DUBLINER Darragh MacAnthony, who owns Peterborough Football Club, which has just won promotion to the Championship, set up MacAnthony Realty International (MRI) in Marbella as the Millennium began.
Hugely popular on the British market, MRI boasted a £100 million annual turnover before the credit crunch. As well as property development in Spain, MRI marketed villas and apartments in Morocco, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Cape Verde, where the company also arranged furniture supplies.
But now MacAnthony, 35, and his former joint chief executives, Michael Liggan and Dominic Pickering, have been accused of ‘theft by swindle and misappropriation of funds’ in a claim filed in Madrid by 60 British and Irish claimants who say they lost more than half a million pounds in undelivered furniture five years ago.
Lawyer Antonio Flores of Marbella-based property solicitors Lawbird, accused MacAnthony of failing in an obligation to file for insolvency for his Spanish companies.
MacAnthony and his former chief executives have consistently denied any wrongdoing. In relation to the forthcoming claim, MacAnthony, speaking from the US, said: “There are no foundations behind these allegations. I certainly didn’t do anything wrong and neither did anyone with MRI when I was there.”
The allegations made in Spain follow what Northern Ireland MP Sammy Wilson described in the House of Commons last year as a property fraud where MRI, or related companies such as MRI Overseas Property, acted as the developer.
The company used programmes on the Property TV Channel hosted by MacAnthony’s younger sister, Wendy, to market holiday homes.
In 2008, as a result of complaints against MRI, a tribunal held by the National Federation of Property Professionals said it was “appalled to hear of the company’s misleading business practices”. It issued fines of £5,000 and MacAnthony resigned his membership of the Federation.
Prompted by complaints from British customers, the Serious Fraud Office looked into MRI but took no action. However, it sent alleged victims a letter which said that although it did not intend to prosecute anyone, this did not mean that an offence had not been committed elsewhere.
The Costa del Sol property empire has all but vanished. An investigation traced MRI companies to an empty office in Madrid.
Documents show that last October MacAnthony and Pickering, as directors, handed MRI Overseas Property Group to a Peruvian company, under the directorship of octogenarian Fernando Arespacochaga, which appears to have never traded.
John and Muriel Andrews from Ballycarry, Co Antrim, paid £26,000 for a furniture pack in 2006, but Mr Andrews said: “We as yet have received no furniture, no offer of a refund, no apology.”
Has this MRI crowd anything to do with Vista Capital, or James Spence
I was one who lost a fortune due to MRI lies and there underhand selling tactics but unfortunately you only find out when they have scarpered with a fortune and not to mention there accomplices in crime..solicitors, developers and finally the banks of CYPRUS who I believe are to blame most of all.
When a good con man sets out to defraud you and have solicitors banks and developer all singing from the same sheet then you have no chance but I make it my duty to never visit Cyprus again and will talk anyone from travelling to the once great island.
At last action is being taken to compensate people who have lost money thanks to MRI. What started as a dream for some people turned into a nightmare for people all over the world and yes Cyprus did not escape this nightmare!
We were unfortunate enough to come into contact with MRI’s office in Cyprus and to date have lived a nightmare of delays and lost investment. Not a ‘cat in hells chance’ of getting any money back. Just left with a shattered dream and the stress and anxiety that goes with it.
Yet another company that led to the current demise of the Cyprus property market.
Should other parties be added to this infamous hall of fame in relation to the scandals in the property market? What about the acquiescence towards malpractice by successive governments and the economy of truth as practised by the property developers and bankers? Last but not least, one mustn’t forget the pivotal role of the lawyers, the so-called upholders of transparency and impeccable behaviour.
The current indebtedness of the developers to the banks, on the strength of fraudulently obtained mortgages, is somewhere in he region of 6 billion euros. It makes the amount as laid out in this article chicken feed. (I write this with all due respect to those who have been the victims of the events as depicted in this article).