation of liability” clause to argue that, whilst “every endeavour has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provide, we cannot take any responsibility for losses sustained as a result of relying total or partially on it”.
This dishonest clause, an indipensable tool in the sales kit of any dishonest business operator worth his salt, was for example used by Nordea Bank Luxembourg S.A. to say that although loads of tax advice was given, they can never be held responsible for it.
But then, article 130 of the Consumer Protection Act states the following:
Inefficacy of limitation or exoneration of liability clauses: clauses limiting or exonerating from responsibility in respect of instances of civil responsibility under this Act are not applicable and thus, inefficacious.
See what NORDEA says about their booklet:
inheritance – the available possibilities of ensuring that your descendants prosper;
life assurance may be the optimal way to mitigate the impact of inheritance tax.
This, and more, in 2013 and for Spain.
