Tag: CWM

  • CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST UNLICENSED FINANCIAL ADVISERS

    CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST UNLICENSED FINANCIAL ADVISERS

    Denia Courthouse
    Denia Courthouse

    CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST UNLICENSED FINANCIAL ADVISERS:

    Last month saw the first of the CWM pension scam victims testifying in the criminal court of Denia, Alicante.  Nine brave people re-lived their ordeal in front of the judge.  They answered the judge’s questions, and were then cross-examined by the defendants’ lawyers.

    Darren Kirby in front of CWM office
    Darren Kirby in front of CWM office

    The complainants who testified were all clients of Continental Wealth Management (CWM) run by Darren Kirby and Jody Smart (pictured below), as well as Premier Pension Solutions (PPS) run by Stephen Ward.  PPS was an “agent” and “partner” of AES Financial Services run by Sam Instone. (PPS and AES are now under investigation for their role in the 2011 Ark Pension Liberation scam).

    It is hard enough for a pension scam victim to be reminded of their ordeal at the hands of callous, greedy scammers.  But to have to recount in graphic detail the methods used by the scammers was hard for them to bear.

    The scammer’s typical arsenal of weapons comprises a series of lies – adeptly used to trick the unwary into handing over their pensions and life savings.  The victims who testified in Denia know these lies all too well.  And now, so too does the judge:

    Cyrus regulator logo

    LIE NO. 1: “We’re fully regulated”.  This, of course, was completely untrue.  CWM operated, purportedly, as a member of the Inter Alliance “network”.  And Inter Alliance was not only unregulated but had been fined by the Cyprus regulator for providing regulated services without legal authorisation.

    Jody Bell of CWM
    Jody Smart of CWM

    LIE NO. 2: “Yes, I’m fully qualified”.  This, again, was untrue.  Few – if any – of the people working for CWM had any financial qualifications.  They were mostly poorly-educated salesmen with the gift of the gab.  They had learned a well-used and very clever script which was designed to mislead and defraud their victims.

    Toxcic insurance bond providers; Quilter, Utmost & SEB

    LIE NO. 3: “The case for transferring your pension into a QROPS is overwhelming”.  In the case of final salary pensions, this was never true.  A guaranteed income for life from a company pension final salary scheme can almost never be bettered.  Most personal pensions should also have been left where they were.  In fact, all pensions would have been better off avoiding ending up in the hands of CWM – even if a QROPS had been the right option.

    LIE NO. 4: “Your pension needs to be in an insurance bond (Quilter, SEB or Utmost).  This is for protection and tax efficiency”.  This was never true. The bond provided no protection, no tax savings, no flexibility.  The 7% commission paid to the “adviser” was not disclosed. 

    LIE NO. 5: “Your money will be invested in blue chip companies and you will get high returns and low risk.”  High returns come with high risk – and the high commissions (paid to the scammers) were hidden from the victims.  Toxic structured notes were used for all the victims – and these are complex investment products which were only suitable for professional investors. 

    There were, of course, many other lies – including the fact that when the toxic structured notes and unregulated funds failed, these were “only paper losses”.  Plus the fact that the investors’ signatures were forged or copied on the investment dealing instructions.

    Structured Note Providers

    The second half of the complainants will be heard by the court on 9th and 10th December 2021.  Once the court has heard from all these victims (minus Bob Bowden who sadly passed away recently), the fate of the defendants will be decided by the judge.  Let us all hope this will herald an end to these types of pension and investment scams. 

    Perhaps “the end” will be just the beginning.  A new dawn for an offshore financial services industry which sells proper financial advice – and not just commission-laden products.

    CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST UNLICENSED FINANCIAL ADVISERS

  • Spanish litigation: Quilter Ireland, SEB and Generali

    Spanish litigation: Quilter Ireland, SEB and Generali

    Life offices who caused the death of victims and their life savings/pensions, will now face proceedings in the Spanish civil courts. Pension Life’s proceedings against the defendants are due to be launched before Christmas 2020. The defendants will be Quilter International (Ireland), SEB and Generali (which has changed its name to Utmost Wealth).

    In the past ten years or so, the life offices – Quilter, SEB and Generali (shamefully promoted by International Adviser) – have freely given terms of business to unlicensed, unqualified, unscupulous “chiringuitos financieros”. These scammers – some with no license at all, and some with only a restricted insurance license – have put thousands of victims into pointless, expensive insurance bonds. The scammers’ sole motivation for the use of these insurance products is the commission paid by the providers: somewhere between 5% and 8% (depending on the term of the bond).

    A bond is merely a “wrapper” (or container) and serves no purpose – other than a purported possible tax “efficiency” loophole. However, the so-called tax advantages are dubious at best outside the UK – and non-existent within a pension. In reality, any tax saved would be far outweighed by the high cost of the insurance bond.

    The real problem with these insurance bonds has been the high-risk investments offered by the bond providers on their “platforms”. Many of the investments are highly toxic, only suitable for professional or sophisticated (or reckless) investors, and are chosen purely for the commissions they pay to the scammers.

    Chiringuitos – such as the notorious Spanish firm Continental Wealth Management (which collapsed in 2017) – love insurance bonds; esoteric, unregulated investment funds; and structured notes. This passion comes not from any benefit provided to the victims, but from the huge commissions they (the scammers) can earn if their high-pressure sales techniques are effective.

    One group of scammers – including Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions, Paul Clarke of AES International (now Roebuck Wealth), Darren Kirby and Jody Bell/Smart/Kirby/Pearson of Continental Wealth Management – is currently facing fraud charges in the Denia criminal court.

    The fraud behind the insurance bond scams is, of course, facilitated and encouraged by the insurance companies themselves. One group of victims – who have lost hundreds of millions in risky, unsuitable investments such as LM, Axiom and Premier New Earth – has already issued proceedings in the Isle of Man civil court. Pension Life is preparing to issue another for the losses caused by other toxic funds and structured notes – also in the Isle of Man civil court.

    Many of the culpable life offices base themselves on the tiny, dreary Isle of Man. It is a well-known tax haven for companies and individuals who are not prepared to pay their fair share of tax – and it also routinely harbours scams and scammers (due to limp regulation and ineffective governance). The failures of the IoM’s legal system – as part neither of the UK nor Europe – are well known and heavily exploited by institutions with nefarious intentions. Known, serial scammers such as Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh of Blackmore Group based their Blackmore Bond (promoted by Surge Group – which also promoted the collapsed London Capital & Finance “mini bond”) and their Blackmore Global fund there.

    And – of course – Quilter, Friends Provident International and RL360 are all based on the Isle of Man (referred to by many as the “Isle of Scam”).

    In Spain, virtually every insurance bond ever provided has been sold to the victims illegally (in contravention of the Spanish insurance regulations). Few victims are ever made aware of the serious drawbacks of these products:

    • inflexibility of the fixed terms of up to ten years
    • annual fees are based on the original premium (amount invested) – which means that when investment losses occur, the fees have an ever-increasing damaging effect on the remaining funds
    • bond providers will accept investment instructions from unqualified, unlicensed, known scammers
    • obviously low-risk, retail investors (such as those in a pension) will be invested in high-risk funds
    • when losses start to appear, the bond providers do nothing to challenge the reckless, irresponsible conduct of the scammers with whom they have terms of business
    • some victims, whose entire portfolio has been wiped out by the investment fraud facilitated by the bond providers, continue to be charged annual bond fees
    • victims’ signatures on investment dealing instructions are frequently forged or copied

    The Isle of Scam courts will be watched with intense interest by thousands of Quilter, FPI and RL360 victims (whose life savings have been wiped out) over the coming year. But, meanwhile, the Spanish courts will get to hear the cases against providers based in Ireland. All victims of Continental Wealth Management have been asked to obtain their documents for the litigation from Trafalgar International. Any who have not received an email from Pension Life can contact Trafalgar’s Tony Barnett direct on:

    information@trafalgar-gmbh.com

     

    The letter of authority which needs to be sent to Mr. Barnett in order to participate in the Spanish civil proceedings against Quilter International, SEB and Generali (Utmost Wealth) is as follows (victims can copy and paste this text into a document if necessary):

    URGENT Letter of authority to Antony Barnett of Trafalgar International GmbH

    Mainzer Landstrasse 49, 60329 Frankfurt am Main Germany

    Dear Mr. Barnett

    Letter of Authority to provide documents relating to pension, insurance bond and investments/losses

    Please accept this as my letter of authority for you to discuss, communicate and deal with Angela Brooks of Pension Life who is acting as my Representative on the subject of my affairs in respect of my pension,  investments and losses arising as a result of Continental Wealth Management S.L./Continental Wealth Trust S.L.

    Name: …………………………………………………………………………Signature: …………………………………………………………

    Address: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

    ……………………………………………………………………………………Passport Number: ……………………………………………..

    Please provide the below copy documentation/information to Angela Brooks by return.  These documents are required immediately for litigation in the Spanish Civil Court due to be issued next month.  I intend to be a claimant in these proceedings against the life offices Quilter International Ireland, SEB and Generali (Utmost).

    1. Pension transfer advice (Premier Pension Solutions or Global Financial Options)
    2. Client contract, agreement and confirmation with CWM and Inter Alliance (For when CWM was with Inter Alliance)
    3. Client contract, agreement and confirmation with CWM and Trafalgar (For when CWM was with Trafalgar International)
    4. Fact find and risk profile
    5. Insurance bond fees schedule
    6. Insurance bond advisor transfer letter (from Inter Alliance to Trafalgar)
    7. Insurance bond application
    8. Insurance policy document
    9. Latest valuation statement
    10. Latest full transaction history from inception to date (or point of redemption)
    11. Latest estimated bond surrender value
    12. Copies of all investment dealing instructions since inception
    13. Closing insurance bond statement (where bond has been surrendered)
    14. Closing pension statement showing all charges and amount remitted (where pension has been redeemed)
    15. Confirmation and full details as to how CWM’s insurance mediation/investment advice was licensed
    16. Details of all fees and commissions charged by CWM, Inter Alliance, Globalnet and Trafalgar
    17. Any correspondence relating to queries or complaints
    18. Trafalgar’s professional indemnity insurance policy and schedule
    19. In the case of a Quilter bond, confirmation as to whether it is Isle of Man or Ireland

  • The Sound of Silence (and Deafening Disgrace)

    The Sound of Silence (and Deafening Disgrace)

    This has been a week of scammers trying to silence the din of their sin.

    No matter how hard they try – stealing newspapers, denying the truth on social media or taking me to court – hard evidence simply won’t go away. It is there to stay.

    Costa Blanca Newspaper The Olive Press ran a story last week on Neil Hathaway of Continental Wealth Management. Hathaway – along with colleagues Anthony Downs and Dean Stogsdill – had been one of the three most senior players beneath Darren Kirby and Jody Smart in the £100 million fraud committed against 1,000 victims.

    Masquerading as “financial advisers” from 2010 to 2017, Hathaway, Downs, Stogsdill and Kirby conned hundreds of pension savers into transferring their pensions offshore so that CWM could make £ millions out of concealed commissions on the insurance bonds and structured notes they used to destroy their victims’ life savings.

    Operating illegally in Spain, Darren Kirby and his partner Jody Smart – sole director of the company (Continental Wealth Trust S.L. trading as Continental Wealth Management) – entrusted the dodgy trio with managing the fraudulent operation. Kirby, Smart, Hathaway, Downs and Stogsdill – along with their associates Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions and Paul Clarke of Roebuck Wealth Management – are all now facing charges of fraud in the Denia court.

    CWM scammer Neil Hathaway caught stealing copies of The Oliver Press which exposed him as facing fraud charges.

    Neil Hathaway was caught stealing bundles of copies of The Olive Press in his black SUV. Now being investigated by the local police, he is claiming he committed the crime because he was “angry” at having been outed in a previous Olive Press article – along with Darren Kirby and Jody Smart.

    Hathaway’s defence appears to be that he stole fewer copies of the Olive Press newspaper than the police say he did; that his wife had been “approached at work”; and that he was “protecting his name”.

    And this is the bit that scammers never seem to understand: Neil Hathaway’s name is on thousands of documents which evidence what he did to hundreds of CWM victims. Stealing hundreds of copies of a free newspaper isn’t going to make that evidence go away.

    The hundreds of emails written by Neil Hathaway conning his victims; the OMI, SEB and Generali statements and valuations reporting the huge losses suffered by his victims; the many testimonies of his distressed (and often suicidal) victims will still evidence what he did – no matter how many copies of The Olive Press he steals and destroys.

    Hathaway’s former “boss” Jody Smart (aka Jody Bell, Jody Kirby or Jody Pearson) has also been exposing (and disgracing) herself this week. A collection of “artistic” photographs has been doing the rounds on social media – evidencing Jody’s talents in partnership with a somewhat bouncy buddy.

    Jody Smart (aka Jody Bell and Jody Kirby) showing off her talents and assets.

    I wonder what they were promoting? It could easily have been blond hair dye or red stockings – or anything in between. But it is hoped they would both have been more transparent about what they charged for their services than the “advisers” at CWM were.

    And this, of course, is a perfect illustration of why so many offshore “advisers” behave – and promote themselves – in a manner which is so misleading. They purport to be giving “advice” which will improve expats’ pension arrangements by transferring the funds offshore. But the reality is that even if their pensions should have been left where they were in the UK, their principal motivation was to earn hidden commissions out of selling insurance bonds and high-risk investments.

    However hard anyone tries to remove this image of Jody Smart and her “Big’n Bouncy” associate (and other even more eye-watering images which I cannot publish because they might offend my gentle readers) from the internet, one can never un-see what has been seen. The memory of this photograph can never be extinguished – any more than the evidence of the destruction of so many of her clients’ pensions can ever be rubbed out.

    The scammers at CWM are soon going to be joined by their counter parts at Spectrum IFA Group, Pennick Blackwell/AES International and Holborn Assets. This would already have happened had it not been for Covid 19 and the closure of the courts.

    All these firms, and their so-called “advisers” (in reality just poorly-qualified salesmen) have several things in common:

    • They all recommend pension transfers even if it is in the client’s interests to leave the pension where it is (in the UK)
    • They all lie about the merits and advantages of QROPS
    • They have all decided – before they know the first thing about the client – that he is going to be put into an insurance bond
    • They all seek out investments which pay the highest (hidden) commissions – irrespective of whether these funds are any good (which they usually aren’t)
    • They rarely have any relevant financial services qualifications
    • Their firms are frequently unlicensed for insurance mediation or investment advice
    • They are all committing a criminal offence every time they sell an insurance bond in Spain (and possibly other jurisdictions)

    A few of the scammers are now facing criminal charges in Spain. Several scammers are under investigation by the Insolvency Service and/or the Serious Fraud Office. A couple of “life” offices are facing civil proceedings in the Isle of Man. A QROPS provider is facing civil proceedings in Gibraltar. Another QROPS provider is facing criminal proceedings in Hong Kong. A fund manager is about to face criminal proceedings in the Isle of Man. The tide is beginning to turn against the global trend of financial crime.

    When all’s said and done:

    Stealing newspapers or trying to prevent the publication of the crimes isn’t going to change any of that. The hard evidence of the crimes will remain – no matter how hard the scammers try to hide it.

    It doesn’t look like Old Mutual International (or Skandia or Quilter or whatever they are calling themselves this summer) is going to be able to bottom out their “clean up” operation. Perhaps they ought to try changing their name again so people forget what they did in the past? Perhaps under CEO Peter Kenny’s watchful eye, this might be achieved?

  • Fraud and Disloyalty in Offshore Financial Services

    Fraud and Disloyalty in Offshore Financial Services

    Today, 7th April 2020, was supposed to have been the second part of the Continental Wealth Management criminal trial. Obviously, due to Coronavirus, the hearing has been postponed. For now. As soon as the pandemic is under control and life in the courts (and elsewhere) gets back to “normal”, the hearings will be rescheduled. This is obviously a disappointment to the victims who are waiting anxiously to see the outcome of the trial – but it is only a relatively minor setback in the grand scheme of things. We will get these defendants into court, and the judge will give directions as to how to deal with the crimes committed.

    The crimes involved are:

    1. Fraud
    2. Disloyal administration
    3. Falsification of commercial documentation

    The second batch of defendants comprises:

    • Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions and Premier Pension Transfers, IPTS (International Pension Transfer Specialists), AES International, Dorrixo Alliance and Marazion
    • Paul Clarke of Continental Wealth Management, AES International and Roebuck Wealth
    • Jody Smart (alias Jody Bell) of Continental Wealth Trust, Jody Bell Fashion, Grant A Wish charity and Mercurio Conpro
    • Darren Kirby (partner of Jody Bell) of Continental Wealth Management and Continental Wealth Trust

    The first batch of defendants were cross examined in the week of 24th February 2020 and comprised:

    1. Patrick Kirby (brother of Darren Kirby)
    2. Anthony Downs
    3. Dean Stogsdill
    4. Neil Hathaway (all of Continental Wealth Management)

    When we first set out this case, we weren’t entirely sure the court would accept the charge of fraud – because it is difficult to prove as a complainant needs to establish intent. However, the court had no hesitation in accepting this charge, as well as the additional charges of disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documentation.

    The evidence in the case is very clear and incontrovertible: seventeen lead complainants (out of more than 600) who all exhibit the exact same “symptoms”:

    • Low to medium risk investors placed in inappropriate, high-risk investments
    • Insurance bonds sold illegally
    • Investments churned repeatedly
    • No license to provide insurance or investment advice
    • No qualifications to provide financial advice
    • No adjustment to financial strategy when serious losses began to appear

    It is tempting to think that perhaps Continental Wealth Management (which later became Continental Wealth Trust but still kept the original name) was an isolated case. But, sadly, that is not so. I have seen many examples (in Spain and other jurisdictions) of clients being placed into inappropriate investments, by other so-called advisers, which paid large, hidden commissions over the past six years. Stephen Ward was routinely flogging the EEA Life Settlements fund – putting some investors’ entire portfolios into this risky fund which paid up to 19% in commission. He was also flogging other high-risk funds such as Traded Life Policies, Axiom, Blackrock Gold and Aria – as well as selling bonds such as Skandia (OMI) illegally. And, naturally, Ward’s clients suffered crippling losses.

    The above method, show-cased by Stephen Ward, has – of course – been rife in offshore financial services for years. It has made the advisers rich and the investors poor. In short, this is disloyalty at its worst: the adviser putting his own interests above those of his clients.

    And that, in Spain and other European countries, is a criminal offence.

    But Ward wasn’t alone: Paul Clarke did the same even after he left Continental Wealth Management and became an agent of AES International – exploiting the financial advisory market on the Costa Blanca as he decimated clients’ savings with more illegally-sold insurance bonds, structured notes and expensive, high-commission funds. Clarke regularly featured in whole-page spreads in Euro Weekly – spouting “expertise” and masquerading as a qualified, experienced financial adviser.

    There are few firms in Spain – or indeed the rest of Europe and beyond – which do not rely heavily on the notorious insurance bond. The offshore market is dominated by the usual suspects: OMI (previously Skandia and now Quilter); Generali, SEB, RL360 and Investors Trust. And all these insurance companies encourage unregulated, unqualified advisors to sell these bonds illegally. There are few, if any, benefits to the consumer – and no insurance bond should ever be used inside a QROPS (unless there’s no lock-in and no commission).

    Most financial advice firms in Spain and beyond are still selling insurance bonds illegally.

    I just Googled: “wealth management and financial advice Spain”. The top results came up as: Blacktower; Blevins Franks; Abbey Wealth; Masttro (a firm I’d never heard of before); Finance Spain (another firm I’d never heard of); Spectrum IFA Group; and Alexander Peter. I am not saying whether any of these firms are either good or bad – but I think it is safe to assume they are all selling insurance bonds illegally.

    Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with an insurance bond. It is, after all, just a wrapper – or container for funds and investments. There are, arguably, some tax advantages in some jurisdictions – although they should never be used inside a QROPS.

    The problem with an insurance bond – whether from OMI, SEB, Generali or RL360 – is that an investor is going to get one whether he wants or needs one or can afford one or not. The investor will get locked in for up to ten years and he won’t be aware that the adviser will get paid an 8% commission for selling the bond. This commission will get clawed back by the life office over the term of the bond.

    Many investors are conned into believing that the bond provides some sort of protection. It doesn’t. Many investors are also conned into to thinking that the investments offered by the bond providers are “safe”. They aren’t necessarily – there may be some decent investments but there are also an awful lot of rubbish, expensive ones. But the biggest con of all is that the investor isn’t told that the annual bond charges (taken quarterly) will stay the same even if the portfolio value decreases. So, if the investor needs to withdraw some money from the bond, the charges will start to do some serious damage to the remaining fund. And if the investments fail – as many structured notes invariably do – and the portfolio value starts to decrease alarmingly – the bond charges will then erode what’s left very rapidly.

    Some victims of serious mis-selling actually end up having the entire fund destroyed by irresponsible, fraudulent or disloyal investment advice by rogue advisers – and can still be paying the bond charges even after the entire portfolio has been destroyed.

    The other half of the disloyalty and fraud by Continental Wealth Management (as well as some of the other well-known names in “wealth management”) is the practice of “churning”. This means that the same chunk of money is invested repeatedly to generate as much commission as possible – in as short a space of time as possible. This is easy to spot when looking at the bond statements (whether OMI/Quilter or RL360 or whatever):

    “Buy £100k worth of rubbish (earn 6% commission); sell £100k worth of rubbish; buy another £100k worth of rubbish (earn another 6% commission); sell £100k worth of rubbish; buy”….and so on. This exercise can be repeated over and over again in any period – say one year – to mince two or three lots of commission out of the same sum of money. The investor may not notice – as long as his fund value isn’t falling too much – and, because the commissions are concealed, he may not realise he is being defrauded and that his adviser is committing a criminal offence by being “disloyal”.

    The Continental Wealth Management case – being heard in the criminal court in Denia, Alicante – may not cure the ills of the offshore financial services industry overnight. But it will certainly send out a clear message to all financial advice firms that Spain, at least, will not tolerate such conduct. While British regulators, courts and police authorities are happy to leave fraudsters and scammers free to keep on operating and promoting financial scams, Spain is in the process of sending out a very clear message:

    Pension scamming will hopefully be outlawed in Spain after the Continental Wealth Management criminal case.

  • CWM Criminal Case and Business Plan

    CWM Criminal Case and Business Plan

    As we reach the halfway point in the criminal trial of the Continental Wealth Management and Premier Pension Solutions companies, I regret I am unable to give a detailed update on the case at this point. The first half of the eight defendants have been cross examined by the judge’s lawyer, and the second batch of four further defendants are due to be cross examined on 7th April 2020 (in the Denia Court of First Instruction).

    This, of course, assumes there is no disruption to the proceedings caused by the Corona virus lockdown.

    Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway of CWM leaving the Denia Criminal Court on 25th February 2020 after being cross examined on charges of fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documents.
    Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway of CWM leaving the Denia Criminal Court on 25th February 2020 after being cross examined on charges of fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documents.

    The first “batch” consisted of Patrick Kirby – Darren Kirby’s brother – who ran the CWM cold calling operation which sent so many hundreds of victims to their doom; Anthony Downs; Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway who had various different titles at different times – ranging from Managing Director to Operations Director to Investment Director.

    I can’t comment on the transcripts of the questions and answers on 24th and 25th February, and won’t be able to publish the full details of all cross examinations until all the defendants have appeared before the judge. The defendants on 7th April will be:

    • Jody Smart – sole director and shareholder who paid herself over 1 million Euros in the last two years of the life of CWM – the money being paid into her two other businesses: property company Mercurio and fashion design company Jody Bell. In addition, she also paid money into her Grant A Wish “charity” and drew a hefty salary.
    • Paul Clarke – founder of the original CWM company in partnership with Darren Kirby; Clarke left a year later to run AES International Spain, where he scammed more victims out of their life savings with expensive, unnecessary, illegally-sold insurance bonds, and high-risk structured notes – all sold for the fat commissions (despite the even fatter losses suffered by the victims). He also advised two victims to go into Stephen Ward’s Ark scam. Clarke now runs a firm called Roebuck Wealth and has scrubbed the internet of all trace of his history.
    • Darren Kirby – founder along with Clarke and ultimate controller of the whole CWM operation throughout. Kirby made every attempt to divest himself of all legal responsibility for CWM. He gave away his shares in the company to his business/civil partner Jody Smart, and some of his employees. However, all the defendants (as well as victims) are bound to confirm Darren Kirby was the ultimate boss and controlling mind of the company.
    • Stephen Ward – owner of Premier Pension Solutions SL. He was the person who signed off all the CWM clients’ pension transfers (for a fat fee). He knowingly condemned all pension holders whose transfers he signed off to inevitable partial or total loss. He was fully aware of CWM’s modus operandi as he himself used a similar investment model to that of CWM (and had taught them how to do it). Ward was routinely investing his own clients’ funds in a toxic, disloyal and irresponsible manner which was as bad – and sometimes even worse – than in the CWM cases.

    As soon as I can publish the cross examination transcripts and further directions, I will do so.

    This landmark Continental Wealth Management criminal case will inevitably shine a much-needed spotlight on the issue of offshore financial services generally. CWM was just one example (albeit an extreme one) of an international financial services culture which generally disadvantages and/or defrauds consumers. The cause of this culture is a combination of the obsession with the insurance bond cartel: OMI, SEB, Generali, RL360 et al; the total reliance on (hidden) commission; the practice of churning (investing the same sum of money as often as possible to generate as much commission as possible) and the view that the client’s money and interests are secondary to the adviser’s.

    CWM victims outside the Denia Criminal Court on 25.2.2020 waiting for Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway to finish being questioned on charges of fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documents.
    CWM victims outside the Denia Criminal Court on 25.2.2020 waiting for Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway to finish being questioned on charges of fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documents.

    Most victims – whether parties to the criminal proceedings or not – are aware of the demise of CWM in September 2017. The company was slowly dying because of the number of victims the CWM scammers had ruined: the word was getting out (which was bad for business) so the victims who shouted loudest were getting paid off. This was having a seriously detrimental effect on CWM’s cashflow.

    The financial strain on the business was, however, made even worse by the fact that every last bit of spare cash in the CWM bank account was being used to keep Jody Smart in houses, frilly frocks, shoes and champagne. In 2017, the CWM bank statements show 158,614 EUR was transferred into her Mercurio property company bank account, and 123,400 EUR into her Jody Bell fashion design company bank account. But this was significantly down on the previous year: 386,921 EUR to Mercurio and 164,000 EUR to Jody Bell. The year before, 2015, 124,500 EUR into Mercurio and 39,000.00 into Jody Bell fashion. That’s almost 1 million EUR in two years pocketed by Jody – not counting the money paid into her Grant A Wish “charity” and her generous “salary”.

    During the same period, however, the revenue was at least 3,391,876.28 EUR in commissions from insurance bonds and structured notes. On top of this was a substantial amount of extra secret commission from the ultra-high-risk Leonteq structured notes, plus whatever Darren Kirby could con out of victims such as Mark Davison (who subsequently died penniless) and the other claimants pursuing Kirby and CWM through the criminal court in Denia in separate proceedings which pre-date our Pension Life proceedings.

    Looking back to the dying days of CWM when cashflow was slowly grinding to a halt as the company was paying out compensation to some of the worst-affected victims (and any remaining cash was being spent by Jody Smart on first-class flights to New York and champagne in five-star hotels – despite her claim to be working 24/7 on her Grant A Wish charity), there was a plan to “reinvent” and re-launch CWM. It eventually dawned on the CWM scammers that they couldn’t scam enough new victims quickly enough to pay out all the existing victims – so the answer was to start afresh with a brand new approach. The new approach was essentially the same as the old approach – except they aimed to sell more “products” and ruin more victims.

    The rest is history and CWM collapsed at the end of September 2017 – when all related parties withdrew terms of business. It is worth taking a careful look at the business plan which CWM had been intending to use to re-launch the business. This plan makes it clear that this was an unlicensed, insurance bond sales outfit which intended to continue to operate in contravention of the Spanish insurance regulations. If you read the plan carefully, you will see that CWM operating model was always based on a high-pressure sales target which ignored the interests of the clients (victims).

    CWM’s promotion had always been centered around the iniquitous cold call – but in addition the business plan reveals that Jody Smart’s Grant A Wish “charity” events had been used to “harvest” potential victims at scamming sales parties posing as bona fide fundraising efforts.

    Read the below CWM “Relaunch Business Plan” carefully and you will see how the scam works. If a victim transfers a £100,000 pension, it will fall in value in the hands of CWM to £91,976,000 by the end of year 1. This means the first year fees would have totalled £4,000 set up fee plus £1,000 annual management fee to CWM; £1,490 QROPS fee; £1,534 to fee OMI. It is interesting that Stogsdill has made the assumption in the plan that all clients will be put into an OMI bond – long before they’ve even met the client and found out if they actually need an insurance bond (which they never do as they are too expensive and lock investors in for up to ten years).

    The CWM “plan” shows how a victim’s fund could recover back up to £97,495 if it grows by 6%. But this doesn’t take into account the investment costs of between 5% and 8% – so that was never going to happen. So Dean Stogsdill of CWM – despite all the lessons which should have been learned from years of destroying victims’ funds, still fully intended to keep on doing the same to as many new victims as possible.

    Continental Wealth Management Business Plan 2017 (by Dean Stogsdill)

    Continental Wealth Management is an independent financial advice firm specialising in wealth management advice to English speaking expatriates throughout Europe – this statement is the key to CWM’s future success.

    CWM must focus on expanding our circle of influence and create new business through strategic placement of data gatherers. We must take on the business of “hard targets”, created to allow the best we have to flourish, whilst removing the weaker members of the team by natural selection. This is not a system for solely the sales force, but for all aspects of the team including call centre operators, administration and directors.

    CWM will have clear defined roles within the sales force with the addition of achievable, measurable targets on top of generous salaries which is the cornerstone of our payroll ethos. The business will flow from our Partners meaning the business can be closed efficiently and serviced by an experienced adviser who is well trained, knowledgeable and most importantly a “hungry individual”.

    There is a simple calculation on £100,000.00:

    £100,000 invested over 6 years in capital protected products will provide £6,250.00 in gross revenue.

    £100,000 invested over 6 years in a fund yielding 3% per annum growth will provide £10,690 in gross revenue.

    BACKGROUND

    CWM is a financial services company founded in 2007 on the Costa Blanca. It is a company specialising in pension transfers, portfolio bonds, offshore investments and single premium investments. It is a non-regulated company which is owned and operated by the directors / shareholders and founder Darren Kirby. Recent investors are Timothy Benjamin, and Mark Davison with share capital having been distributed amongst these investors.

    Directors / Shareholders

    Founder / Majority Shareholder – Darren Kirby

    Chairman – Neil Hathaway

    CEO – Dean Stogsdill

    COO – Anthony Downs

    Key Personnel

    Darren Kirby – He brings a wealth of experience in financial services with a keen head for figures and sales techniques. He has a strong view on the business and how it should be perceived by the clients, while strengthening our position through strategic investment decisions along with powerful leadership skills.

    Neil Hathaway – Decades of experience in insurance and wealth management, he brings a strong personality and great sales skills with the qualifications to match. He is a knowledgeable asset to the management of the sales force and uses his skills to bring through the less experienced members of the team.

    Dean Stogsdill – Strong sales record and up to date qualifications – he can sell at the most technical level and has a strong grasp of the investment market, regulation and products. Strong views on company direction.

    Anthony Downs – Organised, driven and a sales record to match. He drives through the issuing business and captures all revenues and commissions in the most efficient manner. Anthony is key to the efficient stream of payments required for this business model.

    Directors: Re-structure 2017

    Darren Kirby

    The final decision maker as majority shareholder means critical decisions will fall to him. A mandate to find new investors and revenue streams for CWM. An ambassadorial role and a creative thinker for the company, bringing fresh ideas on many aspects of the business both operational and non-operational.

    Neil Hathaway

    Key point of contact for the sales force. A remit to push the sales force to meet targets and close business. He will be in control of sales, possible bond lists as well as monitoring the business / LOA levels for each adviser. He will also have a key role in writing new business. This will be a target driven management position. All advisers will report directly to him.

    Dean Stogsdill

    Complete oversight of the business operationally with a close working relationship with the Chairman and COO. I will manage the company direction and overall development planning, strategies and high level management with department heads reporting directly to me. I will chair board meetings and deal with technical and regulatory planning. I will also be heavily involved in the efficient management of the investment book.

    Anthony Downs

    Full control of new business. A remit to drive through the revenues from written business to maximize the cashflow of the company. Target driven with targets based on company income needs, outstanding requirements and business written.

    With the current admin levels and management restructure we should be able to easily handle up to 7 bonds per week, plus client after care, outstanding requirements, investment and re-investment. We do not hire any more administration in 2017. Although this will be adjusted if business levels exceed 7 bonds per week.

    We are now a company where you perform, meet your target or you are replaced.

    Of the 9 bond writers, we have 1 in France, 1 in Turkey, 1 in Portugal and the other 6 are in Spain. I believe that we need to build up the business levels so that 9 bond writers can meet a target of 30 bonds per man for the year or an average of 3 a month, based on a 10 month / 40-week year. This would mean a company wide total of 270 bonds, at our target average of €10,000 commission per bond that would mean turnover of 2.7 million plus trail of €300,000 meaning a total of €3,000,000 for 2017.

    Call Centres – Cold calling with appointments made and revenue generated through call centres and call centres paid for on performance only.

    Market history:

    Historically we have concentrated on cold calling, Grant A Wish (“charity”) events, web videos, website and referrals from existing clients. The cold calling aspect is becoming more and more difficult and time consuming and other areas of marketing ourselves and our products must be found.

    Competition – Blevins Franks; DeVere; Abbey Financial; Spectrum; Blacktower

    Our average case size of £100,000 has costs associated with it as follows:

    Opening

    		Initial Single Premium 100,000

    		Total 100,000



    Charges CWM   

    		Initial CWM Set Up Charge 4,000 –

    		–

    		QROPS Set Up Charge and Annual Fee 1,490

    		OMI Annual Management Charge 1,150

    		CWM Annual Management Charge 1,000

    		OMI Annual Administration Charge (paid Quarterly) 384
    Total Expenses 8,024 3,354





    		Net 91,976

    		Estimated Growth 6% 5,519




    Year End Balance 97,495 99,789


       

    		– –

    		– –

    		– –

    		– –




    Balance on Fund 97,495 99,789

    This gives us a year 1 price point of 8.02% and an ongoing of 3.3%.

  • CWM Criminal Trial 24th February 2020

    CWM Criminal Trial 24th February 2020

    The protagonists behind collapsed Spanish advisory firm CWM – Continental Wealth Management – will be on trial week commencing 24th February in the Denia Criminal Court of First Instruction.

    Scammers at CWM destroyed 1,000 victims' life savings totaling £100 million. CWM was shut down in 2017 when the scale of their crimes became too embarrassing for OMI, SEB and Generali to tolerate any longer.

    This criminal matter will have enormous ramifications for similarly-affected victims, and for any advisory firms which have engaged in any of the same practices used by CWM. These illegal practices include the gratuitous selling of insurance bonds from bond providers such as OMI, SEB, RL360, Friends Provident and Generali; putting low-risk investors into commission-laden, high-risk investments; churning and concealment of backhanders; forged or copied client signatures on investment dealing instructions.

    The routine “sale” of insurance bonds (whether the clients need them or not – which 99% of the time they don’t) is illegal in Spain.  Undoubtedly this will be similar or identical in other jurisdictions.  The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that insurance bonds are invalid for the purpose of holding investments. But still the scammers continue to flog them indiscriminately – purely for the fat commissions.

    Insurance bond salesmanship has become one of the biggest, most widespread and toxic crimes across all expat territories – and now it must be outlawed by the ethical sector of the financial services market. And there is an ethical sector which abhors the toxic and dishonest practices which will be the subject of the CWM trial. There is also a “semi-ethical” sector which is genuinely ashamed that it too has carried out such practices, but which is determined to clean up it’s act and “go straight” from now on.

    Make no mistake – the Denia Criminal Court is determined to clean up this stretch of the Costa Blanca in particular and Spain in general – as well as make an example out of the CWM scammers.  Some of the CWM victims, as well as Ark and Capita Oak victims – and those financially ruined by both Stephen Ward and Paul Clarke – will be at the court hearings the week of 24th February. There will be local and international press coverage to highlight the importance of this significant event.

    The defendants in the CWM case were served in early January.  They are now compelled to come to court to be cross-examined by our lawyer.  Each defendant will have his or her own legal representative and also a court-appointed translator.  The cross examinations will take place privately in front of the judge, but a transcript of each one will be published subsequently. I will translate these transcripts and make them publicly available on the Pension Life website as soon as they are made available by the court.

    The dates of the now compulsory court hearings are:

    • Monday 24th February from 10 a.m.: Darren Kirby; Patrick Kirby and Anthony Downs
    • Tuesday 25th February from 10 a.m.: Jody Smart, Neil Hathaway and Dean Stogsdill
    • Friday 28th February from 10 a.m.: Stephen Ward and Paul Clarke

    Darren Kirby did not show up for the last criminal trial – when he was accused of defrauding three victims out of their life savings in order to give him money to prop up the rapidly failing CWM and to pay money to his partner – Jody Smart – to invest in her fashion business: Jody Bell. One of the complainants in this previous case has since died.

    Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions has fled to Florida where he owns a portfolio of at least ten mortgage-free properties near Disneyland. However, he will not succeed in avoiding prosecution.

    Sole director and shareholder of CWM, Jody Smart did turn up for the last criminal trial, so it is expected that she will probably attend this one. Smart will be keen to deflect blame from herself and claim that she was only a “nominee” director. However, in the last two years of operation, she paid herself 991,035.86 Eur (on top of her already more than generous director’s salary) – 670,035 Eur into her property company Mercurio Conpro and 321,000 Eur into her Jody Bell fashion business.

    The remaining CWM defendants: Anthony Downs, Neil Hathaway, Dean Stogsdill and Paul Clarke are likely to turn up since they are all based in Spain and have families, property and businesses here.

    CWM earned 3,391,876 Eur in commissions on sales of insurance bonds and structured notes in the last two years of operation. Scammers like CWM generally made at least 16% commission out of victims’ pensions and investments. This would mean that in this period, CWM scammed victims out of approximately 17,000,000 Eur. On top of his, the firm earned many hundreds of thousands from victims they cleaned out promising them shares in the company (which Darren Kirby had claimed was worth 10 million), properties and cars. But when the firm closed, the CWM bank account was virtually empty. This video will illustrate some of the appalling misery the CWM victims endured – and the extent to which Jody Smart benefited from the money stolen from the victims: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYlxu8YOaAM&t=3s

    The following related entities have been asked to provide documentary evidence to support the complainants cases:

    Inter Alliance, Globalnet, Trafalgar, Old Mutual International, SEB and Generali

    This evidence will include copies of risk profiles and investment dealing instructions – bearing the forged investor signatures.   

    This criminal case has been brought by using 17 “lead” cases – victims of the CWM scam who have all lost considerable amounts of their life savings. These victims are now the lead complainants who also represent the interests of the further hundreds of victims who have suffered similar fates. The lead complainants have put an enormous amount of time, work and self-sacrifice towards this matter. Each complainant has had to re-live the horror of their suffering at the hands of CWM – telling their painful stories to our lawyer Antonio Bertomeu. Most of the lead complainants are based in the vicinity of Denia – where CWM committed the majority of the crimes. However, one complainant came all the way from Portugal.

    I will be with Antonio Bertomeu the week before the trial as we prepare for the cross examination of the defendants in court during the week of 24th February.  This is a crucial point in the proceedings as there has been a substantial amount of further evidence which has emerged since this complaint was originally filed in court in June 2019.  There are also further defendants who will now need to be included in the proceedings.

    The Denia court has stressed that this is an issue which is of great importance as it involves three serious criminal offences which are likely to involve substantial financial penalties and custodial sentences:

    • Falsification of commercial documents
    • Disloyal administration
    • Continuous fraud

    The outcome of this case will inevitably have far-reaching consequences for the industry globally – especially since the practices which are the subject of these criminal proceedings have been widely practised for a number of years. These crimes have not been exclusive to Continental Wealth Management and their associates.  There are many victims beyond the clients of CWM who have suffered similar crippling investment losses. The scope of these criminal proceedings will now inevitably reach into other firms and jurisdictions.

  • Meghan and Harry’s New Challenge: Pension Scams

    Meghan and Harry’s New Challenge: Pension Scams

    Meghan and Harry – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – are having a tough time (and are running away from home). Their sadness and confusion is because they have no purpose or passion in life. So I am offering them an interesting and satisfying challenge: taking on and championing the cause of pension scam victims. Harry’s Mum knew a thing or too about adopting worthy causes and had no problem jumping on a plane to far away, war-torn places full of the most appalling human suffering and landmines. Meghan and Harry don’t even have to travel as far as the airport to find victims whose cause desperately needs championing.

    Megan and Harry - in search of a purpose in life - need to look at the human misery caused by pension and investment scammers: Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions; Paul Clarke of Roebuck Wealth; Dennis Radford of Spectrum IFA Group; Darren Kirby of CWM; Gus Ferguson and David Vilka of Square Mile; James Hadley of Nationwide Benefit Consultants; Patrick McCreesh of Blackmore Group; Phill Pennick of Pennick Blackwell; Peter and Sara Moat of Fast Pensions; Paul Baxendale-Walker and Phillip Nunn of Blackmore Group

    Poor Duke and Duchess of Sussex – what an awful time they’re having: posh clothes; flash cars; sumptuous “cottage” in Windsor Park. They needn’t be bored and aimless any longer. They can become patrons of the plight of the thousands of British citizens who have lost £ billions to pension and investment scams.

    Just as the Late Princess Diana confronted the horrific dangers of land mines, Meghan and Harry can confront the huge tide of appalling human misery caused by scammers Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions; Paul Clarke of Roebuck Wealth; Dennis Radford of Spectrum IFA Group; Darren Kirby of CWM; Gus Ferguson and David Vilka of Square Mile; XXXX XXXX of Nationwide Benefit Consultants; Phill Pennick of Pennick Blackwell; Peter and Sara Moat of Fast Pensions; Paul Baxendale-Walker; Patrick McCreesh and Phillip Nunn of Blackmore Group; Paul Careless of Surge Group.

    This is now becoming a very high-profile topic – especially in the light of the multiple, dismal failings of the FCA and a recent series of hard-hitting articles published by Tom Kelly of the Daily Mail. Kelly, an engaging and open-minded young man (who I am sure the Sussexes will like) has written about a wide array of pension and investment disasters which have befallen thousands of victims since 2010.  I would urge Meghan and Harry to contact him: Tom’s email address is:  Tom.Kelly@dailymail.co.uk and his editor’s address is: Geordie.greg@dailymail.co.uk

    As the disillusioned Royals are bound to ask whether pension scam victims have anything to do with them (or whether they should even care about people who have lost their life savings or pensions), they might like to consider the following:

    • If Frogmore Cottage catches fire, Meghan and Harry will have to call the Fire Brigade. The sumptuous property cost £2.4 million to refurbish to the highest possible standard, but even the best sparks do sometimes make the odd mistake. The Royals’ home – and even their lives – will be in the hands of the firemen. These brave firefighters will risk their own lives running into the burning building; then will rescue the people and (hopefully) save the building.
    • If Meghan and Harry’s baby son Archie is unwell after inhaling smoke, they will rush him to hospital – where he will be tended to by nurses and doctors.
    • If a therapeutic trip to Canada is required (to get over the upset of their home being damaged by fire), the plane will be flown by two pilots.

    Pension and investment scammers target people from all works of life – including firemen, doctors, nurses and airline pilots. Next time the Sussexes place their hands into the lives of any of these professionals, they might like to consider whether these people are victims of scams and are worried sick about their financial losses.

    Scammers don’t care what their victims do for a living: sparks, chippies, builders, gardeners, taxi and bus drivers, soldiers, care workers, architects, scientists, accountants, artists, police officers…the list is endless – and includes airline pilots.

    Meghan and Harry need not think that going to Canada will get them far away from the world of pension and investment scams. These criminals have long arms and can easily reach as far as North America – and well beyond. The long list of highly-organised scams includes schemes in the UK and all expat jurisdictions across the globe – including Canada.

    Coming from a privileged background where Harry’s Mum gets paid more than £8 million a year (and Meghan and Harry are reportedly worth around £30 million), it is going to be hard to get their heads round the poverty thousands of victims are facing. Perhaps cutting the purse and apron strings will teach Meghan and Harry just how hard it is to earn a crust – and save for a retirement that isn’t handed to them on a plate.

    While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex fly backwards and forwards between the UK and Canada, perhaps they might like to ponder a few things:

    1. How to keep the plight of pension and investment scam victims in the headlines
    2. How to encourage the government to make financial regulation effective
    3. How to provide a law-enforcement system that ensures all scammers are jailed
    4. How to get the law changed to ensure HMRC pursues the perps rather than the victims
    5. Whether the pilot of their plane has lost his pension and hasn’t got his mind entirely on the job

    If Meghan and Harry do accept this challenge, they will have to accept that it won’t be easy. The scammers are determined, hard-nosed and hard-hearted criminals; the regulators are lazy and mostly asleep at the wheel; the police are over-stretched and under-resourced; the government hasn’t got a Scooby – and anyway can’t think beyond Brexit. This is evidenced by the fact that the moronic Chancellor Sajid Javid appointed arch FCA failure Andrew Bailey to govern the Bank of England. Boris Johnson was just as bonkers to endorse this ridiculous decision. When he told the Queen of the appointment, she should have given him a good slap round the earhole. (Mind you – she was probably a bit preoccupied about the company Uncle Andrew was keeping at the time, and she probably thought “oh well, at least Bailey isn’t a paedophile”).

    The biggest challenge in fighting pension and investment scams is how to help prevent further victims. The best way to do this is to keep the topic firmly in the public eye – and that means encouraging the press to keep the subject in the headlines (and not let it get shoved out of sight by trivia). The other important role that Meghan and Harry could play would be to ensure that politicians keep their promises. A couple of years ago Boris Johnson promised a group of his constituents that he would tackle pension scams. But nothing happened and now he is ignoring them. We all know he’s been a little busy recently, but leaving his own constituents hanging after promising he would help them is not acceptable.


    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-7862039/Time-pensions-promise-Boris-PM-pledged-help-victims.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-related

    I remember being with two Ark victims at least five years ago and begging journalists at The Sunday Times and The Sun to run an article on the Ark scam.  They all said it wasn’t “sexy enough”.  Mark Atherton of The Times wrote a very good piece in The Times in 2014, but he was severely threatened and never wrote about pension scams again.  
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pension-scam-leaves-victims-in-debt-k33rlcs25wc

    Just think how many victims could have been prevented had the media done their duty and fully exposed the parties who caused and facilitated these scams since 2010.  Then think how many suicides and stress-related deaths could have been prevented.  Consider how much money could have been saved from destruction – and how many people could have been looking forward to a well-earned and comfortable retirement rather than abject poverty and misery. 

    In October 2019, The Mail’s Tom Kelly came to my office in Spain and spent several days with me.  I went through the whole history of Stephen Ward and Ark (followed by Capita Oak and more than a dozen others), as well as James Lau and Salmon Enterprises, Paul Baxendale-Walker, Peter Moat and Darren Kirby’s Continental Wealth Management.  I explained to Tom in detail how the flow of money works from the ceding pension providers: Aviva, Standard Life, Prudential, NHS, Police and Local Authorities etc., to the receiving schemes; what the difference between personal and DB pensions is and how the whole bogus occupational scheme fraud worked.  Most important, we went through how hidden commissions and high-risk, toxic investments often destroy victims’ funds – as well as the life bonds such as OMI, SEB, Generali, Friends Provident, RL360 which lock investors in to entirely unnecessary, inflexible and expensive offshore bonds – AND PAY FAT COMMISSIONS TO THE UNQUALIFIED, UNREGULATED SCAMMERS.

    In case Meghan and Harry are still unsure whether patronage of an initiative to outlaw pension and investment scams is their cup of tea, I will share, yet again, the video which features the death of CWM victim Mark Davison:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYlxu8YOaAM

    Fleeced by Darren and Jody Kirby of his pension and house, CWM victim died alone in abject poverty.

    Laura Shannon of The Mail On Sunday attended Mark’s memorial service and interviewed dozens of further CWM victims in September 2019.  While five months pregnant, Laura made the journey to Denia, Alicante, in fierce heat – putting all other so-called investigative journalists who write about financial services (or not, as the case may be) to shame.  Not even stopping to recover from an arduous bus journey from the airport, she got stuck straight in and wrote an excellent piece:  https://pension-life.com/continental-wealth-management-plunder-in-paradise/

    Responsibility for reforming financial services and bringing culpable parties to justice may lie with governments, regulators, police and HMRC. But Royals could do their part too. Meghan and Harry: get stuck in to a worthy cause. Find out what the real world is really like for ordinary, decent, hard-working victims of pension and investment scams.


    Finally, I am enormously grateful to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell for calling out our idiot Chancellor Sajid Javid over the appalling appointment of Andrew Bailey as Governor of the Bank of England.  Anyone who fancies dropping him a line can reach him here: mcdonnellj@parliament.uk or here: lowderh@parliament.uk

  • Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice

    Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice

    As the decade comes to a close, it is clearer than ever that victims of investment fraud need justice. The dirtiest stain on society is that of pension and investment fraud. Scammers have made fortunes out of pension and investment scams in the UK and across the globe – in all leading expat jurisdictions. With little sign of this international crime abating, scammers continue making fortunes out of relieving people of their life savings.

    Dynamic Investment scam only tip of the iceberg
    The FCA managed to get out of bed (briefly) to bring to justice the scammer behind the Dynamic £600k investment scam. But completely overlooked over £1 billion worth of other investment scams.

    Meanwhile, the very authorities which should be preventing financial crime – regulators; law enforcement agencies; HMRC; Insolvency Service; government; courts – stand around clueless and helpless. Their inaction is embarrassing and disgusting – especially in the wake of the appalling announcement that Andrew Bailey has been appointed governor of the Bank of England.

    The saddest thing – for our society in general and existing victims in particular – is that it can be done. But we must ask ourselves why the criminals are brought to justice so seldom. On 20th December 2019, FT Adviser published an article reporting how one fraudster was brought to justice and ordered to pay redress to his victims.

    Manraj Singh Virdee of Dynamic UK Trades Ltd conned 24 victims out of more than £600,000. His method was to promise returns of 100% for investing in his forex trading and spread betting “expertise”. The FCA brought a case against this criminal who was convicted by Southwark Crown Court. The sentence was only a suspended prison sentence for running an unauthorised investment scheme. However, the court made a confiscation order against Singh Virdee of £171,913 – to be used to compensate the victims. If he doesn’t pay, he will be sentenced to two years in prison.

    It is indeed good to know that during a prolonged period of being asleep at the wheel, the FCA can do a wee bit of regulating. But why does Manraj Singh Virdee deserve to be sentenced for defrauding 24 victims out of £600,000 when so many other scammers have got away with defrauding many thousands of victims out of many £ millions?

    Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice: In 2020, pressure must be brought to bear on the inattentive, lazy and negligent authorities who have done nothing. It is simply not acceptable to turn a blind eye to so much financial crime. This is especially true when cases like the Singh Virdee one clearly demonstrate that if only they could be bothered, they could actually clean up the scamming industry. But, first, they have to want to do it. And as things stand, there is no evidence that they really do want to.

    While this would-be forex trader and spread better faces a couple of years behind bars, the rest of the scammers are still out there scamming away merrily and profitably. Shouldn’t 2020 be the year to make pension and investment scamming illegal? Because as things stand, the scammers know they can get away with it easily.

    Singh Virdee’s scam was pretty obvious, and I do not mean to trivialise the £600k he scammed out of his victims. But this is dwarfed by Stephen Ward‘s £3 million London Quantum pension scam; David Vilka‘s £7 million GFS QROPS scam; Stephen Ward and XXXX XXXX’s £10 million Capita Oak pension scam; XXXX XXXX’s £21 million Trafalgar Multi Asset QROPS investment scam; Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh‘s £25 million Blackmore Bond investment scam; Stephen Ward’s £27 million Ark pension scam; Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh‘s £41 million Blackmore Global investment scam; Old Mutual International and Leonteq‘s £94 million investment/life bond scam; London Capital & Finance‘s £230 million mini bond scam; Dolphin Trust‘s £600 million derelict property loan scam.

    So, come on FCA: £600,000 down – only £1,158,000,000 to go!

  • Pension Life – Pension File November 2019

    Pension Life – Pension File November 2019

    FCA and FOS continue to dismay and disgust; CWM criminal case set to change offshore financial services; Forged dealing instructions epidemic; Offshore advisory firms without an investment license.

    Pension Life Pension File - a round up of the disgusting disasters in the UK and offshore in the murky world of financial services. From the FCAand the FOS to scammers and facilitators of financial crime, this world is like the toilets in the FCA's offices: need a damn good clean.

    It now emerges that on top of a failed “City Watchdog” (the Federated Consolidation of Apathy) we also have not just one, but two failed ombudsmen.

    The FCA has had a light bulb moment as it announces a “temporary ban” on the promotion of unregulated mini bonds. This so-called “nuclear” option is due to start in January 2020 and is scheduled to last for just one year. Presumably, the FCA will have lost interest by then. Or perhaps the huge effort required to teach FCA staff how to use a toilet will have exhausted them anyway. Maybe the new parliament will close the whole thing down and set up a proper regulator – ideally run by a mixture of proper professionals and also some victims (who are the real experts on regulatory failures).

    In an “FFS!” moment, the FCA is now rivaled by the FOS as it too is exposed as a failure by the Glassdoor employees review site. One FOS employee reviewer stated: “Management has been hauled up in front of the Treasury on more than one occasion; it has received and continues to receive negative comments on Glassdoor; it has been subject of investigation by Dispatches but nothing has changed.” Sounds just like the FCA – at least the two organisations are consistent in a unified manner. Perhaps Amerdeep Somal (Head of the FOS) and Andrew Bailey (would-be Head of the Bank of England) consider this to be a good achievement?

    Sadly, the Pensions Ombudsman is no better either. Complaints where negligent, lazy, apathetic ceding providers – such as Standard Life, Aviva, Prudential and Scottish Widows – have handed over £ millions to pension scams, are not upheld. The Ombudsman’s excuse is that the “Scorpion” campaign which warned the public and the industry about the dangers of pension liberation fraud was not published until February 14th 2013. The Ombudsman conveniently forgets to mention that there had been a very clear and loud warning back in 2010 – by OPRA (the forerunner of the Pensions Ombudsman). But it would seem that no British regulators or ombudsmen ever let the truth get in the way of defending big, toxic institutions which are “too big to fail”.

    Continental Wealth Management's Jody Bell (Smart, Kirby) and her partner Darren Kirby will now be cross examined in the criminal court for a second time in February 2020.

    In Spain, the Criminal Justice System has, at long last, decided that the CWM (Continental Wealth Management) scam run by Jody Smart, Darren Kirby and an assortment of silver-tongued scammers must be brought to justice. This follows a year-long initiative to document the £100 million scam operated by the Costa Blanca based firm and facilitated by life (death) offices Old Mutual International, SEB and Generali. It is hoped that Smart, Kirby and the rest of the motley crew of advisers such as Dean Stogsdill, Anthony Downs, Neil Hathaway, Richard Peasley, Phill Pennick and Dennis Radford will serve long prison sentences.

    The Spanish criminal court has made an order that the life offices (OMI, SEB, Generali) and all those connected to Continental Wealth Management – and who facilitated their crimes in the years up to 2017 when the firm collapsed – will be called to give evidence. In particular, the risk profiles and forged signatures on dealing instructions will be brought into evidence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYlxu8YOaAM&t=12s

    Part of the Continental Wealth Management scam was the repeated use of forged signatures on dealing instructions. This practice became accepted by life offices such as OMI from 2010 onwards as the volume of business coming in from scammers became extremely lucrative. Scammers such as Darren Kirby and his team of bogus “advisers” (who went on to work for firms such as Spectrum IFA Group and Pennick Blackwell) would use a blank dealing instruction bearing the victim’s signature to “churn” the fund and maximise the commissions earned. The favourite investments were structured notes from rogue providers such as Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura and Leonteq.

    Old Mutual International facilitated millions of pounds' worth of financial crime from scammers such as CWM. Thousands of dealing instructions had forged investor signatures - but this was "good business" for the likes of OMI.

    Old Mutual International, SEB and Generali accepted thousands of dealing instructions from scammers such as Continental Wealth Management. On top of knowing full well that such firms had no investment license (in fact, CWM had no license of any kind) and no qualifications to give investment advice, OMI and the other rogue death offices repeatedly accepted these dealing instructions with obviously forged signatures.

    CWM and a number of other firms would trick victims into signing a blank dealing instruction. Then they would countersign it with an illegible signature. These blank investment forms would then be photocopied repeatedly – sometimes for many years – as the victims’ funds were churned and repeatedly invested in high-risk investments such as toxic structured notes.

    Old Mutual International actively encouraged this financial crime by paying unlicensed scammers like CWM 8% commissions to flog expensive, unnecessary life bonds – and then flog the risky, toxic investments offered on the life office platform.

    One of the structured note providers – Leonteq – is now being sued by OMI for the £94 million worth of especially toxic notes sold to hundreds of victims to destroy their funds and pay the scammers an extra 2% commission “under the table”. However, OMI put these structured notes on their platform in the first place, and accepted the forged dealing instructions in the second place. Difficult to see how this was anyone’s fault other than Old Mutual’s.

    Part of the syndrome of offshore financial crime being routinely accepted by life offices, is the proliferation of “advisory” firms operating without being fully licensed. There is a cheesy urban myth that a firm can give investment advice if it flogs victims an insurance bond and then picks from the selection of toxic, high-risk investments being offered by the bond provider. This isn’t deemed to be “investment advice” as the so-called adviser is merely assisting the investor to make his own decisions (i.e. give himself advice). This practice has gone on for years – and is still going on with firms such as Spectrum IFA Group which openly advertises the fact that it gives investment advice, even though it has no investment license.

    The FCA is now being rivaled by the FOS and the POS for the lowest standards.

    While the FCA wouldn’t have the slightest interest in what goes on offshore (after all, it doesn’t give a toss what happens in the UK either), the Malta FSA has at least made sure that only licensed advisers give investment advice on Malta’s watch. An advisory firm with an insurance license can still flog insurance bonds that few people need and even fewer can afford, but Malta will no longer accept investment advice from such “Chiringuitos” (Spanish for financial scammer). This has, of course, resulted in an exodus to Gibraltar where the scammers can pretty much do what they like. The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission actively encourages scams. STM Fidecs – bogus QROPS trustees for the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund scam (under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office) – and the Blackmore Global investment scam perpetrated by serial scammers Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh – are still flourishing happily on the Gib rock. The Gib FSC stands idly by and does nothing. Obviously, the Gib lot are trying to emulate the FCA – and succeeding happily.

    It will take more than a few fireworks to clean up the financial services mess in the UK, in expat jurisdictions across the globe, and in the FCA’s toilets.

  • Fighting pension scams – Qualifications

    Fighting pension scams – Qualifications

    Fighting pension scams needs to be done logically and methodically.  Decent advisers need to use high standards to help fight scams.  If these standards become the norm, the scammers won’t survive and flourish so easily.

    Fighting pension scams – Qualifications

    Most qualified advisers want nothing to do with pension scams.  Many offshore firms employ advisers who have not passed the required exams.  Even if an adviser has qualified, he or she must still be registered.  We recently surveyed a number of offshore advisory firms:

    Belgravia Wealth     Square Mile      Robusto   Spectrum     Blevins Franks     Seagate Wealth     Woodbrook Group     Globaleye

    Lots of offshore advisers consider they don’t need to be qualified.  Let’s have a look at an example:

    The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) is the largest and most widely respected professional body for those who work in the securities. The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is a professional body dedicated to building trust in the insurance and financial planning profession.

    All financial advisory firms should list their advisers, provide clear details of each adviser’s qualifications and a link to the institute’s register showing evidence of the qualifications.

    Here is a useful guide to qualifications: Qualified Adviser for QROPS

     “Qualifications are not the be all/end all.  A certificate does not prove professional competence in the field , ethics or experience. But the public have to start their due diligence somewhere.”

    Sadly, there are a few well qualified advisers who are the exception to the rule.  Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions ran numerous scams:

    Ark     Evergreen     Capita Oak     Westminster     Southlands     Headforte

    Randwick Estates     Bollington Wood     Hammerley     Halkin     Feldspar

    and many others such as Westminster and London Quantum – ruining thousands of lives.  Several of his schemes are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.  He also provided the transfer advice in the Continental Wealth scam.

    Any decent adviser will want to be fully qualified.  And registered.  The rest should go back to selling snake oil.  But consumers must remember there are exceptions.  Some regulated firms get it wrong.  Qualified advisers can get it wrong.

    The trick is to know all the questions to ask.  Here’s where the ten standards come in handy:

    1. Firm must be fully regulated – with licenses for insurance and investment advice
    2. Advisers must be qualified to the right standard pension-life.com/ten-essential-standards-for-pension-advice
    3. Firm must have Professional Indemnity Insurance
    4. Clients must have comprehensive fact finds and risk profiles
    5. Firm must operate adequate compliance procedures
    6. Advisers must not abuse insurance bonds
    7. Clients must understand the investment policy
    8. All fees, charges and commissions must be disclosed
    9. Investors must know how their investments are performing
    10. Firm must keep a log of all customer complaints

    Fighting pension scams – why qualifications are so essential

    If clients used only firms that tick all ten Standards boxes, it would be harder for the scammers to get business.  Decent firms who care about their reputation should make sure there are clear links to all advisers’ qualifications.  Make it easy for the consumer to understand how to check that the stated qualifications are genuine.  And help educate people to understand what qualifications are required.

    All too often, advisers claim to have qualifications that don’t exist – or that aren’t appropriate for investment advice.  For example, some advisers who are assuring clients they can advise on pensions and investments, only have qualifications suitable for mortgages.  Or worse still, no qualifications at all.  Whatever the adviser says his qualifications are, the client must be able to double check.

    You wouldn’t go to an unqualified solicitor would you?  So don’t use an unqualified financial adviser.  Being qualified goes hand in hand with being regulated.

  • Fighting pension scams: Regulation

    Fighting pension scams: Regulation

    Fighting pension scams: Regulation

    If it was easy to stop pension scams, everyone would be doing it.  Clearing up the mess left behind a pension scam is a huge challenge.  This is why clear international standards need to be recognised and adopted.  The scammers are like flocks of vultures.  If people only used regulated firms, they could avoid a lot of scams.

     

    Here is our list of standards

    1. Firm must be fully regulated – with licenses for insurance and investment advice
    2. Advisers must be qualified to the right standard
    3. Firm must have Professional Indemnity Insurance
    4. Clients must have comprehensive fact finds and risk profiles
    5. Firm must operate adequate compliance procedures
    6. Advisers must not abuse insurance bonds
    7. Clients must understand the investment policy
    8. All fees, charges and commissions must be disclosed
    9. Investors must know how their investments are performing
    10. Firm must keep a log of all customer complaints

    Why is regulation so important?:

    • If a firm sells insurance, it must have an insurance license.
    • If a firm gives investment advice, it must have an investment license.

    Many advisers will claim that if they only have an insurance license, they can advise on investments if an insurance bond is used.  This practice must be outlawed, because this is how so many scams happen.

    Most countries have an insurance and an investment regulator.  They provide licenses to firms.  Some regulators are better than others.  Most regulators do some research and only give licenses to decent firms.

    History tells us that most pension scams start with unlicensed firms.  Here are some examples:

    LCF Bond, Blackmore Bond, Blackmore Global Fund, LM, Axiom and Premier New Earth – all high risk failures.  The investors have lost some or all of their money in these bonds and funds.  They were mostly sold by advisers without an investment license.  Investors lost well over £1 billion.  Advisers (introducers) earned £millions in commissions.

     

    Continental Wealth Management invested 1,000 clients’ funds in high-risk structured notes.  Investors started with £100 million.  Most have lost at least half.  Some have lost everything.  Continental Wealth Management had no license from any regulator in any country.

     

    Pension Life blog - Lack of knowledge leads to loss of funds - rogue advisersSerial scammers such as Peter Moat, Stephen Ward, Phillip Nunn, and XXXX XXXX  all ran unlicensed firms.  Peter Moat operated the Fast Pensions scam which cost victims over £21 million.  Stephen Ward operated the Ark, Evergreen, Capita Oak, Westminster and London Quantum pension scams which cost victims over £50 million.  XXXX XXXX operated the Trafalgar pension scam which cost victims over £21 million.

    Phillip Nunn operates the Blackmore Global Fund which has cost victims over £40 million.  Serial scammer David Vilka has been promoting this fund.  Over 1,000 people may have lost their pensions.

     

    Firms that give unlicensed advice are breaking the law.  Unlicensed advisers often use insurance bonds.  These bonds pay high commissions.  The funds these advisers use also pay high commissions.  The advisers get rich.  The clients get fleeced.  The funds get destroyed.  Insurance bonds such as OMI, FPI, SEB and Generali are full of worthless unregulated funds, bonds and structured notes.

     

    Unlicensed firms hide charges from their clients.  Most victims say they would never have invested had they known how expensive it was going to be.

    Hidden charges can destroy a fund – even without investment losses.  Licensed advisers normally disclose all fees and commissions up front.  This way, the client knows exactly how much the advice is going to cost.

     

    People can avoid being victims of pension scammers.  Using properly regulated firms is one way.   An advisory firm should have both an insurance license and an investment license.  Don’t fall for the line: “we don’t need an investment license if we use an insurance bond”.  Bond providers such as OMI, FPI, SEB and Generali still offer high-risk investments.  The insurance bond provides zero protection.  And the bond charges will make investment losses much worse.

     

    YOU WOULDN’T USE AN UNLICENSED DOCTOR.

    SO DON’T USE AN UNLICENSED FINANCIAL ADVISER.

     

     

  • Who killed the pension? Scammers; ceding providers; introducers; HMRC?

    Who killed the pension? Scammers; ceding providers; introducers; HMRC?

    In every pension scam there is one beginning, lots of middles, and always a wretched ending for the victim and a profitable ending for the scammers. The beginning is always a negligent, lazy, box-ticking transfer by a ceding provider – the worst of which always tend to be the likes of Standard Life, Prudential, Scottish Widows, Aviva, Scottish Life, Aegon, Zurich etc.

    Pension scams are rarely simple and there are many different culprits to blame for the losses. The one common theme though, is that not one of the parties involved is prepared to take the blame for the victims’ losses – EVER. It was always someone else’s fault.

    The pension scam trail is rather like a game of Cluedo.  The question is: “who murdered the pension fund?”.  We travel around the board trying to decipher who is to blame: at which point was the pension fund truly put at risk? – and with what weapon was the pension fund murdered?

    While the pension fund transfer always starts with the negligent ceding provider, there are financial crime facilitators long before this: our old friends HMRC and the Pensions Regulator.  HMRC registers the scams – often to repeat, known scammers.  HMRC does no basic due diligence and deliberately ignores obvious signs that the scheme is an out and out scam.  Then HMRC does nothing to warn the public when they discover there are dastardly deeds afoot.  In the case of an occupational scheme, the Pensions Regulator allows the scheme to be registered and is slow to take any action even when obvious signs of financial crime emerge.

    In recent cases, we have seen complaints – by the victims of scams – upheld against the ceding provider’s negligence in releasing the pension funds to the scammers and financial crime facilitators.  And yet neither HMRC nor the Pensions Regulator is ever brought to account.  The biggest problem is that – in the case of pension liberation – HMRC will pursue the victims and not the perpetrators.  This then compounds the appalling damage done to thousands of people’s life savings.

    We have often seen serial scammers like Stephen Ward behind scams such as Ark, Capita Oak, Westminster, London Quantum etc., and yet neither HMRC nor tPR take any action (except to pursue the victims for unauthorised payment tax charges).  This is neither just nor reasonable – and yet this practice continues unchallenged.

    Any half-decent detective would then turn his attention to the “introducers” and cold callers.  These people draw in the victims with unrealistic promises of fat returns and “free” pension reviews.  In the case of the London Capital & Finance investment scam, we have seen hard evidence of how lucrative introducing and lead generation has become.  Surge Group earned over £50 million promoting the scam which saw 12,000 victims lose £236 million worth of life savings.  Surge boasts that it has over 100 staff and that they are treated very well: “We have our own in-house Barista who makes the best flat whites in Brighton. Every day you will find healthy breakfasts, fridges brimming with drinks and snacks, weekly massages and haircuts provided onsite.”

    Pension Life Blog - Whose to blame, scammers, ceding providers, receivers?

    In the case of the Continental Wealth Management scam, there was a further trio of suspects: life assurance companies – Generali and SEB and OMI.  These providers of expensive “life bonds” pay the scammers 7% commission and facilitate the crime of defrauding victims into investing into high-risk, expensive, unsuitable investments that earn the scammers further fat commissions. Even when the portfolios have been partially or even fully destroyed (murdered), the life offices still take the huge fees and blame the advisers such as CWM – or even the victims themselves.

    We also have the so-called regulators – such as the FCA (Facilitating Crime Agency) and tPR (the Pension Rogues), who are supposed to help protect the public from becoming pension scam victims. But these limp and lazy organisations are so slow off the mark, that the scammers have long since vanished by the time they take any action. This is evident in the recent London Capital and Finance investment scam; the FCA was warned back in 2015 but – of course – did nothing.

    Another suspect in the pension murder crime scene is the Insolvency Service.  Back in May 2015, the Insolvency Service published their witness statement in the case of a large cluster of pension scams – including Capita Oak, Henley Retirement Benefits, Berkeley Burke and Careys SIPPS – all invested in Store First store pods.  The total scammed out of 1,200 victims was £120 million – and yet the only action that the Insolvency Service has taken has been to try to wind up Store First.  Four years later.  And all this will do is punish the victims even further – on top of HMRC punishing the victims by issuing tax demands.

    The burning question is:

    How long can all the parties involved in these pension scams, go on letting this happen and say it has nothing to do with them? In some cases we have the ceding providers blaming the victims for their losses!

    Still, to this day, we see victims’ life savings invested in toxic and expensive assets.  Nothing meaningful is being done to put a stop to it. The victims lose their money and the scammers escape with bulging pockets full of cash.

    Other suspects include the advisory firms – some of which have no license to provide financial advice and few have sufficient professional indemnity insurance.  Henry Tapper recently wrote an interesting blog recently about the FCA’s suggestion that financial advisory firms should have much higher PI cover.

    In the offshore advisory space, regulation is still hit and miss – with some firms providing investment advice with only an insurance license.  And many providing advice with no license at all.  But still QROPS and SIPP trustees routinely accept business from these “chiringuitos”.  But even the properly-regulated ones still routinely use expensive, unnecessary “life” bonds – and we now have hard evidence that this is a criminal matter in Spain after our recent DGS ruling against Continental Wealth Management and all associated parties.

    The saddest footnote to this blog is that many so-called “experts” seem to think that the real culprit is the victim himself.  They state that people who fall for scams were “stupid” or “greedy” or “should have known better.  The well-worn trite phrase: “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” gets trotted out all too frequently.  But when even regulated and qualified firms and individuals have convincing sales patters that effectively con people into expensive, high-risk arrangements with hidden commissions and fake promises of “healthy” returns, is it any wonder that so many pensions are murdered every day?  And when large institutions like Old Mutual International and Friends Provident International facilitate such pension and investment scams, is it any wonder that so many highly-intelligent, well-educated people get scammed?

    Ask the victims of not just the £236,000,000 London Capital & Finance fund (bond), but also:

    Axiom Legal Financing Fund – £120,000,000 (most of which offered by OMI and Friends Provident International)

    LM Group of Funds – £456,000,000 (most of which offered by OMI and Friends Provident International)

    Premier Group of Funds – £207,000,000 (most of which offered by OMI and Friends Provident International) – including Premier New Earth and Premier Eco Resources

    Leonteq structured notes – £94,000,000 (all of which offered by OMI)