Birol Kaplan (50) from Strengelbach AG faces the wreckage of his life. Just a few years ago he wanted to buy a house with his wife. Instead, he now lives alone in a rented apartment. He became a victim of the Basel real estate gang.
The perpetrators were recently sentenced to several years in prison. They sold their victims their dream of owning their own home – but the gang only wanted upfront payments. They offered very cheap construction projects or advertised houses they should never have built. They pasted their logo on someone else’s project documents.
Numerous injured parties made advance payments of up to CHF 130,000 to the three scammers – usually all the equity they had saved for the long-awaited home. The gang members took the money and were never heard from again.
«The brochure looked professional»
Birol Kaplan had paid 35,000 francs for a detached house in Oftringen AG. His life turned upside down when he realized that the money was gone. “Because I felt so powerless. For two years I tried to get my money back on enforcement and criminal charges – but the rule of law disappointed me.”
It all started with their reunion in 2016. Birol Kaplan met a citizen he knew from a previous home purchase in Aarau. “I told him I sold my old house and now I live in an apartment with my wife, but we want a house again.”
So the Turk gave it to the Spaniard Javier H. (54). “We looked at the property on which to build eleven detached houses with the Spaniard. The brochure also looked very good and professional. We were even allowed to choose which house we wanted to live in on the plans. We chose a corner house,” says Kaplan.
“I had sleepless nights”
But as soon as he paid the deposit, there was radio silence – the Spaniard could not be reached for months. Kaplan: “We knew something was wrong because we had built a house before. We finally realized it was all fake and the man with our money left.”
Personal problems soon arose as a result. “You just think about how to get the money back – and you feel so helpless. I had sleepless nights and became depressed. At one point I went to the boss and said I couldn’t work like this anymore. I had a good job as a chemical technician.”
Even though the Spaniard had repaid 15,000 francs in the meantime, financial and psychological problems increased with unemployment. The Tigers’ marriage broke up and Birol Kaplan moved in with his sister.
Waited 48 hours for the scammer
“Suddenly I have nothing. But I have nothing to lose either.” The swindler was still rarely reachable. «So I decided to look for him – suddenly I had enough time. He had come to the wrong person with me!” Kaplan failed at two addresses, but in a third he found the Spaniard’s apartment. ‘He was not at home. So I waited in the car for almost 48 hours. Then he finally showed up.’
Kaplan grabbed Javier H. by the collar. “Then I kept his wallet as collateral on my way to the apartment to get my remaining 20,000 francs. 20 minutes later he gave it to me in cash.”
Partial jail sentence for half a million fraud
But after more than two years of fraud, the payback came too late for Kaplan. “This man has ruined my life,” she says. This caused a heart attack. Today, Birol Kaplan wears five stents.
Birol Kaplan has been on the job for two years. Still: «Today, instead of living with my wife in a nice house, I live alone in a two-and-a-half bedroom apartment. We are no longer family. Fraud was the trigger.”
“You can break someone without touching them,” says Birol Kaplan. “And this man did this to me!” Kaplan can only nod to the Spaniard’s partially suspended three years and three months prison sentence. “He left many victims and stole more than 500,000 francs from honest people who had saved up for a house in a lifetime. He destroyed dreams and lives. The penalty is too small. I am greatly disappointed in the Swiss judiciary.”
* Name changed