Imogen Calderwood
BRITISH pensioners are taking on a multinational investment banking company after allegedly being mis-sold 4 million euros worth of fraudulent equity releases.
All 15 of the pensioners were sold N.M. Rothschild’s Credit Select Series Mortgage Loan, advertised as a legal means of Inheritance Tax mitigation.
The equity release scheme has now been ruled as fraudulent by the Tax Office.
Marbella-based law firm Lawbird – acting on behalf of the pensioners – demands that Rothschild cancels the mortgages on the pensioners’ Spanish homes, which have a combined value of more than €4 million.
It also demands that Rothschild are prohibited from advertising products in such a misleading, inaccurate and false way in the future.
Incredibly, the issue also became a matter of Parliamentary discussion, between an MP and the Conservative Treasury Minister.
“We all know who should take responsibility. Rothschild backed these products to the hilt, resourcing and designing them,” said MP Huw Irranca-Davies.
“It was party to the flogging of unfit products to unsuitable clients who did not suspect that they were on the back-end of a dodgy scam that was fit for Trotters Independent Traders [reference to British TV show Only Fools and Horses].
“At least we could laugh along with Del Boy and Rodney; there is no laughter when my constituents and many others face poverty and hardship in their retirement.”
Treasury Minister Sajid David added: “I am sympathetic to the difficulties that these people are facing. Many of them have lost a great deal, but I am afraid that the Government’s ability to act in this case is limited.”
Lawyer Antonio Flores, of Lawbird, added that another 300 pensioners are keenly awaiting the outcome of the case before pursuing their own claims.
Rothschild contacting the Olive Press with the following statement: “Rothschild provided a small number of mortgage loans to customers in Spain, acting solely as lender.
“The bank believes that it has at all times acted in compliance with its legal and regulatory obligations in relation to these loans and has not done anything wrong.”
