40 clients of Dublin legal firm Anthony Joyce & Co are looking for Karl Morris to recover over €1m of funds, which they claim they paid him for deposits on properties in the Asilah Beach development in Morocco.

Morris has properties in  Ireland and Spain. He was last seen at his villa in Benalmadena near Malaga in Spain.

A private detective hired by investors cannot find him so Anthony Joyce is issuing a public appeal to find him.

If you have any details about the whereabouts of Karl Morris then please contact Anthony Joyce on + 353 (0) 1 4545 000.

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Along with solicitor Anthony Joyce,  I recently met investors from all over Ireland whom have bought property in the Kensington Royale development in the Dubai Sports City development, which is being marketed by MED (Middle Eastern Development LLC).

'Progress' shot from MED's website July 2010 (please click image to zoom)

The investors agreed to form an action group and appoint Anthony Joyce to act on their behalf and Republic to help them with the media and promotion to other investors on line. This is the sixth overseas property group Anthony Joyce are representing.

The action group is now successfully taking shape and we are receiving multiple daily requests from other investors in Kensington Royale who want to get involved. We have been contacted by over 30 investors from numerous countries around the world.

Anthony Joyce has now contacted MED and is seeking answers and exploring the groups options.

If any further investors would like to join the Group then please contact me on simon@republicpr.ie or telephone on +353 1 282 2504. For further details please see http://www.republicpr.ie.

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The problem was that the Government left in unregulated so anyone could sell property investments worth hundreds of thousands of euro. There were no rules, no qualifications, no professional body and no licenses needed. The guy selling you a two hundred thousand euro could’ve got out of prison for fraud the day before or sold nothing more than washing machines in his life.

Even if you were buying one euro share from a stockbroker he would need to regulated by the financial ombudsman and he could tell you that the share price was going to rise and in fact he even had to warn you that it may go down. This was not the case with overseas property. Agents in this sector would say the property would rise 100% in 5 years, that investors would make X amount of money, and that finance and guaranteed rents were available when there was no way of telling if they would when the development was finished and there was no way of enforcing this.

Many properties were mis-sold due to the lies people were told and it is the agents that have run off with their commissions to their apartments in Peurto Banus (they wouldn’t have dreamt of buying in Dubai or Bulgaria), hoping to wash their hands of responsibility and leave the investors to deal with developers. They agents won’t get away with this law can still take their assets, and their will be fraud cases.

I am currently working on six overseas property legal and litigation cases with the Dublin legal firm Anthony Joyce & Co. Recently The Sunday Business Post did a full page on several of these case in the article below. I have included a link so that it can be viewed on The Sunday Business Post’s website.

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2010/06/06/story49693.asp

A MURKY WORLD - the overseas property business

Sunday, June 06, 2010 - By Ian Kehoe Chief News Correspondent

In his native India, Probir Chatterjee is a little-known figure. Yet, over the coming days, more than 250 Irish people will file into the Carlton Hotel at Dublin Airport to hear the accountant speak.

The reason? Chatterjee’s firm, Smart Investments, is attempting to kick-start a number of stalled property developments in Dubai.

His audience will be made up of Irish investors who put down deposits for three schemes in Dubai’s Sports City complex – Bermuda Views, Eagle Heights and Profile Residence.

Chatterjee is likely to have an attentive audience as he outlines a plan to take over the delayed developments and complete them, giving certainty to the investors at last.

Through an Irish-based selling agent called Larionovo, hundreds of Irish people invested money in apartments and villas in the three developments.

Enticed by glossy brochures and talk of a guaranteed return, many put their life savings into the property projects. Others stepped up to buy multiple properties, paying out hundreds of thousands of euro upfront.

In late 2008, Larionovo collapsed into liquidation. The Dubai developments, which were being spearheaded by a local firm, stalled. Since then, the investors have struggled to get any information about the development or the whereabouts of their funds.

For all concerned, the Dubai investment dream has turned into a nightmare.

‘‘A few years ago, I asked Larionovo about the progress of the development,” said Tony Hynes, a Dublin businessman who invested in one of the schemes.

‘‘I was shown a picture of a six-storey building that was almost complete. A few months ago, I went out there myself.

All I could find was a hole in the ground. I don’t know what building they showed me, but it certainly was not mine.”

Hynes is the chairman of an action group set up last year to investigate the Dubai debacle and try to recover funds from the project. It has discovered a maze of companies, with intricate shareholdings and impenetrable operations.

‘‘Look, I accept there is a risk associated with any investment, but we were given lots of promises that turned out to be lies,” said Hynes. ‘‘We were told it was backed by the Dubai government.

Not true. We were told our money was in a safe account and was not being touched. Not true. It was actually being used to fund the development.”

Hynes has already given up hope of getting his money back from Dubai.

He said the best option was finding a partner like Chatterjee to finish the development.

‘‘I am not getting my money back, so I am trying to get the keys instead,” he said. ‘‘Next week’s meetings are crucial. Hopefully, in two years, it will all be over and I will be in possession of the apartments. Hopefully.”

If a deal with Smart Investments can be agreed, Hynes and his action group could yet salvage something. Others might not be so lucky.

During the years of economic boom, Irish people were among the biggest buyers of foreign property in the world.

The numbers vary, but industry estimates put the number of Irish-owned foreign properties at somewhere between 150,000 and 250,000.

They ranged from condominiums in Chicago to villas in Cape Verde, from Bulgarian flats to penthouses in Poland. Geography was no restriction – properties were purchased in places as diverse as Dubai, Morocco, Hungary, Turkey, India, France, Italy and Portugal.

But as the economic climate has changed, a series of overseas property ventures have come undone. Some developments, like those in Dubai, have failed to materialise. Others have plummeted in value, leaving thousands of investors nursing big losses.

A murky world – that’s how lawyer Tom McGrath described the overseas property business. During the boom years, he provided legal advice for people buying abroad.

Now the market has soured, he is spending much of his time helping clients pick up the pieces.

‘‘People bought into the market, they bought into the flash property shows, the fancy talks, the gushing newspaper articles,” said McGrath, a partner with McGrath O’Donnell & Associates in Dublin. ‘‘But at the bottom of it all, there was simply no regulation.

‘‘People were doing things they would never dream of doing if they were investing in Ireland. I know one person who bought an apartment in Bulgaria from the back of a fruit van.

People ran away with themselves,” he said.

In the case of Kuvera Ireland, around 250 Irish investors bought into the sales pitch. The company took over a hotel in Dublin 4 on September 15, 2007, to launch plans for two luxury developments in India called Mountain View and Orchard View.

Kieran Murphy, the man behind Kuvera Ireland, spent the day meeting potential customers and introducing them to Dr Ajit Jha, the boss of Kuvera India and his partner on the ground.

The show and the figures must have been impressive -Kuvera raised €8.9million for the apartment scheme in Rudrapur, a special economic zone in north India.

Kuvera Ireland brokered the deal and investors were told that contracts for the building work existed between the investors and a construction company called VG Buildtech.

Between them, Mountain View and Orchard View were to comprise 580 apartments. As of last week, the site consisted of a boundary wall with some small preparatory works. Nothing had been built.

‘‘Two weeks into the project, Kuvera knew there was a problem.” said John Plaice, who invested in the scheme and now chairs an action group set up to recover money from Kuvera. ‘‘The problem was very simple. Foreigners could not buy properties there, but they tried to work around it with leaseholds and so on. There were literally problems from day one.”

The fall-out from Kuvera ended up in the High Court in Dublin, where an order was obtained freezing Murphy’s assets.

A settlement was eventually reached between Murphy and the investors, under which he agreed to hand over assets.

Under the settlement, the investors were to take possession of properties at a golf resort in South Africa, five British properties and €143,00 0 from a South African bank account.

Murphy’s shares in Kuvera India and equity in VG Buildtech were also to be ceded.

Almost a year on, the transfers of the various assets are close to completion.

However, the Kuvera case shed startling light on how some property deals were structured.

Under the so-called ‘Kuvera reward programme’, investors were promised flights and holidays at five-star hotels if they convinced others to invest in the company’s Indian developments.

‘‘The deal was a good one if it had worked,” said Plaice. ‘‘But it did not work, and we are still getting to the bottom of what happened, and why it happened.

Money that should have been in an escrow account was used on sales and marketing.

The whole scheme was based on getting more people involved. The market slowed and no new investors were found. The whole thing became exposed. There was a huge element of trust in the investment.

We were badly let down.”

Anthony Joyce, a Dublin solicitor, represented the Kuvera action group and has since spent a lot of his time dealing with disgruntled investors in other property ventures.

‘‘If there is a fraud or a perceived wrongdoing, we can take a legal course of action,” according to Joyce. ‘‘But in lots of cases, I simply can’t help people.

The scheme is legitimate, but individuals can’t afford to make the payments. ‘‘But there is a difference.

At least you get the keys if you keep on paying. But there are a lot of cases where you pay your money and you might end up with nothing.”

Two weeks ago, Joyce was retained by Irish investors concerned about construction delays at the Kensington Royale development in Dubai Sports City.

The five-star, 18-storey development of 252 units is being developed by Middle East Development in the United Arab Emirates, and was originally due to be completed early last year.

Joyce is also acting for investors who put money into a proposed €100million resort in Cape Verde.

Flash Developments, which is headed by Dublin developer Ciaran Maguire, received deposits from more than 200 Irish and British investors for apartments and villas in the planned Palm View Resort.

Following a 16-month delay in the project getting full planning permission, a number of the investors put together an action group to try to recover their money.

Ten days ago, the investors were stunned when KPMG was appointed as liquidator over Flash.

Maguire said that the development was going ahead, stating that all the ‘‘contracts, development lands and credit lines’’ had been transferred to another company called the Ciaran Maguire Group.

Maguire said that Flash Developments was ‘‘simply a sales and marketing company’’, and its liquidation would not have any effect on the development.

KPMG has initiated a full investigation. ‘‘I have absolute sympathy with a lot of investors,” said Joyce.

‘‘They got caught up in genuine investments that went wrong. Many schemes were plausible on paper. They checked out. But they were undone by the market.”

Often, the court is the place of last resort.

In recent days, 39 investors launched proceedings against Simple Overseas Properties, an Irish property firm, in relation to deposits which were taken for properties in developments in Morocco and Spain. That case, and others like it, highlighted a major problem, according to experts – a stark lack of regulation.

‘‘Some of it is real Wild West stuff,” said Paul McCann, head of specialist advisory services with accountancy firm Grant Thornton.

‘‘There is an assumption that Irish overseas property firms are regulated. Even travel agents are bonded. But it is not the case.

‘‘I think it is now incumbent on the government to introduce regulation, or force companies to be bonded.

Alternatively, the various representative bodies need to start enforcing strict guidelines.

Deposits should not be allowed to be used by developers as cash flow.”

The government is understood to be looking at the system, in an effort to introduce some new checks and balances.

But for people like John Plaice, Tony Hynes and the thousands who have seen their investments evaporate, it could well be too late.

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Question: I have heard that having a case admitted to the Commercial Court can be a much faster method of obtaining a resolution – is this true? And what are the conditions that must be met to have a case admitted?

Answer: Yes it is true, if you are currently involved in a commercial dispute, having your case admitted to the Commercial Court (also known as the High Court Commercial List) can allow you to resolve a dispute more quickly and effectively than through the normal High Court procedures. The Commercial Court is effectively a fast track of the High Court reserved for commercial cases.

Cases which are admitted to the Commercial Court start and finish in a short time frame, on average, within twenty one weeks of the transfer of proceedings.

An application to have a case admitted to the Commercial Court can be made at any time, but the rules of the Court provide for a stay to be put on proceedings for a period of 28 days to allow mediation, conciliation or arbitration to take place.

In order to gain entry to the Commercial Court the dispute must fall into one of the following categories:

1. Current financial disputes where the claim, or counterclaim, is not less than €1,000,000 can be admitted to the Commercial Court. However, there has been some speculation that the minimum entry level of may be increased to €2,500,000.
2. Any application or proceedings under the Arbitration Acts where the value of any claim or counterclaim is not less than €1,000,000.
3. Any legal dispute relating to a patents, a trade mark, copyright, industrial design or a case relating to ‘passing off’, for example where a competitor has tried to ‘pass off’ your product as their own.
4. Any appeal or application for a judicial review of a previous decision or determination that judge considers it suitable for admission to the Commercial Court.

There is also a catch all condition that can allow any case to heard where the Judge considers it appropriate for entry into the Commercial Court. But, whilst it does have a broad discretion to admit cases, it must be remembered that it is at the discretion of the High Court and even if your case falls into one of the above categories this does not automatically entitle you to entry.

Once your case has been admitted the it runs quickly because of the rules which provide for what is termed ‘detailed case management’, this ensures a strict timetable for any cases has to be met by all parties involved and they are fined if these deadlines are not met – this is why the Commercial Court moves so much faster than the High Court

The Commercial Court in Dublin has been a great success. It has garnered an international reputation as a Court that is simple to access and where disputes can be settled in a swift and cost effective manner compared to Courts abroad.

The success of the Commercial Court has promoted Ireland as a country where any commercial disputes arising can be resolved quickly and effectively. An efficient legal system and settling of disputes in this manner is vitally important in order to be able to attract international business. The Commercial Court is something that Ireland should be very proud off.

by Anthony Joyce, Principal, Anthony Joyce & Co, Dublin – www.anthonyjoyce.ie

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The Group is currently recruiting new members before instigating legal action. Developments in which investors bought property include: Eagle Heights, Bermuda Views, Stadium Point and Profile Residences, all developments with landmark project Sports City. Other developments include: International City, Snowdome Residences, 050 Waterfront and the Island of Ireland in the famous World development.

Anthony Joyce  has experience in recovering funds for overseas property owners; he is currently involved in a high profile legal action against Irish overseas property agent’s Kuvera and a development in India. In July, after only eight weeks since injunctions were issued by Anthony in the Commercial Court on behalf of the Kuvera Action Group.  He successfully secured propety assets, company shares and cash for the Group. A legal action is currently on-going against the indemnity insurance that covered Kuvera’s legal adviser, Seymour Major’s. Action in India is also progressing.

Any other people who purchased property through Larionovo are asked to contact Dubai Action Group as soon as possible, either by calling Anthony Joyce on 01 454 000 or registering via the following website www.tinyurl.ie/dubai.

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