win the lottery It is a reason for joy and especially when you get several million euros, but what would happen if a recommendation beyond your control caused you to lose all your money, leave you ruined and have to live as a squatter. This is what happened to Francisco Guerrero, a bricklayer from Cádiz, who after winning 6.5 million euros in the Bonoloto one of the draws regulated by the State Lottery and Betting Society (SELAE), and think about having a good retirement and leaving a succulent inheritance to your children He lost everything after investing all his money in financial products that turned out to be toxic after the recommendation of a Banco Santander employee. That is, he lost the money that it would take him to earn almost 271 years working as a bricklayer, since the average salary, according to the National Institute of Statistics, is 24,000 euros per year.
It all began on December 14, 2005, when Francisco Guerrero He got the six numbers of the Bonoloto right.winning a prize of 6.5 million euros, according to The World citing the agency EFE. In 2007, after receiving this important sum of money and not knowing what to do with it, since, as noted, he was a man “without education” and “totally ignorant in financial matters,” he decided invest part in his name and another in the name of his five children, allocating 600,000 euros to each one. This peso that had made an investment in a fixed term from Banco Santander that had no risk, when in They were actually high-risk toxic products.
In 2009, after two years and unconcerned thinking that his money was safe, he went to his bank to withdraw 30,000 euros, since he needed it to undergo knee treatment. What was his surprise when he saw how there was no money in his bank account, that is, the 6.5 million euros had disappeared. At that moment he began a legal battle against Banco Santander, in which he sought to be proven right for his lack of knowledge when it came to making investments. This is how Francisco Guerrero told it a few years ago, when he said “I signed, because I trusted them, they invited me to eat several times and then they took me to the bank to sign, with two glasses of wine, I was packed and signed what they told me. To this day I still don’t know what I signed, I don’t even know how to pronounce it.” according to the newspaper ABC.
Justice has ruled him right three times
Now, at 66 years old, he has managed to the court agrees with him three times. The first time was in 2016 when the banking entity managed to get returned 1.06 million euros for investing in “complex products”. Thus, according to the ruling of the Court of First Instance number 4 of Castellón, ruling that the bank “showed inconsistency and contradiction in stating that the contracting party had sufficient experience and knowledge to carry out the contracted investment”.
In the same way in 2019, managed to recover another 1.2 million euros from the investment of his two sons, who each had invested 600,000 euros. For the court, it was proven that “there was a defect in the consent.”
In addition, in 2020, he obtained a total compensation of 209,675, of which 163,000 were for him and the other 46,675 euros for his two daughters, as damages, since the entity did not inform the client of the real risk of the investment.
Setback in court
In 2016, Francisco Guerrero recovered 1.06 million euros of investments made in complex financial products, according to a judicial determination. Despite this, The debts generated by these operations, including the mortgage on their home, have left their assets “burdened” for the “financial engineering” to which he claims to have been induced. Despite having recovered part of the money, Guerrero claimed to feel victim of “robbery and deception” and declared that the bank “has destroyed my life.” Although he no longer had the “heart to fight,” his environment and his psychiatrist encouraged him to go ahead with a final trial, whose sentence was recently announced.
The Court of First Instance number 8 of Castellón dismissed the lawsuit in which Guerrero claimed 1,556,234 euros from Banco Santander for alleged financial malpractice. The judge considered that the damages claimed should have been included in a previous lawsuit that Guerrero won four years ago, when it was determined that the bank had breached the financial advisory contract.
Likewise, the judge concluded that the investment funds contracted by Guerrero were not excessively complex and that the risk was limited to their conversion into shares and the “volatility of the market.” It was also noted that personal loans and mortgages associated with the plaintiff’s development company were not covered by the advisory contract.
Despite this judicial setback, Guerrero’s lawyers have confirmed that They will appeal the sentence before the Provincial Court. “I am dead in life,” Guerrero declared in March, at the doors of the Castellón courts. His legal battle, which has already lasted years, is not over yet, while he continues to face the economic and personal consequences of the investments made in 2007.