Over the past few years, we have seen the sales divisions for three of the largest timeshare developers based in Spain go into liquidation. The first was Silverpoint along with many of the associated companies including Azure Malta, all part of the Limora Group. Followed by Anfi and then Club la Costa. Unfortunately, this news also gave rise to many “cold calls” from the myriad of scam outfits all with scare stories and solutions.
The reasons for the liquidations are varied, with Silverpoint everything is pointing to a huge international fraud, a story we have covered. Club la Costa placed their sales companies into liquidation as they had ended all timeshare sales, Anfi, on the other hand, is a filing for “necessary liquidation” by Isla Marina SL, a company linked to Lopesan, who owns through IFA 50% of Anfi.
Whatever the reasons for the liquidations, one of the main questions received by AIT and asked on the different forums, is what is happening, is there any news?
All have cases either won in the courts, waiting for judgment or for their trial to be heard and obviously are concerned about the money awarded by the courts. Before the liquidation process began, it was the constant delays of Anfi paying the money into the courts, using frivolous appeals and any other tactic they could. Even pleading “poverty” at one point.
Since the two companies have been placed into court administration, all these claims have to be submitted to the Mercantile Court, this will involve a considerable delay in any payments. There are many reasons for this, the main one is the identification by the administrators of any assets.
Due to the nature of how many timeshare operations are set up, numerous companies are responsible for various aspects of the timeshare, such as “club administration” and “collections”. It is the job of the appointed administrators to sort through the relationships, especially financial and ascertain what assets are attributable to the liquidating companies.
As you can imagine this is not a simple or quick process, we know from previous reports in the Spanish press that there is some considerable suspicion of “illegal” movements of funds by the parties concerned. If this is verified by the administrators then criminal charges may follow.
To give you an idea of the difficulty the administrators face, AIT has placed a PDF copy of the document and a translation into English at the end.
The report lays out the (possible) “Inventory of Assets” from the information so far obtained with further investigations ongoing. As we would expect, it doesn’t actually give much information to those waiting for payment awarded by the Courts. There is still a long way to go before we reach that stage, it is a work in progress.
AIT knows how frustrating it all is not knowing what is happening, especially when receiving “cold calls” which infer your lawyers are not doing anything, but they can get you the money in a matter of weeks. The doubt is sown and due to the lack of information, you begin to believe them. Scammers prey on uncertainty, for them, it is a vital tool which with a little imagination they can conjure up a “great solution”, and in the process entice you to part with your money.
Remember, your lawyers are not going to tell you things which are not confirmed, they are not going to promise any timeline, they can’t, and they are as much in the dark as you are. They may be privy to some information which they are unable to divulge, that is the nature of legal work. But when there is something of importance which affects your case, you will be the first to know.
Anfi Adminstrators Report English
Anfi Administrators Report Spanish
We hope you had a good weekend, Baby Dog decided to take over my place on the sofa, I didn’t have the heart to move him.
