Mallorca fraud mastermind who swindled 235 buyers found hiding under mother’s kitchen sink

After nine months on the run and with the whole of Spain to disappear into, Carlos García Roldán, the man behind Mallorca’s biggest property fraud, was finally caught hiding in a cupboard under his mothers sink.

Tucked away in a cupboard at his mother’s house

Guardia Civil officers tracked down Carlos García Roldán, known as ‘Charly’, at his mother’s house in Calella, near Barcelona, on Thursday September 10. He was found crouched inside a cupboard beneath the kitchen sink. It was the same address where he had originally been notified of his conviction. After his arrest, he appeared before the duty court and was taken back into custody, ahead of being transferred back to the Balearic Islands to serve his sentence. 

Nine months on the run, for the second time 

García Roldán had been on conditional release while his sentence worked its way through the appeal process. When he was summoned to a hearing in Palma to review those conditions, he claimed he was off the island with no flights available, then disappeared.

It was not his first disappearing act either. He had earlier fled to Colombia while under investigation, was arrested in the town of Buga in a joint operation, and was extradited back to Spain in 2019, spending around four years in pre-trial detention before being bailed ahead of his trial. It echoes other recent cases of fugitives finally caught out in Spain, including a UK most-wanted man identified by his tattoos after a two-year hunt.

How Promociones Lujo Casa lured its buyers

Between 2015 and 2018, García Roldán ran Promociones Lujo Casa, alongside a related company called Mallorca Investment, from offices in Coll d’en Rabassa, Palma. Together they advertised around 32 off-plan housing developments in areas including Llucmajor, Marratxí and Palma, using photographs and architects’ renders lifted from other people’s genuine projects, and putting up sales posters on land they did not own, to look like a legitimate developer.

In reality, the company only ever secured ownership or building rights to seven of the plots it was selling, and none of the promised homes were ever completed. 

More than 230 buyers lost a combined €3.3 million

Investigators identified 235 victims who had paid deposits ranging from €5,000 to more than €100,000 for homes that were never built, with a total loss of €3.3 million. Rather than putting the money towards construction, investigators found García Roldán had been withdrawing large amounts of cash, with much of it going on gambling and partying instead of the properties he’d promised his buyers.

Fourteen years, nine months, and two co-defendants also convicted

The Balearic Islands Provincial Court sentenced García Roldán to 14 years and nine months in December 2025 for fraud, punishable insolvency, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organisation. Co-defendant Michelle Pilato received nine years, and a builder involved in the scheme was given four years, while three other defendants were exonerated. 

García Roldán is now expected to begin serving that sentence in the Balearic Islands, more than a decade after the scheme first began taking buyers’ deposits for homes that would never exist. It comes as property fraud continues to target buyers across Spain, from an American couple who lost more than €1 million in a separate Mallorca scam to a fake lawyer arrested at Málaga airport over a €100,000 Marbella con.