La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection

La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection. Owned by George Soris’s company MedGroup, the company says that they will continue to trade, but will take ‘very strong measures’ to make the company viable.
They purchased the club from P&O for 102 million pounds in 2004. It includes three golf courses, 28 tennis courts, 8 football pitches, a spa, 1,800 private villas and apartments, and a 5 star Hyatt Regency hotel. It’s one of the most complete tourist complexes in Spain and one of the best in Europe, and currently employs 700 workers.
The Concurso Voluntario de Acreedores was placed in the mercantile court in Murcia, but the judge has yet to make any decision on the case.
The situation implies that the firm has problems meeting debts which are pending. Some reports say that its banks have declined to re-finance part of a 97 million € debt, despite its assets being valued at 170 million.
The La Manga Club is well known internationally as it has been used by many tennis stars, such as Anna Kourniokova and football teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid for training.

Leighton Richardson released from custody after being held since Christmas Eve.

Leighton Richardson arrested in Tenerife after his girlfriend was found dying in a pool of blood at her apartment has been released from custody after being held since Christmas Eve.Before making his bail decision the judge studied police information which – despite earlier reports – said no baseball bat had been found at her flat.
But while investigations continue Leighton Richardson, born in Wrexham and who grew up in Mold, remains a suspect.He has been ordered to report daily to the court at Arona, on the holiday island’s south coast, where the investigating judge in charge of the case is based.Richardson has also had to surrender his passport to the court.
He was arrested in the early hours of Christmas Eve after Lisa McConway, 28, from Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland, was found by police at her flat in the brash resort of Playa de las Americas.She was in a critical condition and had severe bruising to much of her body.She was rushed to hospital but died at 1pm that day.
Reports said police had gone to the flat after neighbours telephoned just after 3am to report a violent row was taking place.The investigating judge decided to grant Richardson “provisional liberty” – the Spanish term for bail – after studying a written report by pathologists following an autopsy.
The experts were reported as concluding Miss McConway, who had a British passport, could have died either as the result of a beating or following a fall, it was reported yesterdayAlthough her injuries were consistent with an attack the autopsy revealed she suffered from a blood clotting condition which could cause extensive bruising as the result of a fall, court sources told local journalists.
Before making his bail decision the judge had also studied a police report which despite earlier reports said that no baseball bat had been found at Miss McConway’s flat.Nor had any witnesses been found to back-up the claim reportedly made by the initial caller a serious row had taken place.But two witnesses had said earlier Miss McConway had been “drinking a lot” and they had seen her “drunk”. The witnesses said she had fallen down opening a gash in her head.For his part Richardson had emphatically denied throughout his time in police custody and later at a closed door hearing in front of the investigating judge he had beaten Miss McConway.
Following Miss McConway’s death Jose Antonio Batista, the Spanish Interior Ministry representative in Tenerife, described the scene which greeted officers at her apartment as a “Dantesque spectacle”.He was quoted as telling local reporters: “All the furniture was overturned and there was blood on the floor and the walls.”
The official also said Miss McConway had telephoned Richardson, who lived elsewhere, at 3am last Wednesday to say she felt unwell. The boyfriend arrived shortly afterwards at her flat.Reports yesterday said the couple’s young son would be handed over to Richardson on his release.

Leighton Richardson has been arrested following the brutal murder of Lisa McConway

Leighton Richardson has been arrested following the brutal murder of Lisa McConway, 28, from Dublin, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat in Tenerife on Christmas Eve.Richardson was arrested yesterday morning by Spanish police and is to appear at a closed hearing before a magistrate will decide whether or not to press charges.He is understood to be the father of Lisa McConway's three-year old son. It's believed the boy was in the apartment when his mother was attacked. Police were called when neighbours heard a violent row.McConway was taken to a local hospital where she died at around midday on Christmas Day.

severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses.

The severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses.
Figures from the Spanish tourist industry reveal that the number of Britons who visited Spain in November, for example, was down by 15% on 2007.
The fall has closely tracked the decreasing value of the pound. Britons began to turn their backs on Spain in September, when numbers were down 5%, reaching 7% in October. Last month's dramatic decline came after the pound had lost 25% of its value against the euro in a year. With the pound and the euro now apparently heading for parity, tourist authorities fear that worse will come ? with the all-important summer season now looking grim. Thousands of Britons are dropping traditional holidays to Spain because of the weakness of the pound and fears over the after-effects of the banking crisis. "We are seeing principal markets fall away," explained Marien Andr?, of the Catalan government's Tourism Observatory. "Everything has become very volatile." That is causing alarm in a country which relies on a steady flow of Britons to keep its tourism sector buoyant. Some 17 million British tourists land at Spanish airports or drive across the border every year, according to the Foreign Office, accounting for almost one in three tourists who visit Spain, which earns 11% of GDP from tourism. The Canary Islands, where the mild winters attract many of end-of-year British tourists, have seen the number arriving this winter fall by 15%, while the Costa del Sol area around Malaga suffered even worse, with visitors down by 17%. Spanish hotels have dropped their prices by 2% this year, but this has not been enough to hang on to British tourists - many of whom now prefer to rent houses and apartments online or off friends and relatives. While British people are abandoning their Spanish holidays, however, Spaniards are beginning to fill the budget airline seats that they are leaving empty. The weakness of the pound has made England suddenly seem cheap to Spaniards who previously found Britain's most popular tourist spots too expensive. With the euro also stretching much further in British shops, Spaniards who last year traveled to New York to hunt for bargains in the post-Christmas sales have been booking into London hotels. Spanish internet hotel booking sites report increases of up to 70% in London bookings for immediately after Christmas. Bookings for flights plus hotels were up 80%, according to one portal. One route, from the northern city of La Coruna, to London is carrying double the number of passengers this year compared with 2007.
"The attraction of London is very strong,'' said one travel agent. "It is not that far away and its currency is weak." Newspaper travel supplements in recent weeks have been full of the bargain prices in London, with iPods now 25% cheaper there than in Spain. Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper filled three pages on Monday to explain to its readers the advantages of traveling to London in the coming months.
"No one doubts that this year London will be the favored destination for those who, despite the economic crisis, still want to keep traveling," the paper said.
Not all Spaniards, however, were mourning the disappearance of the British tourist. "They only ever spend their money on alcohol and then they have to be carted off to hospital after they get drunk and pass out,'' said a comment posted on La Vanguardia's website. "Perhaps we can start bringing in quality tourism now."

Spanish anti-Corruption prosecutor is to investigate who sold funds organised by the disgraced New York broker, Bernard Madoff, in Spain

Spanish anti-Corruption prosecutor is to investigate who sold funds organised by the disgraced New York broker, Bernard Madoff, in Spain. The prosecutor wants to establish if the agents acting here took an active part in the fraud which has been carried out, and it means that the Optimal and Banif funds from Santander will be under inspection along with all those who distributed the funds.

New owners of the Hotel Los Monteros, sacked 72 of the hotel’s 180 workers

The new owners of the Hotel Los Monteros, the Russian petrol group, North West Oil, are reported by El País to have sacked 72 of the hotel’s 180 workers, some 40%.
Gonzalo Fuentes, the Regional Secretary of the Commerce Federation of the Union Comisones Obreras, said that the workers are to take legal action, and say they have not been paid any compensation for the sackings or three months back pay which is owed. They are planning strike action on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and say the stoppage could become indefinite. A final decision on strike action will be taken by the workers on Friday.A statement from the hotel said the decision was taken for economic reasons.

arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal.

code-named ‘Margarita-Kuskus,’ in Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Almeria and Lugo provinces, has led to the arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal.
The operation, carried out in collaboration with the European Union's criminal intelligence agency (Europol), also resulted in the seizure of 150,000 fake euros in 50 and 20 euro denominations destined for distribution in Spain.

The investigation was launched toward the end of last year after in increase in false bank notes was detected in circulation in Alicante and Lugo Provinces. Given that the modus operandi of these crimes was the same in both provinces, Guardia Civil officers from both agreed to work in partnership on the investigation.

Once the distributors, mostly of North African origin, were identified and located, they were arrested. One of those arrested, a Torrevieja resident, with dual Spanish-Moroccan nationality who had worked as a judicial interpreter, now faces further charges of passing confidential information relating to the case to the criminal gang.The investigation revealed that the main distribution point in Spain was in Alicante Province, between Callosa del Segura and Torrevieja. The boss of the gang was identified as being from Torrevieja and three of his partners in crime were from nearby Callosa del Segura.Towards the end of October this year, Guardia Civil officers followed the head of the gang and stopped him at a toll-booth on the A-7 in Puzol, Valencia. It is believed he was on his way to southern Italy, with the intention of purchasing a large quantity of fake notes. When they searched his car, they found six wads of 20,000 euros in 20 euro bills. He was arrested along with another two men of North African origin, whose job was allegedly to make contact with other gang members, resident in Italy, where the counterfeit notes were printed by the Calabrian Mafia, ‘Ndrangheta’, one of the most powerful and violent known crime organizations in Italy.It is believed that other members of the organisation periodically travelled to Italy where they purchased the false money and smuggled it back into Spain hidden in specially designed compartments in their vehicles. As a security measure, the vehicle carrying the cash was always escorted ahead by a second vehicle whose purpose was to act as a look-out for any police presence or checks.

Once the money was in Spain, it was stored and at several premises between Callosa del Segura and Redovan, in the Orihuela area. From there, the notes were then distributed throughout Spain, Portugal and North Africa.

In a similar pattern to that known to be used by drug- trafficking gangs, the organisation had a further network of people who would purchase the fake notes at prices between 30 and 40 per cent of their face value. They would then introduce the money into the legal economic system, making small purchases that generally managed to avoid detection.Once the money had been changed into authentic cash, it was laundered through the purchase of properties, vehicles and other goods, often in other people’s names to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

purple €500 notes are so rarely seen that they have earned the nickname “Bin Ladens”.

Spain is estimated to have one of the biggest black economies in Europe, accounting for between 20 and 23% of annual GDP. Spanish tax authorities are investigating 12,000 big transactions involving €500 notes.

It is, perhaps, the strangest idea yet for pumping extra liquidity into Europe’s troubled banking system. Spanish officials were yesterday reported to be looking for ways of encouraging Spaniards to remove the estimated 108m €500 notes they have hoarded in safes or under floorboards and take them to the bank. That averages out to at least two per Spaniard, or a total of €54bn, circulating outside the country’s banking system.

A combination of tax-cheating and a long-standing mistrust of banks, means Spain soaks up a quarter of all the €500 notes - one of the world’s highest denomination bank bills - released every year.One option for getting the notes into the banking system, by offering a no-questions-asked fiscal amnesty, was ruled out by the finance minister Pedro Solbes yesterday. El Mundo newspaper reported, however, that there had been pressure from within the government’s finance team to consider a fiscal amnesty. Spain’s tax inspectors, whose job it is to root out the notes when they are used for tax fraud, were among those opposing the idea.The purple €500 notes are so rarely seen that they have earned the nickname “Bin Ladens”.Most are used in real estate deals, where property is often bought and sold in a mixture of fiscally opaque cash and fiscally transparent bank transfers. The price of property deals reported to the tax authorities is, therefore, often much lower than that really paid.Other notes circulate in the country’s black economy. Sectors including the footwear industry, construction or silversmiths are thought to do much of their business in black currency.

Spain’s government is to help home-seekers buy or rent one million homes in the next four years.

Spain’s government is to help home-seekers buy or rent one million homes in the next four years, it said on Friday, as it seeks fiscal catalysts as well as props for the hard-hit housing sector.

Under the plan, which was approved by the cabinet on Friday, Spain will spend 10.1 billion euros ($13.4 billion) to help the poorest families, the elderly, young people, the disabled and victims of domestic violence find a home through a system of subsidies to developers.

It also throws a lifeline to Spain’s struggling builders who have seen revenues crumble following a shuddering halt to a decade-long boom.That, added to a lack of credit, could see many more go the way of Martinsa Fadesa — at one time Spain’s biggest builder — which filed for administration earlier this year.The Housing Ministry said in a statement that the plan dedicated a third more than the plan’s previous draft and would increase the number of homes available by roughly 380,000 as Spain looks to infrastructure projects to head off what analysts forecast will be its worst recession in 50 years during 2009.Spain has announced fiscal stimulus totalling over 50 billion euros of tax breaks, low-cost loans and public works spending.

75-year-old woman was killed last night when the bedroom roof of her cave house collapsed in on top of her as she was sleeping.

75-year-old woman was killed last night when the bedroom roof of her cave house collapsed in on top of her as she was sleeping. The incident occurred at around 2.30am at number 19, calle Castellana, Rojales (Alicante), a small town with a population of just over 7,000 inhabitants some 4km inland from Guardamar del Segura.
The rest of the property was unaffected. Emergency medics were unable to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

legal firm in Murcia is offering properties for sale at really bargain basement prices

legal firm in Murcia, acting under instruction from several banks and almost bankrupt real estate developers, is offering properties for sale at really bargain basement prices. Some of the deals on offer are the result of property being embargoed, whilst others are due to an excessive building programme.

For example: a brand new home with three bedrooms and all the attendant services, set on the coast and near a golf course, is being priced at just one hundred thousand euros.

Ibiza Night Club owners raided by Organized Crime Special Response Group

Agents of the National Police Corps, assigned to the Special Response Group against Organized Crime in Ibiza, have proceeded to the dismantling of a complex criminal organization composed of Ibiza citizens who were very much related to the world of the night. It is the largest network of introduction and distribution of narcotic substances by residents on the island, according to the police stressed in a statement. investigation, which began in mid-May, found that detainees introduced and distributed the goods among traffickers involved in sales at bars and nightclubs on the island. The head of the organization, PPR, was in charge of making contacts with the mainland to stock up on drugs. The ringleader had numerous rented in the name of third parties in order to avoid such as leaseholder appear. Distributed the goods among all the homes, located in spots strategically placed to detect police presence This subject was traveling in rented vehicles, also on behalf of third parties, to avoid being detected. To provide this infrastructure was in charge of other detainees, TIT, who gained a certain amount of money held by each administration. December 8 players GRECO detected how the organization had anticipated the arrival in the island of a significant quantity of drugs, which sought to distribute at Christmas. After ascertaining that the goods were in Ibiza led to the arrest of those surveyed. Once the ruling was timely house searches and a half intervened four kilos of cocaine in rock of high purity, three cars (a BMW 330, a Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen Polo), 4,000 euros in cash, precision scales, numerous mobile phones and 18,000 euros were frozen in several bank accounts.

Ocean View's "one-stop shop" property service ?

Football great John Barnes, tennis legend Pat Cash, cricket's Darren Gough and rugby's Martin Corry and Martin Offiah are just some of the high profile figures who were promised luxury apartments if their names could be used to promote overseas developments that many fear will never be built.The promises were made by a Spanish company, which was closely involved with Sean Woodhall, a 43-year-old fraudster who disappeared after a light aircraft carrying him and other debt-ridden businessmen crashed in a Brazilian forest in May.The sportsmen have been offered holiday homes at the proposed "five-star" resort in Tafedna Bay, Morocco, which does not have planning permission, where not a spade has been turned and yet on which sales agents have already been taking cash from British customers.Former England rugby captain Corry this week cancelled his involvement in the project after police warned him about the potential fraud."He no longer wants anything to do with it," his spokesman said. Pat Cash is also reconsidering his contract. In another closely related suspected scam, a group of well-known footballers, including one ex-England international, are preparing to sue Midlands-based Ocean View Properties, which the as having left hundreds of customers millions out of pocket.The company is also believed to have conned two serving police officers. Ocean View, which has debts of more than £100million, this week took down its website "for maintenance". Both police and Government fraud agencies are now investigating the company and a multimillion-pound black hole. The suspected swindles involve four central characters and their cross-border labyrinth of companies, which lured people to invest in "off-plan" holiday-homes in Spain, Morocco and the Dominican Republic.
Buy-to-let millionaire Colin Thomas is the owner of Ocean View Properties; Woodhall, whose body has never been recovered, was Mr Thomas's dealmaker in Spain; Adam Sargent was Mr Thomas's expert salesman in the sports world; and Spaniard Ricardo Miranda was the supposed developer in all three countries.Mr Thomas formed Ocean View in 2001, the year that Woodhall moved to Spain after being convicted for a franchise fraud in Birmingham.Woodhall found sites in the Costa del Sol, while in Britain Mr Thomas created a network of franchise agents to sell off-plan apartments.
These agents were part of Ocean View's "one-stop shop" property service, which allowed it to control cashflows and direct customers to its own recommended mortgage brokers, travel agents and Spanish conveyancing lawyers-a practice criticised by the buy-to-let industry's own trade body.
Among these agents was Mr Sargent, a financial adviser to star footballers. He helped Ocean View sponsor Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, and Leicester City.
They told cash rich footballers there were guaranteed rental yields and high capital profits abroad. Among the many footballers to invest in discount deals were Villa's Gareth Barry, Newcastle United's Alan Smith and Shola Ameobi, and ex-Liverpool midfielder Steve Staunton.In return they allowed their names to be used on promotional material. Similar deals were also struck with England cricketers Duggie Brown and Paul Nixon, who still advertise their involvement with Ocean View on the Professional Cricketers' Association website.Customers would exchange contracts with a Spanish developer and hand over typical deposits of £70,000 to Ocean View in Britain.Mr Thomas said he would then transfer the bulk of the deposit to the developer. Many of the properties were built, but some were sub-standard, according to customers. However, cracks surfaced when the Costa del Sol property market collapsed amid a widespread corruption scandal in 2006. It then emerged that Ocean View and Mr Miranda's development company, Sungolf, had been taking deposits for the proposed Estepona Beach and Country Club near Malaga, a site that did not have planning permission and which has yet to be built.That was not allowed under Spanish law, legal sources have said.They have also said that Ocean View's practice of charging customers Spanish VAT on the full purchase price rather than on just the initial deposit was also illegal.Customers, many of them preparing legal cases, are now claiming they were deliberately duped. Last week, Ocean View's owner Colin Thomas said because Sungolf had all the cash, it would be starting a refund scheme in February.However, Mr Miranda's spokeswoman denied that was the case, claiming they had "proof" the money had already been "returned" to Ocean View.Meanwhile, Ocean View has also been telling unhappy customers they can transfer their contracts to another of Mr Miranda's developments-Morocco's Tafedna Bay, a site where Mr Sargent has been touting for business through his new company, Zenith Overseas Investments.The links between the businessmen can also be traced to Mr Miranda's Punta Perla development in the Dominican Republic, an empty site where Newcastle's Alan Smith has also invested.Last week, Ocean View's Mr Thomas said he had no involvement there, but the Sunday Express has obtained a sales document, which states that cheques for deposits in Punta Perla should be sent to his company in Staffordshire.Mr Thomas also said last week that he had severed relations with conman Woodhall in 2004. However, Ocean View was acting as agents for Woodhall's now-defunct Punta Perla Caribbean company from late 2005. Two weeks ago Woodhall's other company, Worldwide Destinations, was expelled from the industry's trade body, the Association of International Property Professionals, for allegedly selling non-existent mortgages in Egypt.Mr Thomas, Mr Sargent, and Mr Miranda have all strongly denied any wrongdoing. Mr Sargent said: "I took on an Ocean View franchise for five years and recommended it as a pension replacement and pension supplement scheme to my clients."The idea was to get people to buy properties, then get them built, and put them into a rental programme with its own travel arm."Generally, they've done that to a degree. The travel arm wasn't as successful as everybody had hoped, but we've managed to put people into a long term rental contract and I've been a lot more hands on than most in the sense that I've tried to manage the clients expectations."

Spain's top-selling newspaper El Pais on Sunday revealed details of CIA secret flights taking prisoners to Guantanamo bay using Spain as a stop-over.

Spain's top-selling newspaper El Pais on Sunday revealed details of CIA secret flights taking prisoners to Guantanamo bay using Spain as a stop-over. According to the paper, the National Court of Spain is investigating the false names given by crews of several CIA-operated civilian flights that stopped over in Palma de Mallorca in 2003 and 2005.Egyptian Mustafa Osama Nasr and German-Lebanese Hamed Al Masri, who were kidnapped and tortured by CIA agents in Milan and Macedonia, respectively, were in those airplanes, together with others prisoners, says El Pais.
It also reports crews in those flights used false identities during stopovers in Spain, as stated in evidences given by the British organization Reprieve to Spain Justice. If the false identity crime is finally proved, National Court of Spain will demand CIA agents be taken to court, judicial sources affirmed.El País paper talks about eight of the passengers, who made phone calls to US from Royal Plaza Hotel, Ibiza, on February 6-12, 2005, and describes them as a team that participated in seven kidnappings and illegal traffic of people. The two pilots of CIA planes were registered as James Richard Fairing and Eric Matthew Fair, but their real names are James Kovalesky and Eric R. Hume, according to Reprieve’s investigator Olivier Minkwitz.

Banco Santander SA,hit by worlds largest fraud

The $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Fund invested solely with Madoff, taking a cut of 1 percent of assets and 20 percent of gains, which averaged about 11 percent annually in the past 15 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fairfield Greenwich is one of at least 15 hedge-fund firms and private banks, including Tremont Holdings Group Inc. and Banco Santander SA, that earned similar fees for sending customers’ cash to the 70-year-old money manager. “It’s mind-boggling that people like Tremont and Fairfield Greenwich had been doing this for so long,” said Brad Alford, who runs Alpha Capital Management LLC in Atlanta, which helps clients choose hedge funds. “It’s the job of these funds of funds to be doing due diligence. That’s why they get paid.” Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 after he allegedly confessed to running a “giant Ponzi scheme” that may have bilked investors of $50 billion. That fraud escaped the notice of Fairfield Greenwich, Tremont and other funds of funds that had at least $17 billion invested with Madoff. Hedge-fund investment adviser Aksia LLC said the managers should have seen “red flags,” such as Madoff’s use of a little-known, three-person auditing firm. Hedge funds that have disclosed holdings with Madoff were due at least $290 million in fees this year, based on reported assets, fees and Bloomberg data. The calculations don’t include fees of as much as 5 percent that clients paid for some funds when they first invested. Madoff didn’t assess fees for his money-management services, getting paid instead through commissions from his brokerage business for trading the stocks in the accounts. Investors ensnared by Madoff include Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets baseball team, clients of private bankers in Geneva, wealthy Jewish families in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, and institutions including BNP Paribas SA in Paris that loaned investors money to increase their bets. Losses have been reported by a pension fund in Fairfield, Connecticut, New York hospitals and a charity in Salem, Massachusetts.
While Madoff didn’t run a hedge fund, his alleged crime may accelerate investor defections from the $1.5 trillion industry, already hit by its worst losses since at least 1990 and redemptions that may reach $400 billion this year, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley. In a Ponzi scheme, returns to early investors are paid with money from later ones, until there isn’t enough cash to go around. Madoff’s alleged scam unraveled when he received $7 billion in redemption requests that he couldn’t meet. Funds of hedge funds such as Fairfield Greenwich act as middlemen, raising money from investors and farming it out to other managers that they vet. The go-betweens manage 44 percent of hedge-fund assets, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. Their investments lost 19 percent on average through November, a little more than a percentage point more than single-manager funds, the Chicago-based firm says. Institutions including New York State’s $154 billion retirement system and the endowment of Baylor University have been cutting back their investments in funds of funds to save the extra layer of fees -- generally 1 percent of assets and 10 percent of profits -- that they charge on top of the underlying managers’ take. Last year, for the first time, more than half of the hedge-fund assets of the 200 largest U.S. pension plans were invested directly with individual managers, according to data compiled by Pensions & Investments magazine.