Alex Trelinski
A Palma judge has ruled there’s plenty of evidence to prosecute nine people over a €3.3 million fraud in the biggest recorded case of real estate fraud in Mallorca.
235 victims were conned over 32 bogus property promotions in Mallorca between 2015 and 2018 that were run by Promociones Lujo Casa under its boss Carlos Garcia Roldan.
Garcia Roldan fled to Columbia and was extradited to Spain in 2019 where he has languished in jail since then.
He and his eight colleagues face money laundering and fraud charges, with the trial set to start once prosecution and defence counsels have presented their cases before Palma’s Investigating Court.
Promociones Lujo Casa operated from an office in Coll d’en Rabassa.
They offered unsuspecting customers off-plan property sales despite the company having no money or licences to carry out new construction.
Promociones Lujo Casa reeled in potential victims via the internet by stealing photos of other people’s property promotions and architect images.
They even placed posters and banners on some pieces of land that did not belong to them as part of ruse to convince buyers that they were genuine.
32 bogus promotions netted at least 235 people who parted with down payments of up to 10% for new homes in Llucmajor, Marratzi, and Palma
The money ended up in Lujo Casa’s bank account and then laundered including salary payments to fictitious employees.
Huge amounts of cash were spent on escorts, restaurants, casinos, vehicles, and jewellery.
Buyers who complained about delays in seeing their new homes built were told about hold-ups to building licences.
If a customer threatened to go to the police or council about the matter, they were warned that they could lose all of their investment.
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