al7bebe قال:
أخبار خلال عطلة نهاية الاسبوع مِنْ إسبانيا
مِن قِبل: broadhurst _j
الشعور الطويل المدى: صفقة 05 / 19 / 06 01:37 مساءً
Msg: 74987 مِنْ 74994
سَيَكُونُ مقالةَ إيجابيةَ التي تُوضّحُ الكثير مِنْ القضايا التي طُبِعتْ حول Escala!
إنتبهْ ناسَ صباح الإثنينِ! تَفْتحُ في 10.00 +++
MADRID (AP)--The director of a company involved in a multibillion-euro pyramid scheme that allegedly mismanaged savings deposited by hundreds of thousands of investors has been freed on bail by a Spanish judge. In a court statement, National Court judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Friday ordered the release on bail of EUR100,000 of Antonio Merino Zamorano, a director of Forum Filatelico, a company dealing in collectible items such as postage stamps. Grande-Marlaska gave Merino Zamorano 10 days to raise bail and ordered him to report to the police on a daily basis until bail was handed over. The judge also said Merino Zamorano would not be able to travel abroad without specific court permission. Merino Zamorano is the fifth director of Forum Filatelico to appear before Grande-Marlaska. On Saturday the judge ordered the detention of Francisco Briones, chairman of Forum Filatelico and three other board members, Miguel Angel Hijon, Francisco Lopez Gilarte and Agustin Fernandez Rodriguez. In a linked case, National Court judge Santiago Pedraz also refused bail for five leaders of Afinsa, a second firm involved in the same suspected fraud. Afinsa is the majority owner of New York-based auction house Escala Group Inc. (ESCL), which was known as Greg Manning Auctions until it changed its name last year. Shares of Escala took a battering after Spanish police raided the collectibles companies' offices. Afinsa and Forum Filatelico have taken investments from some 350,000 customers and accumulated around EUR3.5 billion in liabilities that they cannot cover with their assets, prosecutors said when they filed preliminary charges of fraud and other serious financial mismanagement offenses against 11 people - five executives of each firm and a stamp dealer. The government pledged EUR2 million Friday to help support groups of investors affected by the suspected fraud, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said after a weekly Cabinet meeting. All suspects have insisted to the judges that they ran legitimate businesses and have done nothing wrong. Grande-Marlaska said there was evidence that the firms sold collectible items, such as stamps, overvalued by 800%. The companies also offered interest payments of up to 10% to customers. The interest payments, however, came from money paid into the schemes by new investors, not from promised appreciation in stamp value. As a result, the companies needed to keep feeding the schemes constantly with money from fresh recruits into the system. (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 19, 2006 09:41 ET (13:41 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. COUNTRY:R/EC R/EU R/NJ R/NME R/SP R/US R/USE R/WEU SECTOR:I/CSV I/XDJGI SUBJECT:N/DJEI N/CMDI N/DJGV N/DJI N/DJEN N/DJFP N/DJG7 N/DJGS N/DJIN N/DJIV N/DJMO N/DJN N/DJPT N/DJRT N/DJWR N/EUCM N/FXW N/NACM N/WSJC N/CRM N/DJFX N/DJPN N/DJWI N/FCTV N/GEN N/TSY COMPANY:ESCL SERVICE
/APLD CURRENCY:M/CYC M/NND