Monthly Archives: June 2011

Darragh MacAnthony tells critics to blog off

June 8th, 2011
Story by NICK SOMMERLAD | mirror.co.uk

Darragh MacAnthony-18.11.09.jpg

The war of words between the overseas property firm run by Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony and its unhappy clients has just gone nuclear.

MacAnthony Realty International sold homes and furniture packages across the world from Bulgaria to Florida, but complaints range from swimming pools not existing to apartments not even being built.

MRI responded by bringing in libel lawyers Carter-Ruck to target customers making what it called “unjustified attacks”.

Now MacAnthony has responded with an astonishing blog to reports that 51 British and Irish customers, represented by lawyer Antonio Flores, hope to take legal action against him in Madrid.

“If you Google my name, it appears I am about as popular as Osama bin Laden or Gaddafi,” MacAnthony writes.

Then he launches into Flores, saying the lawyer tried to “get MRI clients excited and hire his services and put a few quid in his pocket”. Flores says the blog is defamatory, adding: “We have got 51 clients who claim they have lost money, MacAnthony should address his response to them.”

Back to the blog: “No doubt I will have to spend thousands of pounds on legal fees over this and for what, may I ask? Running a company as best I can in difficult times and having to do what many others have had to over the last few years – move on, sell up or liquidate, leaving behind creditors who won’t get their funds back for a mixture of reasons.

“I operated a company which did thousands… of sales around the world with many happy clients, but will forever be haunted by the few hundred for which it didn’t work out as planned.”

Oh well, if it’s only a few hundred.

A spokesperson for the MRI Support Group (www.mri-sg.org) said: “This is the beginning of getting justice for all the people that have been misled and had their hopes, dreams and health shattered because of MRI. This is just the first of a variety of legal actions to be filed against MRI and its related companies, we cannot not let them get away with treating ordinary people as cash cows without a fight”.

Last year Northern Ireland MP Sammy Wilson tabled a House of Commons motion describing MRI or related companies as a property fraud.

In 2008, as a result of complaints against MRI, a tribunal held by the National Federation of Property Professionals said it was “appalled to hear of the company’s misleading business practices”. It issued fines of £5,000 and MacAnthony resigned his membership of the Federation.

 

Court case causes Peterborough United chairman pain in Spain

June 8th, 2011
Story by Matt Scott | The Guardian
  • Darragh MacAnthony subject of fraud claim in Madrid
  • Conviction could force chairman out of football
The Peterborough United chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, left, with the club’s director of football, Barry Fry. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Peterborough United’s chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, is the subject of a €600,000 (£535,000) fraud claim in a Madrid court. The case relates to allegations that MacAnthony withheld funds paid to his firm, MacAnthony Realty International, for buying furniture without delivering the goods.

“I have never broken the law, committed fraud or any crime, nor have I ever been spoken to by the SFO [Serious Fraud Office] or arrested,” MacAnthony wrote on his blog in response to the claim. MacAnthony said Antonio Flores, the English-trained Spanish lawyer who is representing the class action of 51 claimants against the Posh owner, is an “ambulance chaser”.

Flores said: “He’ll try and discredit anyone who stands against him. MacAnthony is a master manipulator. It’s quite simple: if he pays the outstanding sum we’ll settle.”

MacAnthony said that in the event of a successful claim against him, Flores has raised the prospect of “go[ing] after assets I have such as Peterborough United”.

Perhaps a more important outcome of a conviction against MacAnthony would be his disqualification from holding a boardroom position or from owning Peterborough under the Football League’s owners and directors test.

The club that Darren Ferguson steered back into the Championship through the play-offs last season would suffer serious financial difficulties upon the departure of its benefactor. According to its most recent accounts, Peterborough’s net debts stand at almost £9m.

 

Holiday homes bosses accused of huge swindle

June 6th, 2011
Story by FERGAL MACERLEAN | Mail Online

The founder and top executives behind former holiday home giant MRI face legal action in Spain after hundreds of Britons allegedly lost money estimated to amount to £13million.

Dubliner Darragh MacAnthony, who owns Peterborough Football Club, which has just won promotion to the Championship, set up MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) in Marbella as the Millennium began.

Hugely popular on the British market, MRI boasted a £100 million annual turnover before the credit crunch. As well as property development in Spain, MRI marketed villas and apartments in Morocco, Bulgaria and Cape Verde, where the company also arranged furniture supplies.

But now MacAnthony, 35, and his former joint chief executives, Michael Liggan and Dominic Pickering, have been accused of ‘theft by swindle and misappropriation of funds’ in a claim filed in Madrid by 60 British and Irish claimants who say they lost more than half a million pounds in undelivered furniture five years ago.

Lawyer Antonio Flores of Marbella- based property solicitors Lawbird, accused MacAnthony of failing in an obligation to file for insolvency for his Spanish companies.

MacAnthony and his former chief executives have consistently denied any wrongdoing. In relation to the forthcoming claim, MacAnthony, speaking from the US, said: ‘There are no foundations behind these allegations. I certainly didn’t do anything wrong and neither did anyone with MRI when I was there.’

The allegations made in Spain follow what Northern Ireland MP Sammy Wilson described in the House of Commons last year as a property fraud where MRI, or related companies such as MRI Overseas Property, acted as the developer.

The company used programmes on the Property TV Channel hosted by MacAnthony’s younger sister, Wendy, to market holiday homes.

In 2008, as a result of complaints against MRI, a tribunal held by the National Federation of Property Professionals said it was ‘appalled to hear of the company’s misleading business practices’. It issued fines of £5,000 and MacAnthony resigned his membership of the Federation.

Prompted by complaints from British customers, the Serious Fraud Office looked into MRI but took no action. However, it sent alleged victims a letter which said that although it did not intend to prosecute anyone, this did not mean that an offence had not been committed elsewhere.

The Costa del Sol property empire has all but vanished. An investigation traced MRI companies to an empty office in Madrid.

Documents show that last October MacAnthony and Pickering, as directors, handed MRI Overseas Property Group to a Peruvian company, under the directorship of octogenarian Fernando Arespacochaga, which appears to have never traded.

John and Muriel Andrews from Ballycarry, Co Antrim, paid £26,000 for a furniture pack in 2006, but Mr Andrews said: ‘We as yet have received no furniture, no offer of a refund, no apology.’

51 clientes denuncian a una inmobiliaria cerrada por estafa

June 6th, 2011
Story by JUANA VIÚDEZ | El Pais

51 clientes de la inmobiliaria MacAnthony, todos británicos e irlandeses, interpusieron el pasado viernes una querella en la Audiencia Nacional contra su propietario, Darragh Stewart MacAnthony, y otras personas, por estafa y apropiación indebida. Les acusan de quedarse con 600.000 euros que les habían entregado por adelantado para comprar muebles para viviendas en diferentes países en los que la empresa tenía presencia, tales como Bulgaria, Turquía o Marruecos.

Según sus abogados, la mayor parte de estas transacciones se canalizaron en su sede de Marbella (Málaga), ya cerrada. La empresa operaba desde el antiguo Club Financiero, utilizado anteriormente por el fallecido Jesús Gil para dirigir el Ayuntamiento marbellí. Los querellantes denuncian que han dejado sin bienes a la sociedad y se ha orquestado un traslado a una “oficina fantasma” de Madrid, que supuestamente administra un hombre de 90 años con domicilio en Perú y sin ninguna actividad conocida.

El empresario irlandés Darragh Stewart MacAnthony, de 35 años, es dueño del club de fútbol Peterborough United, que juega en el equivalente a la Segunda División de Inglaterra. MacAnthony se defendió de las acusaciones el sábado a través de su blog personal. Según su relato, la empresa ofreció muebles a muy bajo precio a sus clientes porque podían comprarlos al por mayor. “Hubo miles de clientes y todo fue genial. Hasta que la recesión golpeó”, detalló.

MacAnthony niega que se trate de un caso de fraude, sino que más bien hubo muchos proveedores que les dejaron en la estacada. Con todo, el empresario defiende que siguieron suministrando muebles hasta 2010. “Hemos llegado a pagar el mismo pedido dos veces, porque el primer proveedor quebró y otro se ocupó de servir el pedido”, argumenta.

 

Darragh MacAnthony faces court in Spain

June 6th, 2011
The Olive Press

DOZENS of expats have filed a case against Irish real estate owner Darragh MacAnthony.

The property mogul behind former holiday home giant MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) now faces legal action for ‘theft by swindle and misappropriation of funds.’

It comes after 51 British and Irish victims – who claim they lost more than half a million euros in undelivered furniture five years ago – filed a claim in Madrid.

They accuse MacAnthony, 35, of keeping 600,000 euros which they had paid him from his base in Marbella for furniture packages for homes in Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco.

Lawyer Antonio Flores of Marbella- based property solicitors Lawbird, also accused MacAnthony of failing in an obligation to file for insolvency for his Spanish companies.

But MacAnthony and his former chief executives Michael Liggan and Dominic Pickering who also face action, have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

In a long response to the allegations posted on his website MacAnthony – who owns Peterborough Football Club – quipped he was ‘as popular as Osama Bin Laden or Gadaffi’ on Google.

He added: “I am fed up with constant unfounded allegations, lawsuits and blackmail.”

MRI’s head office shut in Marbella last year and sources told the Olive Press that MacAnthony – who once had huge billboards up and down the Costa del Sol – was planning to relocate to the US.

Investigators have discovered his company MRI Overseas is now owned by a 90-year-old Peruvian