The Syndicate of Four; the promoter,
contractor, lawyers and financial service all work in harmony together to
provide an illusion of easy obtainable international property investments. You will be subjected to overinflated hidden commission
payments between the contractor and promoter. Commission payments, that swallow
away your capital growth into the hands of the promoter, rendering your property
a dead certain loss investment. You will
be denied independent legal advice to protect your interests, badly worded non-completion clauses or none at all to protect the client. The irony here is that you will be paying the
lawyer to work for the promoter and the contractor. The spin is 90% false on capital growth, rental returns and the availability of mortgages.
After selling my home with the
intention of moving to a warmer climate, I became the victim of a ruthless
property market promoter. My story
starts as a homeowner with no mortgage and ended up with large portions of that
capital in the pockets of multi-millionaires. Now supporting their luxurious
life-styles, the victim moves closer and closer to homelessness, unable to get
back onto the property market ladder again. On reflection, a better title would be
"Homeowner to Homeless." The
story follows the events that took places and provides insight in to many of
the unseen pit falls a person will encounter. The projection is of criminal intent by a
large corporate body, intent on relieving anyone of their wealth through false
property investment purchases that come within their grasp. Under the control of the corporate mind-set,
all the elements work in harmony to achieve this goal, each taking a slice from
the cake. You are the "mark,” is
that not how it is explained in the con artist dictionary of vocabulary.
The property promoter concerned
here is Macanthony Real-estate International. They talked me into investing in Spain, when I wanted to go to
Cyprus in 2007, promoting property investment when the property market had already
crashed late 2005. The spin and spiel
nothing but a pack of lies. My book goes
into a detailed account of those events, unbelievable, remarkable, at times humours and at other times tragic. If you are considering an
international property investment, then you really need to read my story.
The summary below is a chapter that has not been
inserted into the Burning Down The Bricks, as yet, and assumes that you have read the
book. I really need to get around to doing that.
I hope it clearly explains exactly how amateurish MRI were. Not just unprofessional or incompetent, but
criminally inclined.
I am going to put the MRI investment plan into a
condensed list, remove all that surrounding book scribble obscuring its
clarity. It now has an extended title,
The Farcical and Disastrous Property Investment Plan, or FDPIP instead of that
long mouthful. Hopefully, organised in a
way so you can see clearly the nonsense that MRI came up with. Not so much as a
sequence of events as they happened, that is dealt within the book, but a
record clearly stating the elements which made up the structure of this
nonsensical investment farce. It can
be seen how irresponsible and incompetent MRI acted. This certainly does not
represent any form of professionalism. What
it does bring to light is something of more criminal structure, which can and
does, act fraudulently.
1. It has
been established that the properties were overpriced. By now, I assume you do
not have any quibble over this assessment from the facts that have been
presented. The first property without a
doubt was overpriced by 30,000-40,000 Euros, maybe more. Intended as a personal
dwelling place, but also doubled as a rollover investment property, or for
gaining rental income to cover two mortgages.
It failed drastically to meet this requirement. As the plan was worked through it became
evident that it would only produce a huge loss.
The other three properties which were not excessively overpriced, but did
have the same 25,000 Euros hidden commission.
This would have affected their overall value and then the resale capital
gain. It is reasonable to assess that
there would have been no capital gain, only loss. At a stretch, one may assume to break-even,
but that is really stretching the imagination to be able to believe that this
was possible.
2. Dividing the available capital to allow the
purchase of more than one property by obtaining mortgages is dangerous. A very important element that really does not
lend itself to any investment plan. If
it is considered at all, the mortgage should be of a very small amount, to top
up a little shortfall only, and not the main trust to be able to make any
investment plan viable.
3. The rental
income from one small two-bedroom apartment, after the second year would bring
in just over 12,000 Euros a year, to cover two mortgages of 6,000 Euros each.
Anybody who has a similar property abroad would be able to understand that this
was nonsense. At best one could expect 3,000 Euros. Again, stretching the
imagination to 5,000 Euros in one year, this does not even accumulate half the
required amount.
4. To assist with obtaining that 12,000 Euros a year,
MRI would use the property to rent out to clients coming for one week or more,
at 200 euros per week. That is still only 11,000, and is dependent on
being occupied every single week throughout the whole year. For this
element to remain dependable, MRI would have to remain in business. The
office staff would have to remain fixed to ensure that the property was
utilized to its fullest potential. MRIs staff did not last long,
constantly changing, this then becomes a very erratic and unstable element.
If the property for the high season was put onto the holiday rental
market, the weekly income would go up. It still did not reach the
required 12,000 Euros to cover two mortgages, but was still very
hazardous. So this critical element is completely unreliable. This
is not a professional investment plan.
5. A choice of options presented itself for the long-term
investments. Instead of mortgages, either of the first two properties could be
sold to secure the needed capital for these investments in two year’s time. The
dependency that a property would sell at a required point in time, is nonsense.
It is already understood, that neither property 1 nor property 2 would return a
profit, or break even in such a short period of two years. With the hidden commissions, only a loss
would be generated. The MRI salesman’s
spin made all this look so easy, as there was no problem attached to reselling,
when it was a highly dangerous and fictitious element that stood little or no
chance of success. Just another farcical element in a ridiculous plan.
6. Two mortgages to start within one month of each
other. Again, the spin that they could
be obtained when they could not, a neccessary illusion to make sure the deposits were paid. When it was later revealed it was impossible to achieve, a second plan was conceived. It is then not reasonable to assess, that two
mortgages could not be obtained at the same point in time two years in the
future.
7. Once it had
come to light that two mortgages could not be obtained within one month of each
other, but had to be six months apart. To
purge an agreement with the contractor to delay the completion date by six
months was irresponsible. An agreement
that had no signed documentation to support that it had ever taken place,
another element of absurd instability. In
my book you can see how all this pans out.
8. The need to move money around two accounts to
provide the illusion that income was taking place.
9. The use of lawyers who had been presented as
independent, but actually had their own interest slanted towards MRI.
This denied the client true legal independent advice and protection, which can
then be abused to the detriment of the client’s interests. This is shown clearly in
my book how this operated to the advantage of MRI.
10. There were
three lawyers, dealing with four properties representing one client. This obscured their overall ability to access
the viability of the investment plan. This rendered it impossible for any legal
service to function with the client’s interest first, but worked for the
interests of MRI. By denying the client
their entitled independent legal advice, they could sell overpriced properties
and issue bad contracts unchallenged. It
also permitted for the covering up of over-inflated commission payments from the contractor to
the promoter. This allowed dangerous investment plans to be created without any
secure advice to the client by MRI.
11. The use of a finance company to obtain mortgages
that belonged in a group of companies set up by the same owner is not
advised. This is how it was with Capital
Finance, owned by Mr MacAnthony. This had the element of potential abuse to the
detrimental financial health of the client, in favour of that of the promoting company.
12. There was
an offer of a new business set-up, to help create the income for the property
investment plan to become a success. A
business bound up in the investment figures, which had not already been
established before the purchase of the properties to ensure that the required
capital flow would be present. A stab in
the dark element, even if it was a genuine offer, which it transpired was not,
had its instability in unknowns by how much income it could generate. As it was nothing more than a con to ensure
the payment of the deposits, criminal conduct is well defined through this
element.
13. The MRI property investment plan, was constantly
adapted, to take in any change that presented itself within the inspection
trips first-day period. It started as a five year two property investment
plan, but ended up as a two year four property investment plan. This was no
professional salesman. This type of extensive investment, does not take
place within a short period of six hours with so little breathing space to
evaluate its potential. Three-day inspection trips are lethal for the
unknowledgeable.
14. All the
investment percentage projections and market stability was falsified. MRI never
provided any proof of capital investment's growth by producing examples. Again
not very professional, relying simply from the salesman’s account and the
client's ignorance left it wide open to abuse. MRI covered up that the market
had collapsed in 2005, but carried on the same high-potential investment presentations.
This translates into premeditated fraudulent behaviour.
15. No official documentation that contained all of
MRI’s presentation of an investment plan was ever produced. No documentation
with the MRI authorized headings or logos. Nothing signed and dated by the
salesman, and supported by a manager to enforce that they had provided a
professional service and were confident in their advice. There was no combined meeting with the
salesman, manager, lawyer, financial adviser and myself. There was no
collective agreement that all the elements would blend cohesively together, and
would not provide a dangerous financial crisis for the client. At one point, a
scrap piece of paper was produced with a rough draft of how the investment
growth should work. This appears is how MRI operated as others have the same
scraps of paper, unsigned I might add.
16. The last of the elements that were supposed to
help nurture the investment plan into life, the MRI salesman himself. His continual rhetoric, “that he would always
be there to sort problems out,” was a hollow component. He was sacked several months later before any
of the properties had completed. MRI
appeared to have a policy of sacking salespeople after six months of employment. Remove the evidence of foul play, then there
is no one to answer for it.
From the above Farcical Disastrous Property Investment
Plan, MRI reaped 100,000 Euros, of which only 25,000 have been recovered. The overall
loss runs into over 200,000 Euros when everything is taken into consideration.
I believe that I should be returned to the original capital wealth of 270,000,
which is the amount MRI worked its magical investment figures around in January
2007. If you add on any compensation for
all the inflicted damage, illness, loss of income, rent and legal fees that
have resulted from this, then that figure is probably far higher.
MRI developed a structure that allowed it to dupe
easily the unknowledgeable and those willing to trust it. MRI to date, has at no time attempted to put
right this error, even after complaints were submitted. It never had any
intention of putting this right, such is the way of the criminal mind. That has been clearly demonstrated through
the evidence presented within this book.
If that is the case, the MRI structure is definitely meant for deceit to
a criminal level. This was a deliberate premeditated fraud, entered into
willingly by the legal and financial corporate entities that MRI had coursed to
work in unison with it.
To date, MRI has not willingly put right its fraudulent malpractice
with any of its clients. The only circumstances
under which this will happen, is when faced with criminal prosecution and jail
sentences.
If you want to understand how all this fits
together, then I recommend you read my book. It will also serve you well
if you are considering international property investment. Arm yourself with
what to expect, it could save you far more than the price of this book.
There is an on-line flipbook
preview of BDTB which contains the introduction and the first chapter.
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link to BDTB.
The PDF version can be obtained from this link to PDF version.
