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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Here at IRED we received recently a very interesting e-mail, apparently written from Eastern Europe. A man wrote that he is owner of a large apartment in the capital city of one of the countries situated in that region. We understood from the letter that this apartment was almost new by the local standards - built in 1989, that it was solid enough to withstand an earthquake of 8.5 Richter scale, that is was 120 sq.meter (appr.1200 sq.feet) and according to his owner, the fair price for such property should be US $90,000-100,000.

So far so good. But there is a problem, according to the same source. "A kind of occult cartel of real estate agencies..., wants to make me sell it with $65,000 USD". Yes, "occult cartel", that's the phrase he used describing his situation. Why do they want to put a hand on his property? Because, he continues, some eventual earthquake will destroy less solid properties in the city and the prices on the real estate market will rise.

So what to do, how to save the skin of our dear friend that emits S.O.S. so desperately? Don't worry, he has an answer. Of course his problem can be resolved with lots of money*. How? "The only way is to make a loan on 15 or 30 years and thus wait quietly for the prices to rise", he says.

I don't know how exactly this can help to save the apartment. Let's assume for a second that he is right, that someone wants to put a hand on his apartment and force him out. How exactly will a mortgage loan help him? This mortgage loan will be sold together with the apartment and will be served by the new owners.

Our gentleman just asks us to recommend to him some western mortgage brokers. No more, no less (for a moment). That's because in his country the local real estate agencies are part of the ploy to take his apartment. But wait, we at IRED checked the real situation in that country and found out that there are several western financial and banking institutions working in his country. More than that, some of the biggest local banks have been sold to prime western banking institutions too. Can it be that all these major banks are part of the ploy? For what? Just to take an apartment cheaper? That seems very unlikely.

Let's look at the assumed price of US $100,000. After appropriate checking we discovered that an apartment of similar size, year of building etc., in the same town in perfect condition costs no more than US $50,000-60,000. To ask US $100,000 in the same town, you have to offer a new house of 300 sq.meter (appr. 3,000 sq.feet) with a small garden.

Our gentleman didn't do his homework when he wrote his e-mail (and he thought we wouldn't do it either). He invents a ploy only to hide his real intention: "Could you give me $50,000 USD for 15/30 years? What are the details (monthly rates)?" Forget about the western banks, forget about the ploy! Money, your money, that's what he wants.

Why does he need YOUR money? It's simple. If he takes a mortgage loan in his country, he has to serve the debt. If the money is from abroad, just forget about it.

What's the lesson of this true story? When you pour somewhere money in, always think twice how you can take your money out.

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* - According to John Rockefeller, there are two kind of problems, one can be solved with money; the second - with lots of money.