{"id":563,"date":"2011-11-10T13:36:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T12:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/?p=563"},"modified":"2014-05-05T19:06:09","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T18:06:09","slug":"victims-of-illegal-equity-release-scam-in-spain-take-the-banks-to-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/victims-of-illegal-equity-release-scam-in-spain-take-the-banks-to-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Victims of illegal equity release scam in Spain take the banks to court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/antonio-flores.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-564\" style=\"margin: 25px; border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"antonio-flores\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/antonio-flores-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/antonio-flores-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/antonio-flores.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>As reported in the Olive Press, victims of illegal equity release schemes formed the Equity Release Victims Association in September to put a stop to Scandinavian banks \u2018robbing\u2019 expats of their property.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a group of some 25 foreign residents, backed by <strong>Antonio Flores<\/strong> from the Marbella based firm <strong>Lawbird<\/strong>, have filed a lawsuit in the High Court in Madrid for the crimes of fraud and false advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover they are appealing for the \u2018illegal\u2019 contracts \u2013 taken out between 2004 and 2008 \u2013 to be declared null and void.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis scheme is criminal,\u201d explained Flores.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can see how much people are suffering from it. It is seriously damaging their health and eroding their well-being, and it has absolutely got to finish.<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThese people are at a time in their life when you can\u2019t make money, you only have what you have and these banks have taken that away.<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAs far as the banks are concerned it was a very lucrative contract. They took a commission every time they switched stock and made money even if it lost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the way they sold it was completely illegal and it was reckless and careless,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after foreign banks, mostly Scandinavian, convinced predominately retired foreigners to take out \u2018predatory mortgages\u2019 on their homes at a value way above the level of the official appraisal.<\/p>\n<p>Victims were lured in by the false hope they could reduce inheritance tax for their loved ones \u2013 who would eventually be liable to pay Spain\u2019s top rate of 34 per cent \u2013 and enjoy a salary for life by investing in financial havens such as Luxembourg.<\/p>\n<p>But the scam \u2013 which could have as many as 600 victims and it estimated at a staggering 250 million euros \u2013 has left many of them penniless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEquity release is not safe and a loan against the property with the idea of hiding the money in an offshore account is certainly illegal in Spain,\u201d explained Euan Armstrong, 74, the association Chairman and a victim of the scam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must stop these banks stealing our money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXPATS who face losing their homes after being duped in a 250 million euro illegal equity release scam are stepping up their fight against the banks and taking them to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[58,59],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawbird-in-the-media","tag-antonio-flores","tag-lawbird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}