In the first days of February, agents of the Civil Guard arrested Francisco Manuel Torres González, current administrator of the Grupo 21 real estate company, and Catalina Cruz Jimera, his partner and previous administrator, along with a third person in charge of the company, as alleged responsible for a crime of fraud and document falsification. The detainees are allegedly responsible for the marketing and pre-sale of some 1,172 homes, according to this newspaper's calculations, distributed in 18 urbanizations, of which not a single home has been built although an amount has been charged for all of them.
The company received from each buyer, depending on the case, a figure between 12,000 and 55,000 euros as a reserve. After the delivery of that money, Grupo 21 began a process of excuses to justify the delay in the start of the works. Finally, a few months ago, the buyers realized that the matter seemed to be a scam and the complaints and police investigation began, which has now led to the arrest of the three top managers of Grupo 21.
The arrest has now emerged, several weeks later, once the Civil Guard has made progress in its investigation, according to sources from the armed institute. Those arrested were brought to justice and released pending trial. As reported by the Civil Guard, they took place in the province of Malaga, where the company's leaders had recently lived. It will be the court of first instance and instruction number 7 of Roquetas de Mar (Almería) that will handle the case. In principle, the accusation of fraud and falsification of documents is added to the aggravating circumstance of belonging to an organized gang.
The alleged scam began in 2021 and has spread to the towns of Águilas (Murcia), Almería capital, Aguadulce (Almería) and Almuñécar. In that year, Grupo 21 began to test land owners in Águilas, in a procedure that was later repeated in all cities until practically last November. The company made purchase proposals to land owners and either paid a reserve or simply showed interest in the purchase. That gave him a few months, even a year of margin, to begin marketing homes that, on plan and in mock-up, seemed luxurious and at prices significantly below market.
In that marketing period, buyers paid a percentage of the home. Grupo 21, however, has only owned a tiny percentage of the land corresponding to the 18 commercialized developments. Of the vast majority, it has never taken possession or appeared in any writing. Nor do the building permits, which are granted by the town councils, show greater diligence. Of the 18 developments, only three, in Roquetas de Mar, were approved. The rest were either never requested or when the various city councils asked for changes or clarifications, Grupo 21 never responded.
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Now, the operation of the Almería Civil Guard, called Posidonia and carried out by the Heritage Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police (UOPJ) of the Almería Civil Guard Command, has certified some of the accusations that were made on those responsible for Grupo 21. In addition to the fact that amounts have been charged for unbuilt buildings, which was evident, and that the developer has never been the owner of the land where the promotions were offered for the construction of homes, an extreme that This newspaper had verified through calls to land owners, the investigation confirms that “after carrying out a thorough examination of the documents and evidence obtained, the developer does not have the special bank accounts (CCE) required by law for real estate developers. , but rather receives the money from the reserves and sale of the properties offered in current accounts intended for other purposes.”
The more than 1,000 people affected by this alleged scam have been organizing their defense through a dozen lawyers for a few months. The tactics are diverse. Some have denounced the matter criminally, for fraud and misappropriation, directly accusing those now detained, while others have denounced it civilly, acting against the banks for not fulfilling their duty of vigilance in the opening of the appropriate current accounts that they required by law in these cases of urban developments.
Francisco Manuel Torres González, 42 years old and born in Huelva, dedicated himself to the hospitality business, the sale of textiles and construction over the past decade. After leaving the city, they settled in the Mediterranean area, where they launched the alleged scam now being investigated. Previously, in 2011, Torres González appropriated 50,000 euros from a cousin, whom he tricked into starting a company that he never started. A judge forced him to return that money, something he never did because, according to the law, his whereabouts were unknown until his arrest a few weeks ago. Curiously, he was more or less visible in these years in which he sold houses that he never thought of building.
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