WE ARE TRYING TO DEFEND OURSELVES AGAINST A EUROPEAN BANKING SCANDAL WHICH WILL OPEN A VAST DEBATE ON THE BANKING PRACTICES IN THE HEART OF THE EUROPEAN UNION A LOAN OF MORE THAN 2 BILLION WAS GIVEN BY THE CENTRAL BANK OF LUXEMBOURG C.B.L. IN 2008 TO AN INSOLVENT BANK DESPITE THE WARNINGS AND PROTESTATIONS OF CLAUDE TRICHET then President of the Central Bank We would like to speak about what happens in a Financial Place if there is not proper SUPERVISION, real TRANSPARENCY and if there is ABUSE OF POWER and CONFLICT OF INTEREST. EVERYONE LOSES OUT! Our story with the LANDSBANKI LUXEMBOURG Bank is a complicated story and we are still under the shock of what happened to us in 2008 when so many of us were simply creditors of a Luxembourg bank, in a country in which we had confidence and where we felt protected as a consumer. In fact if you speak to any of the victims of Landsbanki, they will tell you that the first thing that re-assured them about the products they were sold, was the name of LUXEMBOURG. The name of Luxembourg which was was sold in the EQUITY RELEASE ‘package’ as well as the fact that we were told the bank had a AAA rating and that we would be making an income, convinced us and sold ‘us the product. BUT, now we know that these financial products are as bad as the SUBPRIMES that triggered the financial Crisis. The pensioners in question own mortgage-free properties mostly in France, Portugal and Spain and as they only had small incomes they fell for the LANDSBANKI LUXEMBOURG proposition as presented to them by the intermediaries endeavouring to sell these toxic products. The pensioners were promised an INCOME, as they were sold brochures and promises (we shall place these brochures which all sing the same song, on Facebook so that you can all see them for yourselves) LIBERTY: LET YOUR PROPERTY WORK FOR YOU! The bank lent a sum amounting to the total value of the property, which was evaluated by an expert chosen by Landsbanki and with a second estimate in the case of properties of greater value. Landsbanki chose between these two evaluations and the differences between them were sometimes considerable. The clients paid for these estimates but Landsbanki kept them and refused to give them to clients. The loan was contractually for a period of 20 years. The clients would only receive a part of the total sum in CASH, contractually for their own PERSONAL USE, which should NOT BE INVESTED by the bank. The rest was invested in a portfolio invested by the bank. But the return promised by the bank and which should AT LEAST cover the interest, was IMPOSSIBLE to attain. (We think it would be very difficult to find any self-respecting internationally renowned financial expert to say the contrary!) All the promises of an INCOME, which was what had seduced the pensioners with small incomes and the promise of “LIBERTY” in the knowledge that your PROPERTY would be WORKING FOR YOU and THE PROMISE, “YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN AND GRAND CHILDREN WHILST YOU ARE STILL ALIVE”, These were all FALSE PROMISES. Those responsible in Landsbanki could not have ignored the fact and neither can the administrator, today, ignore this fact. The clients of LANDSBANKI LUXEMBOURG were Illegally ABUSED by FALSE ADVERTISING and IMPOSSIBLE PROMISES. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION: What was the real objective for pursuing these operations for Landsbanki when the first signs of a huge Financial Crisis were already visible in 2007? DAVID AND GOLIATH A scenario is circulating in Europe about this affair, which is making many waves and is even the subject of International INSOLVENCY Conferences (Nottingham University 2012 International Insolvency Failures on big international Insolvency administration FAILURES and in no 1 place, the Scandal of the Landsbanki Luxembourg Insolvency and the administrator and supervisor “in turmoil “, as the victims, mostly British pensioners fight for JUSTICE, rather like DAVID AND GOLIATH! The pensioners are showing admirable courage in their battle despite the sad loss of 17 amongst them and the failing health of many. The contracts, in fact, allowed the bank to obtain a mortgage over the property AS WELL AS a portfolio. MORTGAGE + PORTFOLIO. “À LA MADOFF!” Landsbanki was desperately trying to refinance itself in the cavalier style of Madoff and we see that Landsbanki did not hesitate to manipulate the accounts and that after the bankruptcy the administrator upheld this creative accounting in order to transform creditors into debtors by crafty manipulation of the SCR or the Security Cover Ratio which triggers a FALSE demand for top-up funds, which if not paid in a period of 30 days would lead to the seizing of the home. (In order to justify this FALSE demand for funds and the manipulation of the Security ratio, the value of the properties were DROPPED to 60% of their previous valuation made by Landsbanki which could be 6 months previously or several years previously and before or after renovation! The value of CASH in accounts, was dropped by 5% and this led to shocking examples where clients had their homes seized when creative false accounting manipulated them into a 0.1% shortfall and their home was seized when they refused to pay 7 times what they had effectively taken from the bank! ALL THIS WAS DONE WITHOUT ANY PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE OF ANY KIND AND WITHOUT ANY JUSTIFICATION OF HOW CREDITORS WERE TRANSFORMED INTO DEBTORS in the last days of this artificially delayed bankruptcy. A few weeks before the bankruptcy, Landsbanki advised clients who still had the majority of their CASH released for their own personal use and not to be invested, NOT TO TRANSFER their money to France as it was ‘SAFER’ in Luxembourg. A few weeks before the bankruptcy, Landsbanki invited the clients residing in France to a cocktail in a new office in the middle of Cannes, which was not functioning, no phones connected, no files or office equipment yet, as spanking new, flash and having cost a maximum. The reason for this hurried flaunting of extravagance whilst it was plain to see there was no business being carried out in this Landsbanki branch they were so desperate to present as a functioning model of a healthy and prosperous Luxembourg bank, is obvious to all. Whilst this charade was going on, pensioners were being told to keep their CASH in Luxembourg as it was “SAFER” and they were still actively pursuing more victims to grab on board the sinking ship! Clients who were in fact CREDITORS and who had been falsely transformed into debtors by manipulating them into a shortfall of 0. 1 %, had bailiffs bashing on their doors demanding payment of 6 or 7 times what they had actually drawn down from a bank which had gone bankrupt and broken several terms of their contract! One of the terms of the contract was a loan for the period of 20 years. In some cases people had been clients of the bank for only 6 months! People were signing contracts when the bank was already DE FACTO bankrupt. The several hundreds of millions of Euros worth of assets Landsbanki succeeded in amassing, served to obtain a loan of more than 2 BILLION EUROS from the CENTRAL BANK OF LUXEMBOURG BCL, despite the contrary advice and understandable protests of CLAUDE TRICHET who was the PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK. In this critical period of extreme Financial Crisis, against the responsible, measured advice of CLAUDE TRICHET, the Luxembourg government, the CSSF and LUC FRIEDEN the Finance Minister oversaw the CENTRAL BANK OF LUXEMBOURG CBL to give a loan to a de facto INSOLVENT BANK. Landsbanki was insolvent in 2007. This irresponsible even illegal act, artificially retarded the bankruptcy of this bank and could possibly be the reason that documents produced in the LANDSBANKI Conclusions in Civil Courts in France by the administrator, show FALSE dates which seem to want to make it look as if the client had signed the contract BEFORE the bank was de facto insolvent in 2007. (Confirmed in the Icelandic SIC report) Clients, whose loan had been registered in France in 2008, see in these legal defence conclusions for instance, that they have NO EVIDENCE to show that the bank did not act in GOOD FAITH and that they had any intention whatsoever to DECEIVE. Quote from Landsbanki conclusions: “THE PROOF of this is that, IN MAY 2007, DATE OF THE CONCLUSION OF THE CONTRACT, the bank could not know that the world crisis would happen 18 months later, in the autumn of 2008.” (A small detail to N.B. …. THE CLIENTS HAD NOT EVEN HEARD OF THE BANK AT THAT DATE!... THE DATE IS FALSE!) … However a DOCUMENT WAS PRODUCED AS EVIDENCE of the opening of an account on that date and was presented in the Civil Court of French justice. This FALSE date is part of a long list of such gross ‘errors’, which lead us to believe that the intention was to DECEIVE the French Civil Court and to win proceedings based on FALSE information and documents? We feel that the “LANDSBANKI LUXEMBOURG SYSTEM’, continues in the ADMINISTRATION AND THE LACK OF SUPERVISION IS VERY EVIDENT. These clients, like many others had signed the contract after the bank was de facto bankrupt. THE LIES AND THE DECEIT HAVE NEVER CEASED…. The extravagant Landsbanki office in Cannes had never been used for business and yet was flaunted in order to DECEIVE the clients and to once again, paint a FALSE picture of a viable, successful bank when at the end of July 2008 nothing could have been further from the truth! At the same time, Landsbanki was advising clients to keep their FUNDS reserved for personal use, in LUXEMBOURG and NOT in France, as it was ‘safer’ in Luxembourg. “LUXEMBOURG PROTECTS THE CONSUMER BETTER AND THE BANK IS AAA” How can the administrator say: “LANDSBANKI NEVER DELIBERATELY DECEIVED the clients?” The list of lies and DECEIT is far too long to cite on here, but we have all the documents which show the lies both BEFORE and AFTER the official date of the bankruptcy and during the 5 years of administration where everything has been done to continue along the same line of abysmal conduct of DECEIT and LIES which can no longer be kept in silence whilst we wait for the Luxembourg Justice system to recognise the negligence of the administrator and supervisor who have not reported the criminal elements of this case as other countries in Europe have done. Landsbanki was in financial difficulties before 2007. It would also appear that the LANDSBANKI LUXEMBOURG portfolios were used to recapitalize the mother bank Landsbanki. The clients, who have not seen any returns from their investment and whose homes are now the in the administrator’s firing line are demanding an inquiry which will throw some light on these problems. There are also questions being asked, notably in France, as to whether Landsbanki even had the legal right to be selling these Equity Release products based on high risk speculative investment done on behalf of the client by a bank, especially in the case of vulnerable pensioners with limited income. The INDICTEMENT of Landsbanki in France was preceded by that of San Roque in Spain and they both make legal sense, especially in France where the assets and mortgages deeds which the bank has unjustly seized and which constitute the substance of the offence have been seized by the bank. In fact, the bank had around 170% coverage! The victims, their lawyers and lawyers across Europe feel that to pursue the realisation of such an uncertain debt despite all the ongoing Criminal proceedings and complaints, despite the Indictment of the ex-directors and employees of Landsbanki by the Attorney General of Iceland and the seizing of the debt security by the top Criminal Judge Renaud Van Rumbeyke in France and the Criminal proceedings now in Spain as well as the Criminal cases involving Landsbanki and the same administrator in England , is exposing the instigators of these procedures to a complaint LAUNDERING CONCEALMENT if they realize the mortgages and they are issue of FRAUD. Currently the victims are still in their homes only thanks to the French Judge Renaud Van Rumbeyke. There are many dark and shady zones and irregularities in this scandal. The lawyers underline the fact that the bank did not have the required authorisations and licenses to sell these speculative high-risk products based on financial speculation in France and Spain, nor, as is shown in Spain, to have these products which are backed by LIFE INSURANCE such as LEX LIFE, as a tax relief tool, as Landsbanki has done. In the UK these products are outlawed. In Spain, the HACIENDA has recently confirmed the illegality of these loans backed by a Life Insurance policy, which promises fiscal advantages. CRIMINALITY It appears that the person at the head of the bank had previously been condemned and had suspected ties with other criminal organisations in the East of Europe. In addition a recidivist employee of Landsbanki had integrated herself into the victims of France through the Spanish victim’s in order to find out what the lawyers and the victims were doing to fight the administrator’s actions. Having friends in Landsbanki Luxembourg’s offices and her own company in Luxembourg, this person had arranged many equity release loans for landsbanki in co operation with her notary friend and her close contact in the Landsbank offices who accepted her loan applications on behalf of Landsbanki. She made it quite clear to the victims that we must not complain, or make waves because we would be punished and we would be seized before those who stayed quiet in their corner. She explained that it was important not to make a noise or complain but to pay whatever Yvette Hamilius, the administrator, demanded, because Karine Guillaume the supervising judge and Yvette Hamilius, the administrator has immense power in Luxembourg and that they could do whatever they pleased and that we could never fight that machine. We were strongly advised to sign the agreement or ultimatum that Yvette Hamilius had put together with URGENCY, before it was TOO LATE because the administrator would revert to the previous calculation which could be 6 or 7 times more than had actually been taken from the bank if the demand was not paid within 30 days. This ultimatum -PAY WHAT I ASK, SIGN THE CONTRACT AND ACCEPT THE CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSE AND ABANDON ALL CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS- was given to us FOUR YEARS after many clients had begged the administrator to permit them to reimburse the sum they had taken from the bank. FOUR YEARS LATER, after such psychological suffering, such humiliation, the worst financial problems, and such anguish and years lived in terror of losing ones home, of having any rent seized, of bailiffs banging on the door and of defending oneself against the lies and false information given by the very top, expensive lawyers that Luxembourg had put at the disposition of the administrator. This powerful machine in action against elderly retired pensioners who in the main could not afford lawyers and who struggled to defend themselves believing that Luxembourg’s justice system would protect them. Yvette Hamilius glibly explained in the Luxembourg press: That “MOST OF THE “VICTIMS”, had ‘SIMPLY MISSED THE TRAIN”. In other words, a judgment from the `Luxembourg Court dated 24/01/2010 had fixed the deadline to lodge a declaration of CLAIM on the 14th of May on the same year. After that no debtor could participate in the liquidation proceeds.’ DO CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS, FRAUD, EMBEZZLEMENT, CRIMINAL COURT PROCEDURES ALSO MISS THE TRAIN, one asks? Where has the slogan gone? “THE CLIENT IS ALWAYS KING IN LUXEMBOURG BANKS” Wording of French Criminal Complaint Description: “ Fraud, abuse of confidence by persons offering their services in the usual manner, even in a subsidiary role took possession of the property of another to convert into risk obligations, the providing of services without proper license” 12/01/2012 In the Supreme Court, JUDGE RENAUD VAN RUMBEYKE levied a fine of 1.875 Million euros (denied by the Attorney General ROBERT BIEVER in Luxembourg press) and confirmed the decision of the High court to condemn the administrator Yvette Hamilius to pay a security bail or guarantee of 50 MILLION EUROS. THIS IS THE HIGHEST CAUTION EVER DEMANDED IN THE HISTORY OF FRANCE. TO DATE, MME HAMILIUS HAS NOT PAID THIS GUARANTEE NOR THE FINE The inhumane actions of Yvette Hamilius must cease immediately. She is acting outside the European laws and one can see the example of bad transposition of the European law to Luxembourg law in the case of the abuse of the Luxembourg employees of Landsbanki Luxembourg who had to go to the European court of Justice to obtain satisfaction and later seek compensation from the Luxembourg government. It seems that no one in Luxembourg is controlling the actions of Mme Hamilius and that Luxembourg appears not to oppose her behaviour. But we think the reason is that there has been no TRANSPARENCY around this case and that the information presented to them was false or manipulated. It is clear that without supervision the disasters of this nature cannot be corrected in time to avoid the inevitable serious damage to the reputation of the Banking System and Financial place nor to the lives of the victims of this kind of abuse. We have many friends and even family in Luxembourg and they are shocked by this scandal and they also deplore the absence of TRANSPARENCY and the CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, which are at the root of this scandal. The more than 700 victims and their families and friends in France, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom will no longer accept this deplorable state of affairs and demand that the Luxembourg authorities react against Mme Hamilius and repair the damages suffered by the victims and by Luxembourg. In view of all these elements, the lawyers hope that Luxembourg Justice will do all that is necessary to correct this tragic injustice and also they do not understand the liquidator’s aggressive ruthlessness and methods in wanting to recover what she demands on behalf of a bank, which could be condemned for fraud across Europe. The ramifications of this case are going even further since the lawyers have pointed out the bizarre fact that the bank started to actively sell these aggressive, risky financial products shortly AFTER reports by Financial Institutions such as MERYL LYNCH had predicted the imminent crash of the whole of the Icelandic financial system! THE FIRST CRIMINAL COMPLAINT IN LUXEMBOURG Yvette Hamilius has never brought to the attention of the judicial authorities of her country any of the operations of which the legality is put into question across Europe. There are questions being asked about certain litigious recoveries at the expense of the victims taking place after the beginning of the winding up and open discussions with regard to money laundering is growing. “This complaint is the only way to avoid the covering-up of this scandal which poses considerable ethical problems and which reveals evidence of heavy Criminal infractions.” Said Bernard Maingain, the Belgian lawyer who is defending the victims. “ This is why we must bring this case to the attention of the judicial authorities in Luxembourg who must now TAKE THEIR STAND. DOES LUXEMBOURG ACCEPT THIS TYPE OF PRACTICE? YES, OR NO? THIS CASE IS LEADING TO A VAST DEBATE ON THE BANKING PRACTICES AT THE HEART OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. An in depth inquiry must be held on the TRAGIC SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES of the attitude of banks such as Landsbanki and those who wish to ignore the CRIMINAL REALITY of this case. “ WHAT WE HAVE ENDURED IS NOT ETHICAL AND HAS HAD A DEVASTATING EFFECT ON US, OUR FAMILIES, OUR FRIENDS AND THE REPUTATION OF THE FINANCIAL AND BANKING SECTOR OF LUXEMBOURG.” Curiously, no one has denounced these facts in Luxembourg and no criminal inquiry has been initiated. Conversely the liquidator has doubled her virulence, seized rents and threatened (2 weeks ago) in London, to not permit the owners to live in the house once seized and that any rent would also be seized, as was the case with a couple seized in France if they did not pay the sum demanded by the administrator WITHIN 8 DAYS. EIGHT DAYS TO PAY THIS DEMAND AND THE ADMINISTRATOR HAS NOT PAID THE FRENCH JUDGE THE 50 MILLION GUARANTEE NOR THE 1.875 MILLION FINE! Madame Hamilius has chosen to IGNORE EVERYTHING and has preferred to embark upon a ferocious and shameless campaign of recovery of uncertain debt, refusing even to negotiate any agreement that many of the victims have asked for for 4 YEARS. We have all the letters and emails that have been written over the years and the letters, which we have written to Luxembourg Politicians, who have ignored us such as LUC FRIEDEN Minister of Finance and JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, Prime Minister. Sure of her strength and power in Luxembourg, Yvette Hamilius has preferred to issue threats and ultimatums rather than allow the victims who for FOUR YEARS have asked to repay the amount taken from the bank. Her offer coming only having LOST IN THE SUPREME COURT and after having MADE THE PENSIONERS SUFFER POINTLESSLY OVER FOUR YEARS, was the following: “ -ACCEPT TO REIMBURSE THE LOAN IN IT’S TOTALITY WITH INTEREST WITHIN 30 DAYS and to settle the amount within 90 days OR THE PROPERTIES WILL BE SEIZED. “ Certain victims have already been seized since 2009 and have been under the psychological torture of knowing that their homes were going to be auctioned in a public sale at a derisory price well below the market value which would not even cover the grotesque sum often 6 times the amount received. It is clear that most victims who have an average age of 72 years have as sole asset the house in which they live. It is therefore impossible for them except in exceptional cases to gather together the necessary funds in the demanded time scale. The owners who are able to obtain the necessary funds to avoid being seized have been obliged to sign an official document forbidding them to divulge the terms of the agreement as well as another document exonerating Mme Hamilius from any possible litigation in her role as administrator. It was at this precise moment that an employee of Landsbanki who had strongly advised the victims to sign the agreement, to pay immediately and to be quiet, not communicate with the other victims and to agree to the offer as soon as possible came up with a loan offer for those needing to sign the document to save their homes. These loan offers were sent to the notary and to Mme Hamilius ‘office. Unknown to the victims, THE LOAN OFFERS WERE FALSE, but they served to persuade the victims to sign the documents which once signed would stop all Criminal proceedings against the bank and the administration. One couple had even lost more than 50.000 euros because the employee had asked for an “advance for only 3 days” in order to obtain a loan urgently in such a small time scale since no bank would give a loan to pensioners over 70 in this time scale and clients who are CREDITORS would have been evicted from their home. The auction proceeding for the house on the 31 May 2012 was going to put the property on the market for well below its value. All these pensioners in France and Spain have been ruined because of the actions of Yvette Hamilius. 17 have sadly died, there have been attempted suicides, many are ill after the years of psychological torture and yet the administrator continues her actions in spite of what the new Justice Minister Octavie Modert says about cooperating fully with all the other European countries and their Criminal investigations. In Luxembourg the scandal is minimized and the Minister of justice talks of cooperating efficiently with all the criminal investigations carried out across Europe but still does not mention any inquiry in Luxembourg. The Director of the ABBL (Association of Luxembourg Banks and Bankers), Jean-Jacques Rommes, “ One has to be very speculative person as one risks ones house with this product. Personally, I would not do it.” If the Director of the Banks and bankers association of Luxembourg KNEW that thousands of pensioners who had confidence in Luxembourg and it’s banks and it’s financial Products which all had Luxembourg authorisation and who thought that Luxembourg respected the European consumer laws MiFid, why did the CSSF keep quiet about this toxic product being sold to European pensioners through Luxembourg? Why did the CSSF allow a product the director of the banks and bankers knew was dangerous and risky, to be sold to European pensioners who were risking their homes, the fruit of their life’s work? The CSSF should surely be protecting the consumer and controlling financial products, their legality in all European countries in which they are sold and their viability, in order to be sure there is no abuse or criminality attached to the product? The CSSF should surely protect the reputation of the Financial Place and the Banking sector and also protect all the Europeans who use their financial products in the Luxembourg Financial Place Jean-Claude Juncker asked Europe to TRUST in? The Equity Release product is TOXIC and the Landsbanki affair is a SCANDAL, but we hope that there will be POSITIVE change after all the disturbing events and all the scandals, which have been neglected for so many years. We hope there will be comfort and happiness on the horizon with RESPECT, TRUTH and TRANSPARENCY and that JUSTICE comes first, above all for the people of Luxembourg, who suffer the scandals created by those who abuse power and who have such conflicts of interest that they do not know which hat to wear! The Luxembourg families and the European pensioners are suffering the consequences of this structural crisis and lack of supervision, which leaves the door open to corruption, abuse of power and conflict of interests. There will be an IMPORTANT and POSITIVE IMPACT in Europe, if this conflict of interests and corruption is replaced by TRANSPARENCY and the COURAGE to tackle the corruption and to punish those who are guilty of crime, whoever they may be. There is hope in the air.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:44:00 +0000
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