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La Manga Club in Murcia filed for bankruptcy protection. Owned by George Soris’s company MedGroup, the company says that they will continue to trade, but will take ‘very strong measures’ to make the company viable.They purchased the club from P&O for 102 million pounds in 2004. It includes three golf courses, 28 tennis courts, 8 football pitches, a spa, 1,800 private villas and apartments, and a 5 star Hyatt Regency hotel. It’s one of the most...
The severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses. Figures from the Spanish tourist industry reveal that the number of Britons who visited Spain in November, for example, was down by 15% on 2007. The fall has closely tracked the decreasing value of the pound. Britons began to turn their backs on Spain in September, when numbers were down 5%, reaching 7% in October. Last month's dramatic decline came after the pound had...
code-named ‘Margarita-Kuskus,’ in Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Almeria and Lugo provinces, has led to the arrest of 20 members of a suspected international counterfeit money distribution network, operating in Spain and Portugal. The operation, carried out in collaboration with the European Union's criminal intelligence agency (Europol), also resulted in the seizure of 150,000 fake euros in 50 and 20 euro denominations destined for distribution...
Spain is estimated to have one of the biggest black economies in Europe, accounting for between 20 and 23% of annual GDP. Spanish tax authorities are investigating 12,000 big transactions involving €500 notes.It is, perhaps, the strangest idea yet for pumping extra liquidity into Europe’s troubled banking system. Spanish officials were yesterday reported to be looking for ways of encouraging Spaniards to remove the estimated 108m €500 notes they...
The Spanish land investment scam run for years by Fortuna Estates has finally been busted, with the Spanish fraud squad swooping last week on several office in Mijas and Fuengirola, arresting at least 2 people, and questioning 20 others. This could be one of the biggest Spanish property scams to date, with hundreds, if not thousands of British and Irish victims. The Spanish authorities estimate that Fortuna Estates made at least 65 million Euros...
Coastal authority of Andalusia has announced plans to enforce a 1988 law designed to prevent construction within 100 yards of the waterline. An estimated 500 bars and restaurants in the Malaga province alone have been built on the sand in contravention to planning regulations, authorities claim. Around 300 of them will be forced to close when their concessions end next year. Javier Hermoso, the chief of beaches on the eastern Costa del Sol, said...
