transfer money to the gang's front company, Almena Properties in Gibraltar

Fraudsters who used the lure of the London Olympics to con pensioners into handing over their life savings were facing jail today.

The gang cold-called elderly people at home offering what they claimed was a lucrative property portfolio in Stratford, near the 2012 site.

Fraud squad officers who smashed the racket believe the gang got away with at least £300,000 between 2006 and 2007. Detectives traced up to 90 victims who each lost between £2,500 and £30,000.

Adrian Davison, 42, of south-east London, masterminded the scam, recruiting four accomplices - Andrew Bingham, 72, of East Sussex; Patrick Golding, 29, of Ashford, Kent; Kenneth Mullen, 42, of Lanarkshire, and Derrick Voysey, 63, of Buckinghamshire.

Victims were telephoned from a 'boiler room' office in Barcelona, and urged to invest in bogus property schemes. Once hooked, they were sent glossy brochures and told to transfer money to the gang's front company, Almena Properties in Gibraltar, or to an address owned by Bingham in London."

Read More

Gibraltar Asset Management Group siphoned off more than $7.6 million

Hillcrest Children's Center says its investment advisers squandered and stole nearly $8 million from it, crippling its work helping impoverished children and mothers in the District of Columbia. The nonprofit Center - founded by Congress for orphans of the War of 1812 - sued Gibraltar Asset Management Group, its five top officers and their attorney. Hillcrest says Gibraltar 'siphoned off more than $7.6 million from the trading account for their own personal gain,' reducing the $8 million trading account to 'a stunning $200.'
The Children's Center seeks $8 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages for fraud, conspiracy, securities fraud, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and other claims.
Hillcrest says Gibraltar and its CEO Garfield Taylor won its trust by completing a successful trial investment run, making every scheduled return payment on the Center's $1.2 million trial investment. 'As a result, in February 2009, Hillcrest chose to invest half of its endowment with Gibraltar,' according to the complaint.
But things didn't work out as planned.
'This is a straightforward case of theft and fraud committed by the defendants of more than $7 million from Hillcrest"

Read More

HOST of celebrity health experts are descending on the south of Spain to share their expertise.

GMTV’s Love Doctor Louise Van Der Velde is hosting Living Well Marbella this February alongside Dr. Hilary Jones, the TV doctor on This Morning.

Running for two days, the exhibition will showcase a wide range of holistic therapies.

Miss Van Der Velde has long been a champion for holistic treatments and has run a string of doctors’ practices on the Costa Blanca, combining both traditional and holistic treatments.

She explained: “Doctors are a lot more open-minded now and willing to experiment with less conventional types of therapy.

“Our aim is to bridge the gap between the two so we can achieve the very best health results.”

As a trainer in various therapies, Van Der Velde will be sharing her own life experiences and explaining how her popular NLP Transformation Treatment can help with behaviour and attitude.

Snooker ace Willie Thorne, who overcame a gambling addiction, will also be sharing his powerful life story.

Attendees can receive free health checks from doctors and dentists and take part in 25 well being classes.

The Living Well exhibition will take place in Marbella’s luxury Puente Romano Hotel on February 5/6. Call 603544078 or visit www.livingwellmarbella.com for tickets

Read More

Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust and TD Bank, Gibraltar face trial

two banks where Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein laundered money will face a trial over multimillion-dollar claims by victims of the scam, a Broward County judge has ruled.
Circuit Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld declined to entirely dismiss any of the suit’s defendants.
In an order, dated Dec. 9 and distributed by plaintiffs’ attorneys on Tuesday, Streitfeld ruled that all claims against the two bank defendants, TD Bank and Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, would go forward.
A hearing was set Tuesday discuss a trial schedule. TD Bank said because it was pending litigation it would not comment other than to say "it believes and expects the facts to prove that it is not liable for the acts of Scott Rothstein."
The suit was filed last year by investors who lost money in the Ponzi scheme. It has grown to include about $160 million in claims related to the $1.2 billion scheme.
Streitfeld also ruled against motions to dismiss any claims against several individual defendants, including Frank Spinosa, former regional VP of TD Bank; Jennifer Kerstetter and Roseanne Caretsky, employees of TD Bank; David Boden, attorney and former general counsel for Rothstein’s now-defunct law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler; and Andrew Barnett, who worked as RRA’s corporate development director.
There were some defendants who succeeded in getting some counts against them dismissed:

• Frank Preve of Fort Lauderdale, who worked for the Banyon feeder funds in the scheme. Streitfeld dismissed only some counts against Preve concerning breach of fiduciary duty.
• Philadelphia-based hedge fund Ballamor Capital and its principal Barry Bekkedam. The judge ruled that only certain plaintiff investors could pursue claims against Ballamor and Bekkedam.
• R.L. Pearson of Fort Lauderdale and his company, R.L. Pearson & Associates, which allegedly handled investments in the scheme. The judge threw out all claims except those from two investors, Viceroy Global Investments and Concorde Capital.
• New York-based Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund LP and Centurion Structured Growth LLC. The two funds will face claims of aiding and abetting fraud, and civil conspiracy to defraud, but other claims were dismissed.

Another defendant in the suit, accounting firm Berenfeld Spritzer Shechter & Sheer, is working on a resolution of the claims through a $10 million settlement agreement in RRA’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Read More

Spanish Lenders May Need $120 Billion, Moody’s Says - Bloomberg

Spanish Lenders May Need $120 Billion, Moody’s Says - Bloomberg: "Spanish banks that helped spur the country’s property boom with mortgages and loans to developers may need as much as 90 billion euros ($120 billion) in capital, Moody’s Investors Service said.
That estimate is based on a scenario in which lenders would need a Tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of their financial strength, of as much as 12 percent to tap funding, Moody’s said in a statement. Spanish banks declined today, led by Banco Santander SA, the country’s biggest.
“Given the situation after Ireland where the banks will have to be recapitalized to a much higher capital level, to a core Tier 1 ratio of 12 percent, we ran stress tests to see what that would mean in the context of Spain, if Spanish banks had to be recapitalized to a higher level in order to retain market confidence,” Kathrin Muehlbronner, an analyst at Moody’s, said in a phone interview."

Read More

Colombian denies Spain money laundering charges - Colombia news | Colombia Reports

Colombian denies Spain money laundering charges "Oscar Fernando Cuevas, a Colombian wanted for extradition to Spain on accusations of money laundering, denies being guilty of the crime, reports W Radio.
Cuevas said that he asked for money from a Spanish bank because he was broke, which 'is not a crime.' He also accused his brother-in-law Juan Pablo Medrano of attempting to kidnap him to make off with the family's money, but Medrano denies these accusations.
Cuevas was arrested in Colombia on November 5 upon the request of Spain. He allegedly fled Colombian authorities and took refuge in the European country in 2001, where he requested political asylum after claiming to be a victim of political persecution. He returned to Bogota in 2004, supposedly after Spanish authorities became suspicious of his activity, and was arrested then by Colombian police.
He has also spent time in jail in the United States, after he was arrested in 1986 in Switzerland, extradited to the U.S. and tried for several cocaine and money-related charges. Evidence in the trial showed he operated a money laundering service for cocaine distributors and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Cuevas said he would go to Spain to prove his innocence."

Read More

36 year ban from public office, and an 810 million € fine for Juan Antonio Roca

Prosecutor is also calling for a 36 year ban from pubic office for the ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella

The prosecutor has called for a 24 year prison sentence, a 36 year ban from public office, and an 810 million € fine for Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella Town Hall, for his alleged role at the centre of the Malaya corruption case.

He is accused of continual money laundering, fraud, passive bribery and the misuse of public funds among other charges. The Prosecutor considers that Roca laundered some 240 million € over a ten year period, and the written accusation against him says that in real estate purchases alone he spent more than 136 million € between 1997 and 2005.

The prosecutor’s accusations run into 585 sheets, and have been presented to the Provincial Court in Málaga.

95 people are allegedly linked to the corruption and face charges in the hearings which get underway on September 27.

The Malaya case initially broke back on March 29 2006, when some 20 people were arrested in the first stage, including Roca and the then Mayor of Marbella, Marisol Yagüe. It’s become the largest ever corruption case based in a Town Hall in Spain.

Read More

PR-USA.net - June 2010 Property Market Report for Costa del Sol

PR-USA.net - June 2010 Property Market Report for Costa del Sol: "Probably the area where most deals are being done right now at property sales under €200,000 because this is where the best value is, The exception to the rule is the self confessed capital La Cala de Mijas where prices have held up that much more which is understandable if you have ever been to the area La Cala easily stands out as the best place to live along this part of the coast but not everyone will share that opinion but the property price tends to reflect that opinion as a whole. You can also buy some very nice villas is this particular area from around €400,000"

Read More

Britisher, has died after being shot while on a street terrace, from a passing large cylinder motorbike carrying two riders

26 year old has not been named in reports

A 26 year old man, reported to be British, has died after being shot while on a street terrace, from a passing large cylinder motorbike carrying two riders in Mijas. The victim has not yet been named.

Diario de Sevilla reports that it happened at 10,10pm on Saturday night at the British-run Lounge Bar, Terraza de Miraflores, in the Riviera del Sol Urbanisation, an area popular with drinkers. Reports say that at least six shots were fired in total, and that three of them hit the victim.

Health workers could do nothing to save the life of the victim who died at the scene from gunshot wounds to the head.
The judicial police of the Guardia Civil have opened a full investigation, with the first hypothesis considering the killing was part of a settling of scores.

This latest Costa del Sol killing comes just over a week after the so-called Irish Mafia , led by Christopher Kinahan, was broken up. His organisation was allegedly involved in drug and firearms trafficking and money laundering. Possible links to this new killing are being investigated.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_26314.shtml#ixzz0q4llnf00

Read More

SICKENED holidaymakers watched as boozy Spaniards tortured a young bull to death at a carnival.

SICKENED holidaymakers watched as boozy Spaniards tortured a young bull to death at a carnival.
They kicked and punched the helpless animal in Alhaurin el Grande on the Costa del Sol.
Ex-pat Colin Davies, 54, from Glasgow, said: "It was outrageous.
They had been out drinking most of the day then converged on the ring.
"Drunken morons jumped hoardings and began goading one bull, before it descended into chaos and the animal was attacked."
Government officials are investigating and have vowed to prosecute those involved.

Read More

Gored Spanish bullfighter remains in intensive care < Spanish news | Expatica Spain

Gored Spanish bullfighter remains in intensive care < Spanish news | Expatica Spain: "Top Spanish matador Julio Aparicio remains in intensive care a week after he was gored through the throat during a bullfight, the hospital which is treating him said Saturday.
The 41-year-old was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition on May 21 after the half-ton bull jabbed one of its horns through Aparicio's chin and back out of his mouth at Madrid's Las Ventas bullring.
Doctors at Madrid's October 12 Hospital performed surgery to reconstruct his jaw, tongue and the roof of his mouth and placed him on a ventilator.
In a statement, the hospital said Aparicio remained in the intensive care unit in serious but stable condition but was off the ventilator.
The matador comes from a well known bullfighting family and he was one of the top draws at the San Isidro bullfighting festival held each May at the 25,000-seat Las Ventas arena.
The injury happened as he was attempting the faena, a series of passes in which he uses his cape and sword before delivering the death blow to the bull."

Read More

Statements taken in Marbella 'Goldfinger' case

Statements taken in Marbella 'Goldfinger' case: "Judge Ricardo Puyol, from Instruction Court One in Marbella, took the statements on Thursday from three lawyers in the ‘Goldfinger’ case where the Scottish actor, Sean Connery and his wife are indicted.

The three lawyers, identified with the initials, H.D., L.J.,and C.T., are accused of the misuse of public funds, bribery, fraud, influence peddling and other charges in the case which relates to the sale of the actor’s Marbella mansion, Malibu, in 1999.

The plot on the beachfront was then used to build a four story block which was completed in 2004.

There are 23 people indicted in total in the case, including the ex Mayor, Julián Muñoz."

Read More

British father and son die in Menorca airshow crash

British father and son die in Menorca airshow crash: "Bruce Hook and his son Ian were killed when they lost control of the Beech Baron craft

A British father and son have been killed in a light aircraft crash when they were taking part in a race and lost control of the craft which crashed in flames.

The tragedy happened at 1250 on Saturday shortly after the pair had taken off from the Real Aeroclub de San Luis-Mahón on Menorca.
The father, 63 year old Bruce Hook, was considered to be an expert pilot and ex RAF, and was flying a twin motor Beech Baron. He was accompanied by his 26 year old son, Ian.

The fire services were on the scene immediately as they were already on duty for the air display, but they could do nothing to save the lives of the two on board the craft as it exploded when it hit the ground.

An investigation has been opened by the AESA, Spanish Air Safety Agency.
The event was organised by the British Royal Air Club."

Read More

John Cunningham, 58,arrested in Spain an armed robber and drug dealer.

John Cunningham, 58,arrested in Spain an armed robber and drug dealer. He was convicted in 1986 for the kidnapping of one of the heirs to the Guinness family fortune, Jennifer Guinness.Eleven properties in Spain were searched during the early morning raids, the details of which were disclosed today. Both Cunningham and Kinahan can be held without charge for up to two years under Spanish law.In Dublin, 29 premises were searched and one man in his 20s arrested. The places targeted include a solicitor's and accountants' offices.Gardai are examining a number of front companies that operate in Ireland, the UK and Spain that claim to export food from the Iberian peninsula but which detectives believe are being used to transport cannabis and cocaine into Britain and Ireland.

Read More

curtains at Kinahan's mansion were closed yesterday and many of the shutters drawn down.

Yesterday it emerged that Daniel, son of alleged crime boss Christy Kinahan, bought the property last autumn and spent hundreds of thousands of euro renovating it and installing banks of security cameras around the perimeter.

Neighbours told how they had grown suspicious at the level of surveillance equipment installed at the four-bedroom, two-storey property on a private beachside estate in Guadalmina, between Marbella and Estepona on the Costa del Sol.

One Spanish woman, who asked not to be named, said: "He moved in about October last year and virtually built a new house. He kept the shell of the existing property, which was only about eight or nine years old, but totally renovated it and the garden and put up loads of security cameras.

"The original house was yellow and in perfect condition, but he repainted it red ochre.

"I saw a woman going in and out of the property and heard children's voices but I never really got to know anyone there."

The woman added: "They kept themselves to themselves, although in December they plastered the house with Christmas lights.

"We knew police had raided the property but we didn't know why. We saw half-a-dozen cars parked outside on Tuesday morning at around 10.30 and men with guns on their belts milling around.

"We thought it might have something to do with the raids they've been announcing on the television in the Costa del Sol but we weren't sure.

Cameras

"The house stood out because of the amount of security cameras. We wondered why on Earth someone would have so much surveillance in an area which is already patrolled by security guards paid for by the neighbours."

The curtains at Kinahan's mansion were closed yesterday and many of the shutters drawn down.

A children's bicycle was visible in the landscaped gardens, which boast a private swimming pool.

An English-speaking woman appeared on the top balcony yesterday, but when asked about Daniel Kinahan she replied: "I don't know anything. I'm just here looking after the dogs."

It had previously been thought Kinahan had been arrested in his €800,000 flat in another nearby seafront development called Torre Bermeja.

Read More

PROPERTY assets linked to the Christy Kinahan-led international drugs cartel in Brazil alone are worth an estimated €500 million.

PROPERTY assets linked to the Christy Kinahan-led international drugs cartel in Brazil alone are worth an estimated €500 million.

That sum is more than treble the value of all cash and assets seized by the Criminals Assets Bureau in Ireland since the bureau’s inception almost 15 years ago. The details that continued to emerge in Spain yesterday reveal that Kinahan is at the head of a mafia-style operation with assets worldwide funded by drug trafficking, money laundering, gun running and even human trafficking.

The property portfolio in Brazil is comprised of six leisure complexes and a string of residential properties, with a combined value of €500 million, Spanish authorities say.

In Spain some 60 properties – including villas, apartments and business premises – have already been frozen in the first part of an assets confiscation case there. The properties in Spain are valued at about €150 million by the authorities.

The Spanish properties are located along the Costa in Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella, Nueva Andalusia and Estepona. Kinahan lives in a €6 million villa, and also regularly stays in an apartment valued at €800,000 in a gated complex near Marbella.

There are other properties in Ireland, England, Dubai, South Africa and Belgium.

One of the companies controlled by the gang is an upmarket car dealership in a Costa resort which sells supercars, Porsches, Bentleys, Hummers, McLarens and Ferraris, to name but a few.

Television news footage in Spain has shown vehicles being confiscated from the dealership and car parks next to plush apartments and villas where some of the nine Irish suspects where arrested on Tuesday morning.

It is believed that the international investigation being led by the Garda and authorities in Spain and the UK has identified a network of some 30 companies set up or controlled by the gang for money laundering and investment purposes.

Some of the firms are small front companies set up on the pretence of transporting food from Spain to the UK and Ireland. But for nearly a decade Kinahan has been transporting drugs in lorries to small warehouses in Ireland and England.

A spokesman for the Spanish interior ministry said the Kinahan gang had ploughed money into companies in a diverse range of sectors, including renewable energy, waste recycling and infrastructure projects.

The gang was not only investing and laundering its own drugs money, but was acting as financial agents for Irish gangs who used Kinahan and his legal and financial contacts in Spain to launder proceeds of their crimes.

The Garda and Spanish police have drawn up a list of 19 names which they believed represent the nucleus of the Kinahan gang. At least 11 people on the list are Irish.

The Spanish police had not prioritised investigating Irish organised crime gangs on the Costa del Sol until recently because local gangs were given more priority.

However, the murder of several Irish men in the past two years forced the Irish gangs on to the radar of the Spanish authorities.

Paddy Doyle (27), of Portland Place in Dublin’s north inner city, was shot dead as he drove his BMW 4X4 near Marbella in February, 2008. He was linked to one of the Crumlin-Drimnagh feuding gangs and was a suspect in at least three gun murders here.

Richard Keogh (30), from Cabra in Dublin, was shot dead in Benalmadena Costa near Marbella in January 2009. He was a known drug dealer.

Former John Gilligan gang member Peter Mitchell (40), of Summerhill in Dublin’s north inner city, was wounded in a shooting in Marbella in August 2008, but survived.

In the course of investigating these attacks the Spanish became aware of the presence of a large number of Irish gangs based in the south of the country, the biggest of these by far being the cartel headed by Christy Kinahan.

Read More

Convicted Irish drug dealer held after international operation - The Irish Times - Wed, May 26, 2010

Convicted Irish drug dealer held after international operation - The Irish Times - Wed, May 26, 2010: "Christy Kinahan, a 53-year-old father of three, was the key target in the raids in Spain, Ireland, the UK, Brazil and Belgium that began at 4.30am yesterday.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said the arrests showed Irish criminals were mistaken if they believed by relocating to Spain they could evade capture.
“This is an extensive and focused investigation targeting drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms crime.”
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said borders would not protect organised crime gangs.
“[These] events are evidence of the determination of those involved in law enforcement, fully supported by their governments, to take international gangs straight on.”
Trevor Pearce of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said the raids were a major blow to a key gang supplying drugs and guns across Europe.
“We also believe this network has been offering a global investment service, ploughing hundreds of millions of pounds of dirty cash into offshore accounts, companies and property on behalf of criminals.”
The international drug trafficking and money laundering investigation has found evidence that Kinahan and his associates have built a property portfolio worth in excess of €150 million. The properties are in Ireland, Spain, Dubai, South Africa, Brazil, Belgium, England and Cyprus and will most likely now be confiscated.
Kinahan and his associates arrested in Spain can be held for up to two years without charge. Four Spanish solicitors were also arrested, in the operation code-named Operation Shovel."

Read More

'Every Rolls has a story behind it' - Times LIVE

'Every Rolls has a story behind it' - Times LIVE: "lime green Rolls was one of several sales at yesterday's auction of the liquidated assets of a business empire belonging to two controversial Cape Town figures - businessman Mark Lifman and the late Yuri 'The Russian' Ulianitski, who died in a hail of bullets three years ago on his way home from a restaurant.
Lifman did not bid on any of the items which included a city 'nightclub' - sold for R7-million - two Sea Point apartments, and the Rolls - but his presence cast an imposing shadow over yesterday's proceedings, where bidding was slow to start.
Although Ulianitski and Lifman were business partners, Ulianitski's widow, Irina, last month won a court challenge for a share of her slain husband's estate, prompting the appointment of liquidators who decided to auction their shared business interests."

Read More

Chris Kinahan '£500m cocaine king' in seized in swoops by 750 armed police

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: '£500m cocaine king' in seized in swoops by 750 armed police: "Chris Kinahan was held on the Costa del Sol as 750 police officers swooped on 32 suspects in Britain, Spain and Ireland.

The 53-year-old Briton is alleged to be the head of a criminal net- work responsible for trafficking huge quantities of cocaine into every major UK city.

Kinahan is also said to have masterminded, from his villa near Marbella, the large-scale smuggling of firearms and the laundering of hundreds of millions of pounds in crime profits.

In co-ordinated dawn raids, 230 officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) arrested nine men and two women in the West Midlands, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Kent, Middlesex and south London. Premises were also being searched in Belgium, Cyprus, and Brazil as well as in Britain, Spain and Ireland.

Kinahan’s sons, Christopher junior and Daniel, were also held in the wave of arrests in Spain. Daniel Kinahan featured in the long-running probe into allegations of horse-race fixing featuring champion jockey Kieren Fallon. The jockey was cleared of all charges.

Soca’s Trevor Pearce said: “The scale of this joint operation is an indication of how prolific we think this network was."

Read More

Sean Connery has been ordered to appear before a Spanish magistrate investigating alleged financial irregularities on the Costa del Sol.

Sean Connery has been ordered to appear before a Spanish magistrate investigating alleged financial irregularities on the Costa del Sol.
The James Bond star, 79, and his wife Micheline Roquebrune, are being investigated by a court in the millionaires' playground of Marbella.
Five lawyers have also been ordered to appear before the court after police raided their offices on Wednesday in an operation named Goldfinger.
Connery and his wife, Michelle, a French painter, lived in Marbella from the early 1970s to the late 1990s in a beachside mansion called Malibu.
They entertained stars including Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Omar Sharif and George best in the magnificent whitewashed villa.
Connery sold the property for a reported $9million in the late 90s, and 72 luxury flats were later built on the land.
A two-bedroom apartment there is now worth around £2million.
Magistrate Ricardo Puyol is reportedly investigating the sale of the house and allegations of tax evasion and money-laundering.
The actor and his wife are expected to appear before the magistrate at Marbella's Court of Instruction number 1 on May 27, 28 or 29.
They will be questioned in detail, behind closed doors, before the magistrate decides if any further action should be taken.
Neither Connery or his wife have been arrested or charged with any offence.
On Wednesday officers from the National Police accompanied by tax officials raided the officers of law firm Diaz-Bastien & Truan in Marbella and Madrid.
Operating on the orders of the magistrate, the officers reportedly seized 30,000 documents.
The magistrate has placed a secrecy order on the case which bans any officials from speaking about the investigation.
National newspaper El Mundo said the magistrate is investigating a number of property deals made during the tenure of controversial Marbella mayor Jesus Gil y Gil, the former owner of Atletico Madrid football club.
It said the magistrate was investigating possible tax evasion, embezzlement, perversion of justice and money-laundering.

Read More