Thank you for coming and reading our story. Your support and attention mean a lot to us. Please, excuse my inevitable errors, my English is far from perfect and in these days of unbelievable distress, the errors can be even greater. Hope it will improve!
This photo was taken on 29 August 2013, when we were finally able to start trading and out of the first profit of $38,000 decided to take a one day vacation on Harbor Island, the Bahamas, to celebrate the greatly awaited beginning of the trading with UBS. Little did we know what George Maillis and UBS were preparing for us.
It is hard to believe that what is happening to us can be true in 2018. You may not believe it… I wouldn’t had it not happened to me… to our family… if it were not my children suffering…
We look to be free in our civilized world from all types of open slavery, unnecessary violence… Today, returning to our hosting family, surrounded by the magic warm evening in the Bahamas, I’ve seen two persons filing documents about car accidents that just happened between them. If you think many years back on this occasion sometime a violent discussion may have taken place, even a fight. But today, we as humans have developed elaborate proceedings with insurance companies, certificates to be filled, peacefully resolving such incidents. In the same way, we are expecting in case we do not reach an agreement to bring our case to the Courts and let the judges decide an outcome according to the Law. Well, it did not happen in our case – we were judged without being in the court, let alone heard on merits, our house was taken into possession on an interlocutory (temporary, not final) order when a competent appeal is filed with the Court of Appeal and just waiting for the date… Our cross-claim is five times larger than our adversaries’ claim, and the collateral, in this case our dwelling home, is four times greater than their claim.
Irina Tsareva-Starostenko
The following story is an account of our hard journey in fighting UBS Bahamas for Justice. All the links and evidence will be added to the article below. Our story is 100% true, we believe this story is important to hear for all people because:
- we all want for our primary Constitutional rights to be respected, we all have to be heard before being judged. Lex naturalis – natural law, rooted in our deepest history, rising from its main architect Aristotle up to Thomas Aquinas and then Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., they and many others have shared the fundamental belief that humanity has certain moral values which must be respected, they are part of our nature;
- it is in our veins, in our subconscious and stated in our scriptures – the eternal desire for Justice, the triumph of Truth. The fight between David and Goliath, and the victory of Light, even if the battle sometimes demands every bit of strength we can muster. In our case, we are a family with six kids, plunged into a complete lack of money, made roofless without our matter even being heard in the courts. We are a family of eight, David, fighting Goliath, UBS bank with around 60,000 employees and their unscrupulous and malicious attorneys Marco Turnquest and Chizelle Cargill from Lennox Paton law firm, one of the largest and richest in the country, which was also Bernie Madoff’s office in the Bahamas;
- it is also about traders, which we believe is this rising and amazing social class of self-directed futures traders which is bringing peace and harmony in our human society by making us financially free;
- it is a war for the rights of millions of novice investors, traders to be, who are also affected by dishonest service providers in trading, with millions crashed before they have ever really been on the markets. It is a struggle for the millions of victims systematically abused by many banks.
Thank you, reader, supporter, for visiting this page. Thank you for investing your time to read our story. We will be very thankful to hear your comments and helpful thoughts.
Yours sincerely,
Yuri and Irina Starostenko
Our story can’t be told in two sentences; allow me to bring you to a deeper understanding of what has happened and is happening now.
Chronology of our story – the war against UBS
It all started with Credit Suisse, Bahamas, back in 2009 (another client of Lennox Paton, dominant law firm, attorneys for UBS), when, from February to March 2009, we traded and turned USD $360,000 into USD $1,500,000. We begged them for some teaching, we knew nothing about technical analysis, stop losses, charts. We even did not know the word trader, yes, we reputed ourselves”active investors”. We made crazy volumes and are still waiting for them to produce regular date and time reports, containing exchanges and clearing houses’ reference numbers. We received the only indicators on vertical drops by ETF, FAZ, that “it’s good to trade on a daily basis”. But if you can not go short, what is it good for? To lose your money daily! Raised beyond the iron curtain, I grew up with this idea (as I’m sure many have) that Swiss banks are the best institutions to trust and follow, keepers of the golden door of financial paradise. We literally venerated them and their operators, and when the account manager asked us to sell a rising security, we did not understand that it was our right to say no. We weren’t really clients, we were “directions-takers”.
But, before they started to give us trading directions actively, we managed to make our record. We were told by them to not trade on US markets – “they are all sharks, they will eat you”. We were told to make big volumes and to not to worry about fees, that once volumes will be in the correct place they will grant us a flat fee! Only after three months of activity, we were finally able to receive the account statement with the balance and discovered that Credit Suisse, instead of charging a flat fee of 0.7 percent per year, charged our account for every single transaction, and, in so doing, we were charged in fees alone $570,000. They made us believe that a refund is on the way, but nothing ever happened. It is not the place here for all the details, but to conclude, in 2014, in reply to our demand letter we received a letter from their attorneys with simple denials. Two weeks later, the same attorneys asked us to pay back the loan with UBS, without refunding wrong executions, four years before its expiration. But this will be detailed here below. Later, in 2014, Credit Suisse Bahamas closed our account. We weren’t able to bring up a claim all these years because of lack of funds, time and experience.
Now, we come to UBS. It was 2012. For three years we learned and traded on a simulator account, some small accounts with retail brokers, some success and some loss. Most of all, building back our psychology of winners and getting knowledge and experience. So, when in 2012 we were approached by George Maillis, a manager of UBS and family friend, who offered us a Real Estate Collateralized Loan (RECL), which was developed by him. We became his first, and probably last, clients of this so-called product. The meaning of this product is that it is a five-year investment agreement and that 50% of the value of the house (which was USD $2,800,000 in 2012 and is currently USD $3,600,000) would be given as a loan. In our case, it was USD $1,400,000. Half of this amount (25% of the value of the house) would be kept for trading exclusively with UBS, which was perfect for us since UBS holds the Guinness World Record for the largest trading floor in the world and, in addition, were the first-ever bank to offer an electronic platform to retail investors in 1995. Little did we know, that UBS Bahamas had no intention of providing their renowned service to us and it was just a poor loan-to-own scheme.
From October 2012 (when we took this loan) to July 2013 UBS procrastinated and did not trade. But then we began to trade and, only in the month of August, we made USD $30,000, but it would have been much more had UBS given us an electronic platform or executed our trades in 20 seconds, as promised. So, instead of trading peacefully, we spent most of our time altercating with George Maillis, who was a mortgage officer with a scant understanding of trading. We got refunded only USD $3,100 out of about USD $50,000 of loss of profit caused by the bank’s poor service. We were threatened by George Maillis in email and phone conversations that if we continued to complain about their poor service he would “review our mortgage conditions”.
The culmination came on 18 September 2013, when, stressed, we wrongly held a position on the day of the Federal Reserve announcement. Being professionals, we realized our error and called UBS to liquidate our position at 1:58 PM, when the Federal Reserve announcement was at 2 PM. It took them a long time (a few minutes is a long time when you are managing a capital of hundreds of thousands of dollars on actively moving markets), and they liquidated the position at 2:05 PM. So, we advanced UBS a request to
refund us USD $125,000, which would be the difference had the trade executions been made correctly during August/September 2013. In response, UBS halted our trading. We did not execute any further orders during the next two weeks, which prevented us from gaining USD $65,000. We offered to prepay all interests until the loan expiration (which would be in 2017) so we could take the remaining money to trade with a different service provider.
In February 2014 we wrote a demand letter to Credit Suisse to repay us the money owed to us and, in response, we received a demand letter from UBS (please, remember that both banks are assisted by Lennox Paton) to repay the whole loan amount 3 years and 7 months before its expiration.
On March 7, 2014, UBS publicly announced that they are shutting down banking in the Bahamas.
In April 2014 they sequestered USD $525,000 US dollars from our account and in May 2014 we sent them a letter naming all their wrongdoings. In September 2014 they started a legal action. On 23 March 2015 they obtained against us a judgment by perjuries, without us being in court, because we were misinformed about the date of the hearing. We appealed this order and went all the way to the Privy Council of the UK (see here) and obtained a positive judgment: Junkanoo et al. LTD v. UBS (Bahamas) LTD (In Voluntary Liquidation))
It is amazing to see how Universe is supporting you, when you are David and are fighting for the truth. There were a number of absolutely new events in our story, we were first in the Bahamas to:
i) Pay USD $0.00 to be heard by the Privy Council, as people in financial distress. And it appears we were first to do so from the Bahamas.
ii) I appeared in person. My husband and the company were assisted by our Bahamian lawyer, Mr. Phillip Lundy, who has been with us from the April 2015 on a Pro Bono Basis. And we were honored to be assisted by Mr. Joel Bennathan, QC, who had come down to the Bahamas from London without us paying him a single dollar. (The Guardian named Mr. Bennathan as one of the 20 most powerful attorneys of our century, he is known for litigating for human rights in Criminal Law, where the Secret Services often abuse their power.) Kindly, take a look at articles 10 and 11 of the Privy Council judgment.
Since April 2017, we followed all the procedures indicated by the Privy Council, and we obtained a leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on 21 December 2017. And, in his ruling, Hon. J. Milton Evans stated very clearly that should our facts have not been hidden from him he would hardly have given UBS possession, but he refused a stay on the narrow hearsay basis that the house is diminishing in value, which is a simple error of fact. This
happened because the judge was in a hurry (being called to the Court of Appeal right before Christmas) and didn’t have time to read all our affidavits, wherein Affidavit 7 was shown proof that the house value is USD $3,350,000 in 2016 (up from USD $2,800,000 in 2012).
But, the judge granted us a temporary stay up to February 4, 2018 to produce evidence showing that there is no diminishing in value. On December 26, 2017, we produced a new affidavit showing the value of the property, USD $3,684,000. During the next weeks, we made a number of attempts to get a full stay from the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal. It did not happen because on February 2, 2018, we were heard by a single judge, Michael Barnett. This judge also interrogated me if our claim against UBS is just for money, I did not agree – my position was that our case is for human rights and in the interest of the public and for the defense of this rising beautiful class of self-directed traders, providers of prosperity and truth for humanity. I also added that we had decided to give all money to charity, except a little bit for us to paint the house after the fire and to pay our lawyers, advisors, and supporters back and to have small trading capital and living expenses covered for six months. He asked me , “So you lived three years in Lyford Cay (which is one of the most prestigious communities in the world) for 3 years without electricity?” and I said yes. “And you are going to give all this money to charity?” Not only, replied I, we are going to sit on a big table with all the people who helped and supported us during these years, no one is wealthy among them, and we are going to decide how we can use this money to make the Bahamas and this world a little bit better – to which he laughed in my face, in the court room. The judge stepped out from his neutral position as a judge and became a lawyer for UBS. He refused our application for a stay, even though UBS did not formally oppose this application. And at the same time, this judge gave us an extension of time for an Appeal, which was filed the day before, thereby confirming that the appeal is valid and competent.
On February 12, 2018, we were heard by a full panel at the Court of Appeal upon our Application for the leave to appeal to the Privy Council on this part of the order. The Court found that we can apply to the Privy Council for a special leave, but it would be premature to grant us regular leave because we still have the opportunity to be heard by a full panel here in the Bahamas. On February 15, 2018, we applied for a Court date. The same day Yuri was approached by the Deputy Provost Marshal Jack Davis, indicating that he is instructed by UBS’ attorneys to proceed with the execution. We called Court of Appeal and begged and were promised that as soon as the Listing officer will be back he will look into the matter. On February 23, 2018, we applied for a special leave to appeal to the Privy Council. But the underlying decision was made by a single judge and apparently, we still had the opportunity to be heard by a full panel.
It happened shortly before 11.00 am. In the days before we warned all government agencies in the Bahamas about eventual unlawful eviction – The Prime Minister office, The Office of the Minister of the National Security, the Commissioner of Police. All persons were extremely cooperative and tried to help. However, the bailiff ignored all calls and letters. Armed with an interlocutory appealed order, with his extremely aggressive locksmith Peter Green broke the door. It was me and boys at home. Yuri was in town with the oldest boy, trying to be heard by some courts. And we sincerely did not believe, and still can not believe that UBS’ attorneys, being Court officers, having a competent appeal, knowing that while their client is in liquidation and will easily be found to owe us USD $6,000,000, knowing that they have failed to produce a substantial defence and have no answers to our claims. And then, that at the end, should the court find us in the wrong their clients are not at risk at all – the property value covers all eventual expenses and debts. And the way the execution was done, the violence and hate. Our son, 16 years old, was beaten and then kept in a choke hold by the locksmith. The 11 year-old was hit too.
All of that in the light that a civil court Interlocutory order cannot be enforced until it is final and that it is our rights to refuse to the Provost Marshal his entry. In that case, the other side would bring committal proceedings against us and if the court would find us guilty of contempt then the warrant will be issued and the entrance with force can be done and the people responsible even imprisoned. It looks that in the Bahamas until today these important proceedings were missing. But we will raise the case and wait what the court will decide. I will write more on this topic too.
This execution can only be understood by understanding the malicious and cruel intent of UBS’ attorneys to damage the well-being of our family, destroy our self-esteem and psychological balance, harm our dignity. Being roofless, not being in a position to pursue our appeal and cross-action. But we are supported by a circle of absolutely incredible, courageous and devoted friends! Each of them is unique. I can only say that all people that help are people we met by chance and who, after hearing our story, have tried to help us in any way possible.
Now, we will recover our belongings from our home – please see my email here below to UBS’ attorney. The solidarity around us here in the Bahamas is a real miracle and blessing. And it is exactly as written in Psalm 5 – “let them fail by their own counsels.” Should we not have gone through this time we would not know reality so deeply, we would not have experienced so much love, so many surprises, and care.
And also to you, dear reader, I hope you will decide to be part of this chain of solidarity and help us to resist until we will finally be heard by the courts. Please, send me your comments. Share this post as much as you can.
Be blessed and happy, dear reader and friend! Pray for you, your family, friends and for us!
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ira Staro <irastaro@gmail.com>
Date: 2018-03-02 13:17 GMT-05:00
Subject: Re: House access TOP URGENT
To: Chizelle Cargill <…………….@lennoxpaton.com>
Please, write to this e-mail with comments, questions, and testimonials:
irastaro@gmail.com
We are all born and live with a very simple desire – to be happy. The quiet moments of a sunrise, the magic of shining stars, the ocean breeze and coolness of forests, we all enjoy these gifts from the universe on our planet Earth. Most of us share the same sentiments of Truth and Justice, the same values of Honesty and Brotherhood. Those who don’t probably feel a huge inner disturbance by being disconnected from the source of Harmony and Love, and in order to suppress this unpleasant feeling they are simply sometimes more active – we are quite, we are happy, we can be very noisy when gazing together, but with laughter. So when a malicious attack happens to one of us we have to stay together, support each other.
Please, support our website and sign our petition on change.org: Ask UBS to Stop Obstructing our Litigation. The pressure this creates for UBS’ “legal” team helps keep them in check and makes it much harder for them to obstruct the course of our litigation. We hope eventually to bring this to a brighter end, to end our hardships, and to set a precedent for others who might find themselves scammed and defrauded.
Securities Fraud Bahamas: banks UBS, Credit Suisse 
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