TALLINN - A British real estate developer has disappeared, leaving behind millions of kroons in debt and a trail of angry creditors. Sources told The Baltic Times that Lee Williams was in the U.K., but were unable to confirm his whereabouts by press time.
Williams started a company called Churchills three years ago at the height of the property boom. He was hailed as a financial wizard and even quoted as an expert on the Estonian property market by respected British newspapers like the Guardian and the Telegraph.
Now people want their money back.
On the real estate forum Eye on Worldwide, furious posts are asserting that Williams was not merely an inept businessman but a con artist.
One user in the forum, under the moniker Actionagainstchurchills, told Eesti Paevaleht that the company had swindled real estate investors of 1.5 million pounds (nearly 30 million kroons, or 1.9 million euros).
Some say that's a conservative estimate. "The sum mentioned in Eesti Paevaleht, 30 million kroons, is bullsh*t. I don't want to throw dung in anyone's direction, but I'm convinced the sum he made here for himself is 60 to 80 million kroons," a businessman who wasn't willing to be named told Parnu Postimees.
Dieter Vogtschmidt, a German businessman who worked with Williams and also lost his money, explained that the likelihood of getting his money back from Williams is close to zero. He said the scam company Churchills used in Parnu was a well-known scheme from Spain, where lots of people have lost their money.
"He played on simple people's psychology and greediness," said Vogtschmidt. Vogtschmidt was also able to describe, how Williams convinced people to give him their money. "The principle is simple. On the Internet, Estonia was advertised as investors paradise, where the price of real estate is about to rise to heights," said Vogtschmidt.
From that point the mediation of real estate was simple. According to Vogtschmidt. The victim was shown undeveloped land, then signed a contract and gave a first deposit, typically about 1,000 pounds (1,252 euros), to a Churchills employee. Workers at Churchills, employed as "managers," were often able to notarize contracts themselves and were replaced by someone new every three to four months. According to Vogtshmidt, Williams often received the highest deposits from England 'samounts up to 5,000 pounds (6,274 euros).
"That's where the trick is. People knew they're making deposits and they'll pay the full amount once they've got the keys. In reality the house was never ready," said to Vogtschmidt to Parnu Postimees.
When an investor started asking questions about an investment, Williams promised to investigate. In about a month he responded that there had been a misunderstanding on the part of the workers, then promised to pay some of the money back but never did. Some people did get their money back, but Vogtschmidt is convinced that most will never see their money again.
The real estate that Churchills owned in Audru borough was recently seized by bailiff Rannar Liitmaa to cover a 1.3 million-kroons tax claim. Kaarel Tolp, chief of Tahkuranna borough, said Churchill wanted to build apartment buildings and private homes. He said one house is occuped, but the apartment buildings are all unfinished.
Some of the cheated clients have turned to other real estate agencies on the matter.
