The Sixth Section of the Provincial Court will judge on May 14 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria the heads of a real estate agency in Lanzarote, accused of defrauding clients of 72,720 euros. The Prosecutor's Office requests for each of the two defendants a sentence of three and a half years in prison and a fine of 2,700 euros, as well as the return of the money allegedly misappropriated to the victims.
According to the Prosecutor's Office's indictment, the defendants Michael Boss and Nadja Barlage were professionally engaged in real estate activity "the former acting as the sole administrator of the real estate company Island Estate Navigator S.L. and the latter as a partner" of the same "in 20%", also exercising "secretary functions".
"Acting in common agreement and guided by the desire to obtain an illicit enrichment in their assets", the Public Prosecutor's Office points out that the defendants "sold on December 6, 2017" a house located in a complex in Playa Blanca to a couple for 280,000 euros. As agreed, they should deposit 1,000 euros "upon signing the private purchase agreement" into an account number of the company Island Estate Navigator, "which at that time was in negative balance".
20% of the sale price, that is 65,000 euros, had to be paid "within fourteen days after signing the contract", but on the same December 6 the affected parties already "carried out a transfer for 50,000 euros and another for 6,000 euros". The rest of the price, as indicated, had to be paid "in the notarial deed, which would take place between February 14 and 29, 2008". The couple who bought the house also commissioned the real estate agency to manage the purchase deed and, for this purpose, made four deposits between February 18 and 25 for a total of 15,700 euros.
They used the money received "for other purposes"
"The parties agreed that the public deed of sale would take place on February 20, 2008" but "despite what was agreed between the parties, the defendants, guided by the desire to obtain an illicit benefit and without any intention from the beginning to comply with what was agreed", applied the money received "to other purposes, so the sale could not be formalized".
To acquire the house, the affected parties had to formalize a purchase agreement on May 7, 2008, "this time without the participation of the defendants", of whom it is not recorded that they delivered "any amount" to the owners of the house "or returned any amount" to the couple who bought it.
The Prosecutor's Office considers that these facts constitute a crime of fraud or, alternatively, misappropriation, although in both cases it requests the same penalty, which is three and a half years in prison for each of the defendants and a fine of 2,700 euros. Likewise, as civil liability, it requests that Michael Boss and Nadja Barlage compensate the victims in the amount of 72,720 euros, corresponding to the amount they gave to the defendants.