Fraudsters Hire Andalucia Biggest Law Firm To Protect Their Activities
Shocking as it may seem, the fraudulent company Ramirez and Ramirez (backed by a person called Fabian Ramirez Marcelo), in full defiance of the Spanish police forces, prosecutors and judges, has come up with a daring but also brilliant idea: to persuade the local firm of lawyers Martinez-Echevarría (ME) to take up a legal instruction to defend, endorse and protect their illegal activities, inclusive of filing a legal suit against myself, a colleague and the administrator of the site belegal.com.
To cut a long story short, Ramirez and Ramirez Abogados SL (now known as Ramirez and Ramirez Asesores SL) has been, during the last few months, cold-calling thousands of victims of many different scams, purporting to be a law firm, and promising to recover the funds they had lost, against payment of an upfront fee (up to €7,000). This fraudulent scheme is being devised mainly from Fuengirola and Benalmadena boiler rooms (flats turned into call centers staffed by salespeople, mostly expats, and a few Spaniards as the legal expert ‘housewife’ of the second recorded coversation below can attest to). The same modus operandi is being shared amongst at least fifty other similar fraudulent law firms doing exactly the same, mass contacting people to request payment under false promises. And it is resulting in a scam of enormous proportions.
I could have easily understood and accepted that ME took up the instruction once a criminal prosecution was filed against Ramirez and his gang for their illegal activities, as this is our job as lawyers. Period. But to actually bring a suit against two lawyers and a company director for defamation and libel on behalf of the organisers of the above scheme, is far more than one can digest without feeling convulsions and ultimately vomiting in the closest dustbin.
Anyone who has been around in this part of Europe for a while, and has been the slightest worried for the reputation of the Costa del Sol, could have known, whether by reading the ocassional newspaper, browsing through expat webforums or just being curious, that fraudsters are still massively cold-calling victims, on false pretences, to extract money for nothing. However, anyone who is a lawyer working with foreigners, should be by now absolutely certain that this is nothing but a scam, and report it to the police and the Law Society, as we have.
So since ME is taking me to the criminal courts on counts of defamation and libel, I decided to demonstrate them, before the hearing takes place, that they are not only very very mistaken, but also their actions can bring them shame and oprobium for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I called up two numbers provided to me on the Ramirez and Ramirez website to find out how this young and dynamic firm with over a decade of experience (sic, even though the domain name was registered last October 2009), or the leading law firm specializing in litigation (sic, even though the gentleman on the phone denies being a law firm) could help clients in getting funds back.
The Recordings
The first recording is in English and not complete due to a technical glitch, but is enough to infer that something somewhere is not right with the “young and dynamic leading litigation law firm with ten years of experience”.
The second recording (I’m afraid only in Spanish) is full, and is so embarassing that I would have laughed all the way through, were it not for the sinister nature of the activities that the lady on the phone, quite clearly knowingly, was conducting.
Downloads
- Ramirez & Ramirez Introduction Letter – Letter sent to clients in which Ramirez & Ramirez confirm they are actually a law firm, and have gained considerable experience acting in many complex cases.
The case continues…