Integrated Capabilities – a Trust Company based in Malta have created their own Pension Scheme – Azure Pensions. On the face of it, however, the management team do not appear to have learned anything from their previous experience with Optimus Retirement Benefit Scheme No.1 and their association with David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial. It appears they have now teamed up with some very dubious friends – the result of which is very likely to create more victims of UK pension scams.
I AM GRATEFUL TO STEVE – ONE OF THE BLACKMORE GLOBAL/DAVID VILKA VICTIMS – FOR RE-WRITING THIS BLOG AT THE REQUEST OF INTEGRATED CAPABILITIES’ LAWYER.
The Azure website states: “We believe that trust is built and earned. As such we have an ingrained and sustained desire to develop long-term relationships with our clients”. These are just words and words are easy. It’s what you do that counts.
In 2015, the Optimus scheme started out with 26 members and by the end finished up with 1,176 – that’s a gain of almost 100 new members per month! I was one such member conned into transferring my pension by fraudulent misrepresentations made by David Vilka of Square Mile Financial Services.
My pension was inappropriately invested in unregulated collective investment schemes, wrapped in a useless life assurance bond from Investors Trust (based in the Caymans). One of those funds was Blackmore Global run by Phillip Nunn & Patrick McCreesh. This pair is on record for earning almost £1m generating leads for the Capita Oak and Henley scams.
This new pension arrangement locked me in for 10 years – definitely a “long-term relationship” – giving all parties the opportunity to drain my pension dry in fees. Credit where credit is due, however. Once I discovered I was in a scam, the director Andy Dawson (bottom row, 3rd from the left) did make an extraordinary effort not only to redeem the investments but successfully persuaded most parties to waive their early exit penalties and refund their fees. Only the greedy Symphony Fund chose to keep the penalties and that’s after mysteriously dropping in value 30% just before redemption. Thanks to Andy Dawson and his team, I did manage to get back 92% of my pension. But the BIG QUESTION is what has happened to the other 1,100+ members? It is inconceivable I was the only one transferred into this scheme via Vilka et al.
Another claim made by Azure Pensions is: “Our people are highly experienced, knowledgeable and motivated to do their utmost to ensure that they deliver a superior, professional and hassle-free service.” But this firm, and the people in it, have a history of working with scammers and investing members’ retirement funds in investment scams such as Phillip Nunn’s Blackmore Global and Richard Reinert’s Symphony Fund. So I would take issue with claims like “highly experienced” and “knowledgeable”.
If they were highly experienced and knowledgeable they would have known that, at the time I was being advised by Vilka in January 2015, Aktiva Wealth Management (later changed to Square Mile and now called Michalska Holding) was NOT regulated by the Czech National Bank. According to the CNB records, this didn’t happen until 5th May 2015 and then, only for insurance mediation and not for transferring pensions!
If Integrated Capabilities had been “highly experienced and knowledgeable” then they would have known the Symphony Fund – regulated in their own jurisdiction by their own regulator, the MFSA – was NOT permitted to be offered to me, a retail client. And they knew this because they had the Symphony documentation which clearly prohibited its promotion to UK retail clients.
I complained to the MFSA but they didn’t care and Malta’s “Ombudsman” equivalent – what they call the Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services – deters complaints because they have this small print that says if you lose, the other side can be awarded legal costs!
If Integrated Capabilities had been “highly experienced and knowledgeable” they would have known the Blackmore Global fund had never published audited accounts and still hasn’t to this day (December 2018). Something that in January 2015 caused Kreston (pension provider on the Isle of Man) to write to its members explaining their concerns over Blackmore Global and also stopped taking new members from Vilka.
So if they were “highly experienced and knowledgeable” then why did they allow all this to happen? It certainly had nothing to do with “motivation to do their utmost”. It is clear their only motivation was to take on as many members as possible – irrespective of which scammer introduced them and what unsuitable investments were made for them. Also, they claim to have a “long history and proven track record of providing expert and value for money multi-jurisdictional fiduciary solutions, so our clients and partners can have great peace of mind in the knowledge that our board of directors has over 100 years combined expertise in this field.” The proven track record is that they have taken on hundreds of new members per month from a known scammer – and the last thing their members have is peace of mind – far from it.
Angie has referred to these people at Integrated Capabilities/Azure Pensions as a “bunch of cowboys” and their lawyer recently wrote to her and objected to the phrase. You make your own mind up.
How do they earn trust when they have accepted transfers and investment instructions from known unregulated scammers Square Mile and David Vilka? Why would victims “desire” to have a long-term relationship with Azure when funds were previously placed in an unnecessary, expensive insurance bond by Investors Trust in the Cayman Islands (the only purpose for which is to pay commission to the scammers)?
Azure Pensions also claims that one of its partners is Carey Pensions UK LLC. Carey is facing a legal battle for investing a member into unregulated collectives in Australia through a Carey Pensions SIPP.
Carey is in hot water for allowing investments into high-risk scams, and is also now part of STM – undoubtedly the biggest scammers in the offshore pension trust industry. It would seem the Azure team have not learned anything from their previous experience.
If, as they say “We believe that trust is built and earned …”, then you actually have to do some “trust building” with actions – not just weasel words. The indisputable facts seem to indicate “business as usual” but with a different name.
It is highly probable that Integrated Capabilities still has at least 1,100 victims invested in scam funds such as Blackmore Global by scammers such as David Vilka of Square Mile. It looks like most – if not all – of these victims were UK residents who should never have gone into a QROPS at all in the first place. The only reason for transferring these pension funds to a QROPS was to get the money away from UK regulation so that the scammers could invest them in commission-paying UCIS funds – such as Blackmore Global.
The public should be very wary of Azure in the first instance, do a lot of due diligence and make sure their pension funds don’t go anywhere near offshore unregulated collectives wrapped in an assurance bond that can suck your pension dry.
Azure states on their website that: “Notwithstanding your appointment of a Financial Adviser, ICML has an overriding right to refuse to make investments, or to disinvest, where it believes that a particular investment proposal may not be consistent with the Scheme’s Investment Policy or any investment restriction applicable under Retirement Scheme Law.”
Is this a change in policy? Are they going to put their “knowledge and experience” to meaningful use by exercising some due diligence? Is this a statement that means they have sorted the 1,100+ members in the Optimus Scheme that are most likely locked into “investments … not consistent with the Scheme’s … Policy?” Or are these just more weasel words with no substance?
Reformed management team or a “bunch of cowboys”? The jury is still out. The association with Carey & STM doesn’t appear to show a reformed team. What has happened to the 1,100+ members in the previous Optimus Scheme? Has anything been done to remedy the situation?
I believed, and still do, that this team was unwittingly drawn into facilitating a scam by David Vilka of Square Mile, and that in essence Integrated Capabilities/Azure Pensions are a respectable team. However, if they want to be seen as having learned from their past failings they could take some actions. First, help the 1,100+ members to avoid financial ruin and secondly assist in the prosecution of the architects of the scam facilitated by Integrated Capabilities. I am sure they will have a considerable body of evidence that could be used to show fraudulent misrepresentation and thirdly drop the association with companies with an already poor reputation for their involvement with scams or unregulated collectives being promoted to retail clients.
With thanks to Steve – one of the Blackmore Global/David Vilka victims.
Clearly I am going to have a say on this one!
The scam I got caught in, orchestrated by the gruesome twosome and ably assisted by Tweedledum and Tweedledee – directors of Aspinal Chase and Blackmore Global – was facilitated by Integrated Capabilities Malta Ltd (“ICML”). In my opinion, ICML, and their Isle of Man partner, Optimus Pensions Administration Ltd (“OPAL”) had been unwittingly drawn in by the gruesome twosome to facilitate the scam.
In 2016, when I discovered I had fallen for the smooth talking David Vilka and fallen for his fraudulent misrepresentations I set about repatriating my pension with the help of a UK regulated IFA.
Angie is right that the scheme, Optimus Retirement Benefit Scheme No. 1 may have in excess of 1100 members transferred possibly by Square Mile Interational Financials (“SMIF”). The Scheme’s annual report for period ending Dec 2015 – https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p3YAiGdOQBbO32TrIYn_4XMOdhUwPcBZ – shows new entrants to the scheme of 1,187 – almost 100 new members per month! That rate, in my opinion can only be achieved by a very good recruiting firm – Aspinal Chase. The directors of Aspinal Chase are already on record for their cold calling activities in the Capita Oak and Henley pension scams which netted them c.£1m in introduction fees! So they knew how to recruit victims!
Angie’s earlier blog reporting on Ferguson’s email of August 2015, https://pension-life.com/not-so-square-mile-and-far-from-lilly-white/ implies Ferguson – owner of Lillywhite – they have exclusivity when it came to introducing new members to their QROPS; he says: “nothing can be submitted to our panel of QROPS without being signed off by our IFAs and so EVERY piece of business you receive from these guys is actually via a Lillywhites Adviser.”
Over a protracted period in 2016 – some 8 months – I was in constant communication with one of the Directors of ICML, Andy Dawson, in the picture above he is bottom row third from the left. Unlike some other trustees like STM for instance or Harbour Pensions – later sold to STM – ICML made an uncharacteristic effort to extricate me from the scam. Andy Dawson not only managed to get me out of the Investors Trust Bond, and redeemed Blackmore Global and Symphony holdings but applied some leverage (exactly what I don’t know) to get Blackmore to waive its 7% early exit penalty. ICML also refunded all their admin charges and persuaded Investors Trust to waive their early exit penalty for the bond and refund their admin charges. The result was I recovered 92% of my pension. The loss was due to the Symphony fund (as it happens Ferguson was global distributor!) which mysteriously dropped 30% in value “overnight”. There were many anomalies with the way Symphony was operated and I made a complaint to the MFSA about it in Feb 2017. Not only was Symphony unlawfully promoted to me with numerous fraudulent misrepresentations, but shortly after my complaint, the fund was shut down and Ferguson’s lawyer made a £6000 offer to silence me from ever speaking about it ever again, to any journalist or authority, including the police in any jurisdiction – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42776709 – of course I declined the pathetic offer. More details of this here: https://write.as/scam-victim/clerical-errors
However, the upshot of all this is that I am very grateful to Dawson. What I don’t know is what happened to the other victims? Did ICML get them out of the unregulated funds and the Investors Trust Bond or are they all still locked in with the possibility of losing all their money?
Angie’s last two paragraphs, beginning “Notwithstanding … ” and the implication of her final sentence is somewhat unfair because we don’t have any new information. The “policy” is perhaps a new policy following their experience with me. They may have “learned their lesson” about doing business with reprobates like Vilka and Ferguson. I read the policy that even if you have an adviser, if the fund is unsuitable (like Blackmore for example) they can refuse to trade. This is an improvement in my opinion.
What we need is more information from ICML. What have they done with all the other victims for example? Have they dropped their relationship with the gruesome twosome? Have they dropped their relationship with Investors Trust? Have they stopped using OPAL?
We are not up to speed on the current position nor the activities of ICML so it is unfair to judge them on the same circumstances that existed in 2015/16.
Thank you Stephen. Will email you separately. There is news.
Could please contact me i am a victim
[email protected]
Hi.
Find your article very informative. I have had an IFA attempting to get my money back from this scheme for sometime now. I would be grateful if you could offer some assistance. They continually stall or block any progress.