A number of people wrote to a company domiciled in the British Virgin Islands and linked to the db Group complaining about timeshare contracts, documents in the Panama Papers show.
The db Group is the company behind the controversial development of the ITS site in St George’s Bay.
Evergreen was set up in 2001 and its nominee shares were transferred to Hotel San Antonio Plc in 2014.
In a letter sent in 2011 to Evergreen Travel Limited, the son of a man who had died from cancer expressed horror at how his frail parents were sold timeshare by the company.
The correspondence, found in Panama firm Mossack Fonseca’s e-mail servers, includes a copy of the timeshare agreement and invoice, with a handwritten note bearing the San Antonio Hotel and Spa’s letterhead.
“My father was aged 83 and suffering from cancer and my mother 81 with a heart condition and suffering from dementia. I don’t think they could even purchase travel insurance in their condition. I find it quite alarming that someone could sell them this, in their condition and at their ages,” the son wrote.
The son said that his parents had fallen “badly into debt” because of the contract, arguing that it should have been obvious that they would never have been able to fulfil the agreement.
Evergreen had no physical presence in the BVI, and mail sent to its address was scanned by Mossack Fonseca and forwarded to First Names Group, which acted as the intermediaries for Evergreen.
In another letter sent in 2011, a woman, who was living on her last pennies after her husband died of cancer, begged Evergreen to allow her timeshare to be sold.
“May I inform you that, unfortunately, my husband has left me with hardly enough money to live on, far less to be able to pay you”, the woman wrote. The company was also rebuked by the Citizens Advice Bureau in Scotland for chasing an “unenforceable debt” from a Scottish couple.
The bureau told Evergreen the contract signed by the couple was invalid as no cancellation form was provided at the time the credit agreement was signed.
Yet another letter, sent by a woman from Norfolk and addressed to a “Mr Agius” on behalf of San Antonio, complained that the company had overcharged her on a number of timeshare contracts.
jacob.borg@timesofmalta.com