A 78-year-old widower has sued a financial services provider seeking refund of £20,000 he lost in a high-risk product, plus interest.

The demand was made in a judicial protest filed this morning by Angelo Zahra from Żejtun against GlobalCapital Financial Management Limited.

The pensioner filed legal proceedings following an investigation by the financial services watchdog, which last month concluded that the sale of the product named Lifemark was “prohibitively prejudicial in various counts”.

In view of this, the Malta Financial Services Authority recommended that the capital outlay had to be refunded, together with compensation for interest lost.

However, the authority pointed out that the firm “did not appear open to the possibility of taking any steps to accept its recommendation” and was thus reluctant to acquiesce to his request.

In the judicial protest, the man claimed that his losses were the result of the firm's negligence and non-observance of laws and regulations.

He noted that some documents containing declarations accepting unfair contract terms, which bore his signature and that of his late wife had been obtained through “deception and trickery.”

In addition, the man complained that the firm had failed to warn him that such product was not suitable to him, and that it was targeted for experienced investors, in line with the set MFSA guidelines.

The pensioner also claimed that the company had never given him copies of the documents he had signed when purchasing the product until he complained in 2013, when they were only made available through MFSA.

This complaint had been filed after the man received a bondholder notice informing them that the total returns would approximately be from 12 to 15 per cent of the nominal amount of the investment and would be distributed over a number of payments.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti and legal procurator Davina Sullivan signed the protest. 

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