A 27-year-old man has defrauded more than 300,000 euros from real estate agents and luxury hotels by posing as the son of an American billionaire, according to the Mossos d'Esquadra.
The young man was arrested twice in less than a month, but is free pending trial. Specifically, this multi-recidivist fraudster rented villas, high-end apartments, suites and duplex penthouses in luxury hotels in Barcelona with false international bank transfers and forged documentation.
The man managed to convince his victims by posing as a businessman from a wealthy family, he rented real estate and threw parties to gain prestige, showing a life surrounded by wealth and pleasures.
The Mossos learned of the first case involving this man on February 14. A woman denounced that her real estate agency had rented the ground floor of her house to a new client that she considered to be trustworthy because she had already dealt with the company in Madrid. Before formalizing the 18-month lease on the house, the young man asked to stay for two nights to make sure he was interested in the place.
The scammer lived in the house all weekend, had parties and lunches with all kinds of people, and then disappeared. The payment that he had supposedly made as a deposit was never received nor were the fees for the real estate agency.
Two days after that complaint, investigators learned of a new scam. In this case, the scammer wanted to rent a villa at the top of Barcelona for a month for 16,500 euros. The man said he lived in Canada, and provided falsified documentation of his visa, his professional profile and a screenshot of his father's bank accounts, as well as a document to justify that he had made the deposit. of the reserve. With all these documents, he settled in the chalet for weeks without the owners charging anything.
With these complaints on the table, the Mossos agents verified that on May 4 of last year another similar scam had been reported in Sitges. In this case, a man had rented a chalet for three days with false documentation. The scammer even came to the house with a high-end vehicle and a private driver to give confidence to the victim, who never doubted his honor. But after a few days, he reported why he did not receive any payment.
With all this information, the Mossos arrested the man on February 16. After going to court, he was released and only a month later, on March 13, another scam arrived in which he was allegedly involved. In this case, he rented a duplex penthouse in a central luxury hotel in Barcelona for a whole year for 22,400 euros per month.
As on previous occasions, the man delivered falsified documentation and paid 36,000 euros for company fees with international transfers. However, the money was never deposited in the bank account.
Investigators located the man in the duplex penthouse he had rented without paying and took him into custody. At that time, he was accompanied by a young woman who explained that they had been living together in another luxury apartment on Passeig de Gràcia.
The man was arrested again and after going to court, he was released. The Mossos do not rule out being related to other similar events.
