¿Denunciar al banco que me ha dejado en la ruina? “Imposible, la banca siempre gana…” Es el pensamiento más generalizado entre quienes sufren abusos por parte del sistema financiero, el de quienes descubren con amargura  que en su día no leyeron –o no comprendieron bien- el contrato que firmaron y ahora se han quedado sin ahorros o sin casa.

Lo de la letra pequeña, ya se sabe, suele esconder sorpresas desagradables, sobresaltos que en el caso del ámbito financiero conllevan enormes disgustos. Así le ocurrió a una octogenaria valenciana que invirtió –siguiendo el consejo de su entidad, la CAM- en bonos del banco de inversión Lehman Brothers. A pesar de las reiteradas advertencias de la anciana avisando de que no quería arriesgar sus ahorros (134.395 euros), la firma la convenció para que realizara esa inversión y ella terminó perdiendo el dinero.

Esta anciana tenía una amiga que había ganado un caso contra Bankinter por una inversión ruinosa en un banco islandés y decidió recurrir a su mismo abogado para plantarle cara a la CAM. Y ganó. Ambas han sido las primeras sentencias firmes dictadas en sus respectivos ámbitos en España.

Ese abogado, Jaime Navarro, explica a El Confidencial cómo los bancos “te hacen firmar contratos detalladísimos, de 40 o 50 folios”, cuando se pide un préstamo y sin embargo, cuando se trata de realizar inversiones “sólo te dan una o dos hojas de información, un miserable documento que no habla de nada”.

En su opinión, esta “desigualdad clamorosa” supone una injusticia, “máxime cuando los bancos han recibido ayudas públicas” y pone en evidencia la “lamentable” actitud de la banca para con sus clientes. Un sector que además no quiere ni oír hablar de pactos amistosos y ante el acercamiento de los abogados muestra una “cerrazón total” y una gran “prepotencia”.

Navarro no lucha en solitario contra los abusos de las entidades financieras.Antonio Flores Vila, abogado del despacho Law Bird de Marbella, ha impulsado una querella criminal ante la Audiencia Nacional contra diez bancos internacionales por delitos de estafa y defraudación contra la Hacienda pública, de los que habrían sido víctimas unas ochocientas personas en España.

Pensionistas asustados por su banco

Las presuntas infracciones que se le imputan a estas entidades bancarias (escandinavas, suecas y británicas) son delitos continuados de publicidad engañosa, estafa, defraudación contra la hacienda pública, y falsedad ideológica en documento público. Como explica el propio Flores a El Confidencial, estos bancos se dedicaban a “asustar” a los pensionistas ingleses diciéndoles, entre otras cosas, que el impuesto de patrimonio español es “extorsionador” e “‘insolidario”, para justificar que sus hipotecas inversas fueran trasladadas a paraísos fiscales (principalmente Luxemburgo).

“A algunos de nuestros clientes les han ‘perdido’ hasta el 80% de su inversión, eso no lo consigue ni Madoff robando”, denuncia Flores, que se confiesa “más cómodo” trabajando “del lado del consumidor”.

En la misma línea trabaja Juan Ignacio Navas, co-fundador del despacho Navas & Cusí y cuya especialidad es desde hace años “la vigilancia de códigos de conducta en las entidades financieras”. Él cree que la falta de información por parte de los bancos hacia sus clientes es, más que una mala praxis, una conducta bastante extendida que consiste en “no ser totalmente conscientes de su deber de información”.

Los principales errores atribuibles a la actitud general de la mayoría de los bancos son, en su opinión, el de omisión de información sobre los posibles riesgos, del deber de transparencia y la falta de diligencia en el cuidado de los intereses de los clientes, aunque él cree que se ha incurrido en ellos “sin ánimo de hacer daño”.

La banca también pierde

Navas recuerda que “en muchas ocasiones es el banco el que pierde”. “En el caso de que sea incorrecta la actividad de intermediación de los bancos, éstos pagan sus errores, y eso les puede salir muy caro”.

Y más ahora que parece que la gente empieza a ser más consciente de sus derechos. Muchos de los clientes extranjeros del despacho marbellí, cuenta Flores, se sentían engañados y se preguntaban cómo no se habían dado cuenta del fraude antes de perder sus ahorros. Las ancianas a las que defiende Navarro se sentían desamparadas ante el gigante financiero, como David contra Goliat.

Pero a la vista está que es posible ganar, y que “si se tiene razón hay que luchar porque si no, nunca cambiarán las cosas”, confirma el abogado. “Ahora que hay varias sentencias firmes y están teniendo algo de eco mediático, esperemos que la gente se desprenda de ese temor reverencial que tiene la sociedad a los bancos. Hay que pensar que se puede ganar”, zanja.

Para ello Navarro ha redactado una guía dirigida a aquellos que se encuentran algo perdidos pero están dispuestos a “exigir responsabilidad a las entidades bancarias que sí tienen obligación de dar debida cuenta de la gestión de su dinero”.

La primera recomendación de la mayoría de los expertos es la de intentar negociar con el banco, aunque, dado que hasta ahora este abogado no ha tenido “ningún éxito en los intentos de acuerdos amistosos”, es muy probable que el cliente que se sienta injustamente tratado tenga que recurrir, efectivamente, a esta guía y a los servicios de un letrado.

The British and Irish victims will tell a judge at Marbella court how MacAnthony’s company MRI failed to deliver over half a million euros of furniture to them.
Judge Juan Carlos Palma Diaz is investigating whether the Peterborough Chairman should face charges of ‘fraud’.
“The claimants have been ordered to come to Spain as the judge wants to depose them, together,” explained lawyer Antonio Flores, who is representing the claimants.
“It is an exceptional request and a special room to fit them all is going to have to be arranged.

“This is bad news for MacAnthony,” explained the boss of company Lawbird.
“The next step is to see if he wishes to settle.”

The alleged victims – who filed a claim in Madrid in June – accuse MacAnthony, 35, of keeping 600,000 euros which they paid for furniture packages for homes in Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco.

MacAnthony faces legal action alongside his former chief executives Michael Liggan and Dominic Pickering for ‘theft by swindle and misappropriation of funds’.

All three have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The hearing is set to take place in January 2012.

Euan Armstrong is British, 74 years old and lives on the Costa del Sol. After living here for many years he says his only link he has with Britain is his passport. Mr Armstrong is about to lose his home, a house in which he invested his life savings when he first moved to Spain. He has had to go back to work to try and pay off his debts which have resulted from a fraud into which he, and around 800 people across Spain were drawn, it is called a Foreign Reverse Mortgage, a product that has nothing to do with the Reverse Mortgages available in Spain (hipoteca inversa).

«The Foreign Reverse Mortgage had a speculative element, it invited foreign pensioners to defraud the Tax Office.” explains Antonio Flores, a solicitor from Lawbird Legal Services who is representing 20 cases on the Costa del Sol. The scam was headed by foreign banks and financial advisors, the majority of them Danish, who had been working in Spain for several years, many of them, according to Flores, without authorisation of the CNMV (National Market Securities Commission).

Their objective was to raise large amount s of money which was then invested in tax free havens like Luxembourg and the Channel Islands. The victims were established retired foreigners from the Costa del Sol to the Costa Blanca and in the Balearic and Canary Islands who were offered the possibility of a mortgage for more than the value of their home. The money would then be invested outside Spain, preferably Luxembourg, and they could live off the comfortable cushion that that would provide. ”The victims were sent leaflets saying: that the Spanish Tax office charged abusive amounts of tax and warning of the high inheritance tax, of 70 – 80 per cent that would be due on their properties if they did not have a mortgage, said Flores.

It is estimated that between 2004 and 2009 about 800 contracts were signed in Spain, with a Spanish notary. According to Antonio Flores, the money was invested in stocks and shares which in a very short time started to lose money.  In Euan Armstrong’s case his house was valued at one million euros and he has lost 80 per cent. Ian Sherdley who was also affected by the scam, has lost two of the four million euros which his house was valued at. The solicitors acting for the affected home owners have said that it is very worrying that the banks and financial companies involved tried to defend the tax fraud by issuing “specific guides on how retired foreigners could increase their wealth in Spain”. Nearly all the financial agents involved in the fraud have already left the country.

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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 ‘robbing’ expats of their property.

Now, a group of some 25 foreign residents, backed by Antonio Flores from the Marbella based firm Lawbird, have filed a lawsuit in the High Court in Madrid for the crimes of fraud and false advertising.

Moreover they are appealing for the ‘illegal’ contracts – taken out between 2004 and 2008 – to be declared null and void.

“This scheme is criminal,” explained Flores.

“I 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.

“As 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.

“But the way they sold it was completely illegal and it was reckless and careless,” he added.

It comes after foreign banks, mostly Scandinavian, convinced predominately retired foreigners to take out ‘predatory mortgages’ on their homes at a value way above the level of the official appraisal.

Victims were lured in by the false hope they could reduce inheritance tax for their loved ones – who would eventually be liable to pay Spain’s top rate of 34 per cent – and enjoy a salary for life by investing in financial havens such as Luxembourg.

But the scam – which could have as many as 600 victims and it estimated at a staggering 250 million euros – has left many of them penniless.

“Equity 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,” explained Euan Armstrong, 74, the association Chairman and a victim of the scam.

“We must stop these banks stealing our money.”

An expat is taking Denmark’s biggest bank to court after it persuaded him to use his Spanish property as collateral in an equity release scheme – and cost him his home. Scot Euan Armstrong, 73, is fighting every step of the way after the scheme left him almost penniless with the bank trying to force him to sell his two million euro home to pay off debts.

The pensioner had joined the Danske Bank scheme after he was told it would provide him with a salary for life. The other incentive used was that the move would reduce any inheritance tax for his daughters, who were liable to pay Spain’s top rate of 34 per cent. Mr Armstrong claims that employees in the former Mijas office of the bank outlined a plan where Danske Bank was supposed to use €850,000 to invest in bonds, Swiss Francs and Euro with the ‘profits’ being used to pay off the mortgage. Meanwhile, a €150,000 lump sum would be given to him as part of the equity release deal. However things did not go to plan, and after the first year Mr Armstrong realised that the bank had actually lost him €18,000. Unfortunately, the losses did not stop there. Over the next five years, the scheme continued to lose money and in 2009 Mr Armstrong was told by an account manager in Luxembourg that he should sell his property and pay the bank back the €650,000 they had lost. When Mr Armstrong refused, Danske Bank issued a foreclosure on his house and also a repossession order through Coin court. This was due to take place in July of this year, fortunately, his lawyer stepped in and obtained a court ruling suspending the repossession. According to Antonio Flores of law firm Lawbird – which is also filing eight separate cases against various Nordic banks in a similar situation – it is actually illegal in Spain to indebt yourself in order to reduce your inheritance tax liability. Nonetheless, he estimates that hundreds of people fall victim to these schemes each year and cases in Spain currently span the Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol. The lawyer believes that this type of product, peddled by unauthorised agents under the endorsement of supposedly reputable banks, is becoming more and more common and should be avoided by people at all costs.

Several clients of these banks, led by Euan Armstrong have now set up the Equity Release Victims Association (ERVA.es) to denounce these schemes with the appropriate Government offices, with the aim of attaining a decision ruling that these schemes are completely illegal. The official bodies contacted include: the Spanish Prosecution Service, the National Consumers Association, the Financial and Insurance regulators and the Ombudsman.

Mis-selling
The crux of ERVA´s argument is why would hundreds of Spanish-based pensioners with their life-time savings buried in their retirement home, re-mortgage it to invest the proceeds with a foreign bank? Surely the answer has to be that it is the result of gross mis-selling

Euan Armstrong said: “This is a highly toxic product devised, marketed and sold by mostly Scandinavian banks to financially conservative pensioners and owners of unencumbered homes. These schemes threaten to cripple their health and well-being as there is no visible end to the situation they find themselves in, save for forceful and decisive legal and administrative action. The uniqueness of these schemes is nothing more than an alleged tax defrauding proposition: that by encumbering a home with a mortgage and investing the proceeds in bonds, stocks or life assurance policies, the would-be inheritors could reduce the exposure to inheritance tax.”

The Spanish Directorate General for Tax has confirmed on numerous occasions since 1999, that Luxembourg-based life assurance policies are subject to Spanish wealth and inheritance tax – and so are not exempt from inheritance tax as promised by the rogue sellers. This is much more than just false or deceptive advertising, it’s illegal and has also failed to gain clearance from insurance and financial regulators. Equity release schemes represent a complete departure from good banking practices by offering highly complex financial products on unintelligible contracts to pensioners who as less experienced, knowledgeable and sophisticated investors should be afforded the highest level of protection. Instead these huge-profit making banks have been allowed to steal their money.