Guardia Civil officers have arrested eleven people in Tenerife as part of an operation dubbed “Paradise South”.
Those detained are accused of using forged documents to obtain mortgage loans for house purchases and are charged with crimes of fraud, forgery, money laundering and tax fraud.
The Guardia Civil said in a statement that the arrests are in connection to an organised crime ring who used proxies to obtain mortgage loans with the connivance of branch bank managers.
Investigations have revealed 39 separate fraudulent loans, obtained between 2009 and 2011, which netted the gang a profit of over four million euros.
The arrests include four bank managers who received bribes in exchange for granting the mortgage applications .
Only two of the accused have been identified in any way; crime boss P.M.M. and GP, a Spanish national, who were responsible for purchasing homes at under market value at bank repossession auctions, usually for around 40,000 euros for each property.
Another member of the crime ring (a computer engineer) then produced false documents such as work contracts, payslips, Social Security contribution records and income statements in order to create a creditworthy economic profile for the fictitious prospective buyers.
Once purchased the properties were registered in the names of “front men” thereby distancing the leaders of the organization from the transactions.
The mortgage loans applied for were always for a much higher amount than the auction price, usually 140,000 euros or higher.
This part of the scam netted the gang around 100,000 euros per transaction.
A few months later, after receiving their cut of the mortgage profits, the front men left the country having paid little or nothing off the mortgage.
Meanwhile the gang let the properties out to unsuspecting tenants, pulling in even more ill-gotten gains until the properties were ultimately repossessed once again, due to non-payment of the mortgage.
Guardia Civil officers are now following the money trail and believe that some of the money has been spirited out of Spain to tax havens.
As well as the eleven arrests, the Guardia Civil have impounded four luxury cars, 20 different bank accounts and thirteen properties.
Source: News in the Sun
Those detained are accused of using forged documents to obtain mortgage loans for house purchases and are charged with crimes of fraud, forgery, money laundering and tax fraud.
The Guardia Civil said in a statement that the arrests are in connection to an organised crime ring who used proxies to obtain mortgage loans with the connivance of branch bank managers.
Investigations have revealed 39 separate fraudulent loans, obtained between 2009 and 2011, which netted the gang a profit of over four million euros.
The arrests include four bank managers who received bribes in exchange for granting the mortgage applications .
Only two of the accused have been identified in any way; crime boss P.M.M. and GP, a Spanish national, who were responsible for purchasing homes at under market value at bank repossession auctions, usually for around 40,000 euros for each property.
Another member of the crime ring (a computer engineer) then produced false documents such as work contracts, payslips, Social Security contribution records and income statements in order to create a creditworthy economic profile for the fictitious prospective buyers.
Once purchased the properties were registered in the names of “front men” thereby distancing the leaders of the organization from the transactions.
The mortgage loans applied for were always for a much higher amount than the auction price, usually 140,000 euros or higher.
This part of the scam netted the gang around 100,000 euros per transaction.
A few months later, after receiving their cut of the mortgage profits, the front men left the country having paid little or nothing off the mortgage.
Meanwhile the gang let the properties out to unsuspecting tenants, pulling in even more ill-gotten gains until the properties were ultimately repossessed once again, due to non-payment of the mortgage.
Guardia Civil officers are now following the money trail and believe that some of the money has been spirited out of Spain to tax havens.
As well as the eleven arrests, the Guardia Civil have impounded four luxury cars, 20 different bank accounts and thirteen properties.
Source: News in the Sun
. 
, Hows about that then,
Love a good joke..............