Santo Domingo.- Nearly 100 English and Irish families want president Leonel Fernandez and Monaco’s prince Albert to testify in a case of alleged real estate “macrofraud” in Spain.
The plaintiffs say one Spanish and three British promoters scammed them out of more than 4.5 million euros in bogus real estate projects in Dominican Republic, Morocco and Malaga, Spain.
The lawsuit filed by the Marbella law firm Lawbird, representing the families, requests the testimony of the Dominican chief executive and the Prince of Monaco, for “lending their image” to the real estate promoter Ricardo Miranda for projects which never materialized, including the construction of as many as 8,000 houses.
The Lawbird lawyers have also requested the testimony of the developer Andres Lietor, one of the main defendants in the case ‘Malaya,’ who along with Carlos Sanchez have another lawsuit pending against Miranda for alleged fraud. According to court documents, Liétor and Sanchez owned the site for the houses to be built in Dominican Republic.
Although the Spanish press didn’t specify the land’s location Fernandez had accompanied Alberto for the December 2008 groundbreaking for the tourism real estate project Punta Perla Caribbean Golf, Marina & Resort, to be built at a cost of 2.5 billion dollars in the east coast community, Cabeza de Toro.
The Spanish press did specify that each plaintiff deposited as much as 80,000 Euros for the down payment on the houses.
Speaking in the event, Fernandez said the project, which began with three others in the area, entailed a total investment of more than de 5.0 billion dollars.