Seven years ago, they put their hopes and all their savings into buying a home in Playa Blanca, but shortly after, a nightmare began that they still don't see the end of. "For us it has been an ordeal," says this couple, who acquired one of the seven houses that the company Supercava S.L. put up for sale in the Virginia Park urbanization, without imagining that they were being victims of a scam.
Both they and the rest of the buyers signed convinced that the homes were free of encumbrances, but a few months later they discovered that this was not the case, when they received notification of an embargo procedure. And the fact is that the properties had two unpaid mortgages when they acquired them, so they became the property of La Caixa. Since then, other buyers have already obtained judgments in which those responsible for Jupercava have been convicted of fraud, but in their case, the investigation of the lawsuit they filed in 2015 has not even finished.
Their procedure is being processed in the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Arrecife, which was in charge of Judge Rafael Lis. And as happened with other cases that depended on this magistrate, they claim that it was stalled for years. Now, the new judge who took over the Court after Lis's retirement has continued the investigation, but not even all the defendants have been questioned yet, so they fear that the final judgment may still take years to arrive.
"All these years have been very difficult. We live in a constant uncertainty of not knowing what is going to happen and where we are going to go,” says this affected person, who fears being on the street with his three children. In addition, he explains that the little one is two years old and suffers from a degenerative disease, so he has recognized a disability that makes his situation even more complicated.
Pending a possible eviction
For the moment, while waiting for that criminal procedure to be resolved, they managed to suspend the eviction they face for a debt that was not theirs. However, their fear is that they will never be able to recover the money they invested. “The savings, everything we had, we have put it here in this. We are going to be left without a penny and with the debt of the mortgage that we asked for”, he says, pointing out that in addition to the down payment and the expenses of the purchase operation, they spent another 25,000 euros to renovate the house, plus the fees that were paying of the mortgage credit, when the house does not even appear now in his name, but in the name of another bank.
“Even if we win the trial, we may not recover anything”, this affected person fears, given what has happened with the other procedures initiated by his neighbors. The first was resolved definitively more than two years ago and the last one on June 10, when another of the trials for this scam was scheduled. Unlike the first, on this occasion the two defendants reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, acknowledging the crimes and obtaining a significant reduction in the penalties.
Initially, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested three years in prison for the company's administrator and four years and five months for another representative of the company, for fraud and documentary falsification, but the penalties that they ended up agreeing on were one and a half years in prison for him, who already had a criminal record, and one year for her, who might not even enter prison.
As for the money, the “reparation of the damage” was considered as a mitigating factor, because before the trial they returned 14,500 euros to the victims, a German couple who testified by videoconference. However, they had spent three times more, according to the sentence itself. In fact, in its initial indictment, the Prosecutor's Office also requested that they be ordered to compensate the victims with 46,000 euros, since they paid 34,980 euros for the purchase from Jupercava S.L., 6,420 euros to the real estate agency and another 4,600 in capital gains, taxes and other concepts.
Regarding the rest of the money, the ruling is limited to pointing out that the victims, when accepting the agreement of conformity, did so “reserving the right to continue civil actions” against the accused, against the real estate agent who mediated in the purchase and against the two companies.
“I don't understand it”
“I don't understand it,” says this other affected person, who is still waiting for his trial to come out and now fears that after years of waiting, when the time comes, “the Prosecutor's Office will accept” a similar agreement. In his case, he anticipates that they are not willing to accept it, and he does not explain why this other marriage did, who was also present as a private prosecution and could have rejected it.
However, the first trial that was held had different circumstances, and this precedent does not give hope to this family that is still waiting either. In that procedure there was no agreement and the sentence, issued in October 2018 and ratified in June 2019 by the Provincial Court, sentenced J.B.Q to two years and two months in prison as a representative of Supercava, while the administrator, M.J.Q. sentenced her only as civilly liable, ordering both to return more than 145,000 euros to four buyers who had filed that lawsuit together.
However, his neighbor assures that they never recovered the money. “These people have declared themselves insolvent. They don't have a penny,” he maintains, insisting that his fear is that the same thing will happen to him. In fact, the explanation as to why the German couple accepted the agreement two weeks ago could be that they at least managed to get a part of it back, which was a condition for the agreement and, at least in her case, to avoid imprisonment.
“I want these people to be punished”
“I want these people to be punished and that another family does not go through the same thing again. Let it be made public so that these people don't just stay there. May no one else dare to do the same”, claims this affected person.
In addition, he underlines the differences that have been in each of the procedures, despite the fact that all the sales were identical. “Each case is very particular. Different people involved are appearing,” he highlights. In the first trial, there was only one defendant from Supercava, while the administrator responded only as civilly liable. In the second, both sat on the bench and both acknowledged the crimes, although with penalties lower than those initially requested. In addition, a third defendant had also arrived at that second trial: the real estate agent who mediated in that and in all the sales. However, she was only accused by the victims and not by the Prosecutor's Office, and they agreed to also withdraw the actions against her when the agreement with the other two defendants was reached.
As for the procedure that is still pending, the victim knows that that real estate agent has already testified and affirms that she will maintain the accusation against her, because she also considers her responsible. And it was her interlocutor at all times, who had a power of attorney from the company to sign the sale in her name and who assured them that the house was free of encumbrances, despite the documents that appeared when they went to sign at the notary, which indicated otherwise.
Precisely the notary was one of the first to denounce this scam, as La Voz published in its day, when he verified that the papers that had been presented to him to ensure that those debts had already been paid were false.
However, in the case of the real estate agent, who was the one who provided those cancellation certificates, this affected person assures that she did not respond when they asked her for explanations. And when they finally sent her a burofax, she called them by phone to tell them only that it was “a misunderstanding”.
“This is a scam, not a misunderstanding,” he explains that he replied. Now, according to judicial sources have confirmed to La Voz, at least one more investigated person is also going to be added to this case that remains open, a representative of La Caixa, for those debt cancellation certificates that turned out to be false. In principle, her statement is scheduled for next month, and she will be the last investigated to testify.
From there, in case new procedures do not arise to be carried out, the investigation could be closed, initiating the procedures to take it to trial, after years of paralysis in the processing of this procedure.
They consider that their bank did not act with “diligence” either
Meanwhile, this family is also still waiting for a gesture from the bank with which they requested the mortgage, Bankinter, since they consider that it also has its share of responsibility for not having detected this scam. And the fact is that a representative of the entity was also present at the signing of the sale in the notary, as is required when there is a mortgage, and they consider that he did not act “with due diligence” to “protect” either their interests as clients “or those of the entity itself”.
This is what this marriage pointed out in a letter they sent to the bank in 2015. “If the property is executed, we would lose all our rights over it and we would remain debtors of a mortgage loan for a home that is not ours, even having complied with the payment of the price and the installments of the loan, as well as other accessory obligations required in the loan contract”, they pointed out in that letter, in which they requested special consideration for their case, given that the bank did not warn of the scam either, but still intends to unload all the damage on the buyers, claiming the entire mortgage from them.