Tag: Holborn Assets

HOLBORN ASSETS – SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

Spongebob Parker Squarepants of Holborn Assets has apparently been telling his salesmen that he has paid Glynis Broadfoot £150,000 in compensation for the destruction of her pension by Holborn Assets.

Not only is this a big porky pie (she hasn’t had a penny) but it is a cynical and dishonest tactic used to placate and dupe the Holborn Assets salesmen into wrongly believing that Spongebob has ethics. He doesn’t. If he had any morals, ethics or principles, he would come to the table and sort this appalling mess out.

Spongebob effectively stole Glynis’ life savings – a final salary scheme. Then invested her pension into an expensive and unnecessary insurance bond and purchased toxic, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes. He did all this to earn the maximum amount of commission – in the full knowledge that this would put her pension fund at risk. In fact, tactics identical to the Continental Wealth Management scam.

Glynis has now gone through more than five years of hell as she watched the systematic destruction of her pension. And now you can imagine how she feels reading reports of Holborn Assets’ vulgar and disgusting “jolly” in Tanzania which cost half a million quid. Despite making a series of totally inadequate offers, Spongebob has still to pay her a penny.

I hear on the grapevine that Spongebob is paranoid about any of his staff talking to me. He has even sacked one adviser – Claudia Shaw – on suspicion of communicating with me. It is true that quite a few Holborn Assets people have indeed communicated with me. These include – inter alia – Jerry Leahy, Joe Capaldi, Benjamin Thompson, Matthew Newman, James McMullen, Michael Cunningham, Ben Buckley, Marlon Bruges, Keren Bobker, Michele Carby and Syeda Al Iqtadar. Also, I’ve met Paul Reynolds and Chimaa Mefta at Holborn Assets’ Dubai offices. Also, Darin Brownlee-Jones tried to befriend me on Linkedin. Why hasn’t Spongebob sacked all of these people? He harbours a convicted killer and someone who was struck off and fined by the FCA. I’ve also been approached by various people claiming to work for Holborn Assets and offered a bribe to stop blogging about the company’s nefarious practices.

So, Uncle Spongebob – here’s my invitation. Stop sponging off Holborn Assets’ victims, come to the table and talk to me. Negotiate a decent redress package for Glynis and the others. Then, undertake to do business in an ethical, professional and compliant manner moving forward. Stop hosting binge-drinking, drug-snorting binges, and put in a place a proper compliance department.

Seriously, I don’t bite. I came to your office a couple of years back. You have ignored me since. So maybe now it is time for you to come to my office?

Simples! And then I can write nice blogs about you and the other Parkers saying what heroes you have been and what a good firm Holborn Assets is.

Your choice Mr. Squarepants 🙂

What is a Pension Scam?

May 30, 2018
International Adviser – Giraffe Awards

Looking at International Adviser’s 2017 awards, I really think the judges were having a giraffe (or they were very drunk).

“Best regular premium investment product – Hong Kong – Zurich International Life”

Seriously? This grim firm has one of the most expensive long-term savings plans on the market. A victim scammed into buying one of these toxic, inflexible products will pay 48.07% of their savings in fees to Zurich. To put this into real numbers, a victim who saves £366,600 over a 25-year period, will pay £176,240 in fees.

In this disgraceful long-term rip-off contest, Zurich is in the midst of the others who similarly overcharge their victims with these undisclosed charges: RL360 at 51.68%, Hansard at 51.28%, Generali at 47.08% and Friends Provident at 46.64%. Savers would be better off sticking their savings under the mattress, away from the greedy clutches of these rip-off merchants.

“Best regular premium investment product – Singapore – Friends Provident International”

OK, perhaps the least expensive of the big five, but still 46.64% is ludicrously expensive. These long-term savings plans are routinely mis-sold and victims end up losing most of what they have saved.

“Readers choice – Europe – SEB International”

This life office was routinely ripping off pension savers by taking business from unlicensed, unqualified, unscrupulous scammers Continental Wealth Management from 2010 to 2017. To the tune of 1,000 victims with £100 million worth of investments. About half of which has been destroyed. SEB stood by and watched CWM invest hundreds of victims’ life savings in toxic, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes. As the scammers gambled away millions of pounds, SEB kept taking their fees – based on the original investment value. In this case, all of SEB’s victims lost part or all of their retirement funds.

I HAVE DECIDED TO INVITE MY FRIENDS AT INTERNATIONAL ADVISER TO LAUNCH A NEW AWARDS CEREMONY:

THE GIRAFFE AWARDS

My proposal is that awards are given every year for the worst performers in terms of either operating scams or facilitating them. Let us be very clear – we are talking about financial crime here. It is extremely important that publications such as International Adviser do their bit in cleaning up the financial services industry. That is why these awards are so important.

The judges should be the victims themselves. Here are my nominations – but am more than happy for victims to suggest others:

Advisory Firms: Continental Wealth Management, Holborn Assets

Pension Trustees: Concept, STM Fidecs, Fast Pensions

Life Offices: SEB, Generali, Hansard

Funds: Blackmore Global, Trafalgar Multi-Asset, Christianson Property Capital

Structured Product Providers: Leonteq, Nomura, RBC, Commerzbank

Regulators: Isle of Man, New Zealand, United Kingdom

It is clear that regulators and ombudsmen are useless, limp and disinterested in how their respective jurisdictions operate financial crime so routinely. International Adviser could emerge the hero by exposing the appalling practices in offshore financial services which routinely destroy victims’ retirement savings. (Or not, as the case may be).

May 28, 2018
TICKING TAX TIME BOMB ON LIFE SAVINGS

Welcome to my world – and the four letter word that sends a chill down most people’s spine: HMRC. A world where justice and taxation are not just in different countries, but on different continents. And, sadly, where thousands of British expats are living under the shadow of a ticking time bomb because of arrangements made with their pensions and life savings.

A few people are aware of the tax disaster that awaits them. But the majority have absolutely no idea and it is going to hit them as a devastating shock – whether from HMRC or their local tax authorities (or, in some cases, both).

Up to 2012, expats were routinely sending their pensions off to New Zealand – to the Superlife and Southern Star QROPS – and then busting 100% out. After the rules changed in April 2012, Stephen Ward set up the Evergreen QROPS/Marazion loan scam and up to 300 people bust 50% of their pensions out. It remains to be seen how the Spanish tax authorities will treat all these payments. It is unlikely to be pleasant for those affected.

For expats in Spain, the outlook can be grim. If there is a debt with HMRC for tax – say an unauthorised pension payment @ 55% – HMRC can send the debt to the Spanish Tributaria and they can then enforce the payment. If we think that HMRC is heartless, the Tributaria makes them look like the Sally Army. If a tax debt is unpaid, they will just have your bank account frozen and can also put your house up for auction.

In the Continental Wealth Management scam, large numbers of victims were paid compensation for the destruction of their pension funds by investing them in high-risk, toxic structured notes from firms such as Leonteq. But CWM had not bargained for the fact that in Spain the Tributaria would deem this to be taxable income – and the victims had a terrible surprise when the money they had used up to live on attracted a hefty tax bill for which they hadn’t budgeted.

Which brings me to Portfolio Bonds in general – and the SEB Life International “Spanish” one in particular. Many victims are fooled into thinking that because this product is heralded as “Spanish Compliant” that there is some degree of safety or security. There isn’t. SEB’s Spanish Portfolio bond is compliant from the Tributaria’s point of view because it reports annually on growth of the portfolio for tax purposes. However, that is all there is to it. And it is a waste of time anyway, because there often isn’t any growth – only loss. The huge quarterly charges by SEB erode any growth – and if toxic Leonteq structured notes have been used, there will be destruction of most or even all of the fund.

The Continental Wealth Management scandal – along with similar scams run by firms such as Holborn Assets – should have taught the industry conclusively that insurance bonds should not be used for pensions. They are too expensive and inflexible. The quarterly charges do increase when the fund value increases, but they don’t decrease when the fund is impaired – or even destroyed entirely. I have one member whose fund has gone from £250k to minus £57k as SEB simply kept taking their fees long after the fund was worthless.

An insurance bond (Personalised Portfolio Bond) can be used by an individual as an investment wrapper outside of the UK. This can be useful and tax efficient offshore. But when the investor goes back to the UK, there is a tax nightmare. Personalised Portfolio Bonds come under anti-avoidance legislation in the UK!

The horrible surprise that the investor will get upon returning to British soil is that HMRC can assume a deemed gain even if there is no gain at all, and charge tax on it. It is known often as the 15/15/15 rule and it leads to taxation even where the fund within the bond is losing money.

This situation only applies to investments within the Personalised Portfolio Bonds, selected by the policyholder, where the policyholder is a UK tax resident. The tax payable is at the policyholder’s highest rate. Even worse, the supposed tax efficiency of investment bonds does not work as top slicing relief (which normally lessens the blow and is often the cited reason for these bonds when sold to non-UK investors) does not apply to Personalised Portfolio Bonds.

Most people assume that tax is applied to actual gains made by the overall fund. And few offshore advisers have heard of the tax rules which apply in this situation (The Income Tax, Trading and other Income Act (ITTOIA) 2005 Sections 515 to 526). The devasting effect of this on an expat returning home is that the rules assume an annual gain of 15% of both the initial premium and the cumulative actual gains from the date the bond was established.

My friends at International Adviser published an article about this, by Chris Lean of TailorMade Pensions last month.

What is a Pension Scam?

May 27, 2018
International Investment interview with Pension Life´s Angie Brooks

International Investment interview with Angie Brooks, founder of Pension Life this week. This blog is written by Kim, Angie´s Assistant. Here´s the interview video which explains how Pension Life works to help victims of pension and investment scams. The interview also raises the question as to why pension and investment scams are so prolific – despite Angie’s hard work to bring them into the public eye – and bring scammers to justice.

As Angie states in the video, Pension Life was originally founded to help victims of the ARK pension scam with their tax liabilities. However, four years on and Pension Life has evolved. Angie is now involved in helping 34 different groups of victims of pension and investment scams. Angie regularly goes to the regulators and ombudsmen in different jurisdictions and makes complaints on their behalf.

Pension Life is based in Spain, and Angie works with clients all over the world. Pension and investment scammers have no boundaries or borders and will weave their evil mischief wherever they can find British expats.

Angie offers her members a fixed membership fee, meaning “people know exactly what they are going to pay in advance”. Using privately-funded solicitors can be pricey and sometimes even non-starterer. Angie has, over the past four years, educated herself in pension and investment scams – how they work and how they are (constantly) evolving. Members can rest assured that they are being represented by a leading expert in the area of pension and investment scams.

If it were up to Angie, the people and firms responsible for pension and investment scams would all be sent to jail and the keys thrown away. With her weekly blogs and videos on the Pension Life website, and with the use of social media, Angie is hoping to get the word out there and warn both the public and the industry.

Angie stands up for the masses, where their single complaints are lost in a pile of excuses by the firms responsible for the destruction of their funds. She meets and speaks to as many victims as she can. Each victim has his or her own tragedy – often involving serious health issues and terrible financial hardship as a result of being scammed out of their life savings.

Some of Angie´s blogs are very hard hitting towards the firms and advisors who condone the use of pension and investment scams. The role Angie plays in uncovering the crooks of the industry is not without risk and often her outspoken words attract negative attention. Angie often receives threats of being sued by the lawyers who represent the companies she blogs about.

Angie states, “But If I was frightened I wouldn´t do it.”

Its not just solicitors who bombard her in outrage about the clearly-evidenced facts that Angie reports, she also has a herd of internet trolls who target her incessantly.

Angie says with reference to her blog trolls:

“There is a reason why I write my blogs. Firstly to warn the public and expose the things that go wrong in the financial services industry – to try to help new people avoid falling victim to scams, negligence and mis-selling; secondly to bring firms to the table to negotiate a solution to a problem where a client has suffered losses in their pension or investment portfolio. Few people have funds to instruct lawyers to sue firms to force them to pay redress for clients’ losses, so it is much better and cheaper to get the firm to volunteer to do so amicably and in a non-contentious manner.

But my blogs do upset the scammers and they regularly post negative comments. I have recently been accused of ‘being in cahoots with’ deVere and other companies and individuals. It is being claimed that I am being paid not to write about them, and to attack their competitors.  It will come as no surprise that those who are now attacking me and accusing me of all sorts of things are the ones whose firms’ questionable practices I have been blogging about recently.

I have in the past had very public spats on social media with deVere AND its CEO, Nigel Green, as well as the others who I have been accused of not writing about. And, if I need to have spats again in the future, I will not hesitate to do so. Like most firms, deVere has indeed made some serious mistakes in the past. However, I do not have any live, unresolved client complaints against the firm.

But this is all just rubbish from scammers who are trying to deflect attention from the main issues that I am writing about. The commenters ignore the facts I am reporting about – i.e. real scams which destroy victims’ life savings – and pick away at me personally. That is absolutely fine, because I am more than happy to be criticised and lied about – because it says more about the writer than it does about me. The people who matter know the truth.

Regular readers of my blogs may notice that sometimes my blogs quietly disappear with no public explanation. There is a reason for that too. The blogs often bring firms to the table and we get stuff done. Sometimes firms even preempt matters and make contact even before I get a chance to do a blog.

If I call a firm to discuss a problem and they enter into helpful and constructive dialogue over how to solve it, I don’t blog about it but keep the matter confidential. There are firms who quietly sort things out without making a fuss in a dignified and conscientious manner. In contrast, however, there are firms that just pull up the shutters – such as OMI and STM Fidecs. Hence why I keep blogging about them.

DeVere is indeed one of a number of firms I don’t currently blog about. So for the nice gentleman called Graham and another charming chap who calls himself “Innocent Bystander” who are accusing me of being partisan, don’t think just about what I do write, but about what I don’t write. There are good reasons for both.

I will continue to expose the actions, practices and vulgar conduct of firms who continue to ignore my questions; And I will tag all those who are stupid and irresponsible enough to keep on working for these firms and helping to fill these firms already bulging pockets.  In contrast, however, Holborn Assets and Guardian Wealth Management have engaged in relation to complaints, and so I have removed all blogs which mention the firm.”

For the future, Angie hopes things will get better and that the war on pension and investment scams can be won. However, much help is needed and Angie calls for the whole industry to get involved and make it their business to know what is happening to expats worldwide.

Airing the problem is one of the best solutions and International Investment has taken a keen interest in the campaigning side of what Pension Life does. It would be a really good thing if some of the media tried to educate themselves on what are the key issues and avoid barking up the wrong trees.

May 23, 2018

Holborn Assets Cambodia Convention & Summit 2019

I am disappointed that Holborn Assets didn’t invite me to their Tanzania convention extravaganza – as it sounds like it was a lot of fun. And I do enjoy the occasional glass of Babycham and a nibble on a tiny sausage.

But I am hoping to be invited to the next one in Cambodia in 2019. As that is where Continental Wealth Management’s Darren Kirby has been hiding for the past few months, perhaps he’ll be popping in for a wee drinkie and a quick snort.

Apparently, the fun I missed included Holborn Assets’ scammer Nick Thompson being comatose the whole time. And Thompson showed up one morning with a black eye (was he pushed or did he fall?).

I also gather that the salesmen were threatening each other with knives. I am sure that was just some good-natured teasing and not some predatory tussle over territories or clients. Heaven forfend!

It has also been reported that the “advisers” at the party were openly crushing and smoking Xanac tablets. Apparently, Bob Parker stood by and just let this happen. I guess if all he is interested in is optimum sales he doesn’t really care how his snake-oil salesmen behave in public.

The motivation for being invited to the Holborn Assets booze/snort fest is described by Bob Parker thus:

Here we are at the end of Q1: if you are on $200k or more you are on target for Summit, and $75k or more puts you on target for Convention. By mid-April, we had 65 advisers with over $75k written – so this will be our biggest Convention yet! And, when it comes to laying on the big time, we know what goes off with a bang:

But what troubles me somewhat is that there is no mention of quality. Only volume. And Holborn Assets has no compliance function – so what Parker is exhorting his snake-oil salesmen to do is sell $200k of toxic investments in order to get invited to a seedy party where everybody gets drunk or stoned or both. Some inducement!

Apparently, Holborn Assets salesman Stefan Terry is leading the race in having a team who can scam victims out of their retirement savings and is well ahead with a total sales by end of Q1 of $1.2 million. I wonder how many people that means have lost their life savings?

This means that the “top teams” have written $8.5 million worth of business up to the end of March 2018. I wonder how many people’s lives have been ruined as a result of that scamming spree?

Holborn Assets cold-called thousands of potential victims in recent years, and persuaded many to transfer their pensions unnecessarily. The victims generally had good pension plans already but with the persuasion of the cold callers, they agreed to let Holborn Assets work their “magic” on their funds. The magic was investing the funds into toxic, high-risk investments such as New Earth Recycling and toxic structured notes, as well as applying sky-high fees for the privilege of losing some or all of the money.

And the Holborn Assets “crew” want to celebrate this amazing achievement and encourage their snake-oil salesmen to destroy as many more lives as possible.

Here’s the announcement of Holborn Assets’ next booze’n drugs fest:

“For Cambodia Convention & Summit 2019, we’re heading straight for the record books! We’re committing to more investment than ever before, more winners than ever before, and more planning than our 3 previous Conventions put together.”

Committing to more investment than ever before! Personally, I wouldn’t call that an investment, I would call it an obvious attempt to incentivise the Holborn Assets army of slimy salesmen to con as many victims into losing their life savings as possible. The amount spent on the last convention in Tanzania was somewhere in the region of £500,000. And I hear they will almost double this in 2019.

What I´d like to know is, if Holborn Assets have got all this spare cash to throw at booze and drugs, why aren´t they paying redress to their victims? At the Tanzania convention, unlimited supplies of booze were available 24/7, with advisors spending much of the duration in a booze-induced haze. These are the same “advisors” being entrusted with people’s precious life savings.

Tanzania was Holborn Assets’ third major convention. They boasted “We’re really getting the hang of putting conventions together. And then some! Like many of you, I have experienced similar FTSE 100 company events (with all the money that can be thrown at them), but none have matched the attention to detail and delivery of Holborn Conventions.”

Maybe they will one day get the hang of learning how to give sound and prudent advice on pensions and investments – and have an effective compliance function. And it would be nice if they had paid some degree of attention to detail when they were investing victims’ life savings into high-risk, illiquid, toxic funds.

Holborn Assets claims: “We are a family company with family values.” If “family values” means lying, defrauding, conning and walking away from the devastation left behind, this is one “family party” I definitely don´t want to be involved in. Bob Parker has brought his kids up to commit financial crime. That is not a family value any decent person would endorse.

Bob Parker has also lied about paying £150k in compensation to his victim Glynis Broadfoot. She has never received a penny from Holborn Assets for the destruction of her pension.

Just to be clear, the Holborn Assets “advisers” tagged in this blog are all those announced by Parker as being the top snake-oil salesmen.

TAGGED:

Tyrone Skipper

Craig Turner

Veena Singh

Adrian Lyons

Joseph Barnaby

Alexander Herbert

May 10, 2018

Holborn Assets “Smere Campaign”

Oh dear, Holborn Assets has fallen at the first fence – even before I’ve started the race! You couldn’t make it up. And typical of scammers, Holborn Assets is very concerned about the interests of their company and their profits, but couldn’t care less about the victims it has ruined.

This Leahy guy can’t even spell “smear”. But then he can’t spell “leaky” either – so what do you expect?

Leaky claims to have “over 17 years extensive knowledge of Operations, Technology, Space Management, Strategic Planning, Implementation of Facilities Management Applications, Project Management and Web Design”. I guess all that multi-tasking didn’t leave a lot of spare time for learning the English language. (And remind me never to use him to design my website).

Anyway, apart from the fact that this is a big advantage for Guardian Wealth Management (the equivalent of getting a much lighter jockey and a few oats before the race), this will sort the men from the boys at Holborn Assets. Those who have no conscience, ethics, spine, guts or balls will “un-friend” me as instructed. But those with strength of character will question whether they really want to be associated with a firm that routinely destroys clients’ life savings. The smart ones will realise that having “Holborn Assets” anywhere on their CV will be the kiss of death to their career.

Interestingly, I had an email from a chap this weekend who explained that he and a number of his colleagues had left the firm last year. He was very discreet about the reasons, but it was clear he was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and get out before his personal reputation was damaged. Who knows – maybe he even works for Guardian Wealth Management now?

I know which horse my money’s on!

From: Gerry Leahy <gerry.leahy@holbornassets.com>
Date: 22 April 2018 at 14:22:44 GMT+8
To: holborn_all@holbornassets.com
Subject: [Holborn All] LinkedIn request from Angela Brooks
Dear All,Many of you may have received an invitation to connect with someone called Angela Brooks.Please ignore this request and if you have already connected please disconnect immediately.This person is spearheading a smere campaign against the company and we are looking at our options including legal.Regards

Gerry J Leahy B Sc (Eng) C Eng

Chief Information Officer| Holborn Assets

Level 15 | Al Shafar Tower 1

Barsha Heights | Dubai, UAE

P.O. Box 333851

Tel: +971 4 457 3800

Fax: +971 4 457 3999

gerry.leahy@holbornassets.com

www.holbornassets.com

April 22, 2018

Guardian Wealth Management and the two-horse race with Holborn Assets

Guardian Wealth Management and the two-horse race with Holborn Assets

This is the start of Guardian Wealth Management week – following the end of Holborn Assets week. Apart from bleats from Holborn Assets salesmen that I was compromising their chances of destroying more victims’ pensions, nobody has come forward and proposed realistic compensation offers for the existing victims.

So, I thought it would be good to set up a “race” between Guardian Wealth Management and Holborn Assets – with two new, fresh, thoroughbred complaints. And see which firm passes the post first.

But, first, let us have a look at the Guardian Wealth Management culture behind the scenes from the horse’s mouth: the self-employed salesmen who peddle Guardian’s products. These are published on www.glassdoor.com – and give an interesting insight into the inner workings of a financial services firm. Here are some of the comments:

“opportunistic”

Doesn’t Recommend – worked at Guardian Wealth Management full-time

Pros – Quick way to earn cash

Cons – Not always ethical with advice or product advice

This tells us a lot – GWM is an unethical selling machine (from this unhappy salesman’s experience)

Another unhappy guy relates even more details about the failings of the company:

“I do not recommend working here”

Doesn’t Recommend. Current Employee – Business Development Manager

Cons – poor training; poor communication; high staff turnover; lack of support; poor salary; constant changes to the business that are not needed; self-employed

Advice to Management: Look after your staff and actually value people over money. Your sales training needs a lot of work and you need to support new recruits rather than just weighing heavily on a manager that really just hogs all the leads.

This review tells us that the people who work for Guardian Wealth Management are nothing more than self-employed salesmen who work for commission on top of a pitiful basic “wage”.

“Working at Guardian”

Recommends – Current Employee

Pros – Great earning potential.

Cons – Can be high pressure, need to remain motivated and driven to achieve.

Just what we thought: pressure to sell, sell, sell! Doesn’t seem to be anything other than a bag of carrots to drive these salesmen to realise the “great earning potential” – rather than to provide good and appropriate financial advice.

“Business Development Manager”

Recommends – BDM in London

Pros – I currently work as a BDM for Guardian in their London office. I’ve been here just 5 months and have learned a huge amount. The guys here are extremely helpful and friendly. It’s hard work but the culture really is an advocate of the harder you work, the higher the rewards with no ceiling in place it’s up to you how successful you want to be.

So, this business development manager has got sucked into the intense sales-driven culture of Guardian Wealth Management – and all he can see is rewards for himself, rather than quality advice for clients.

Against this backdrop of high-pressure stable manners – and the constant pressure to win, win, win, the poor dumb schmucks at Guardian Wealth Management have no idea (yet) that if they fail to meet their sales targets, they’ll just be chucked on the muck heap. It is all about quantity, rather than quality.

The constant drive to flog more products – irrespective of whether they are right for the clients – just turns what should be a firm that strives for excellence into a sales sweatshop. They are also heavily into cold calling – I should know, as they cold called me a year or so ago and claimed to have offices in Spain.

This last Guardian Wealth Manager salesman has highlighted the fact that there is no “ceiling” to success. But what he has missed out is the fact that there is no floor to the depths the salesmen will go to scam victims for profit.

This week is Guardian Wealth Management week – and I will be kicking it off with a race to see which firm of scammers – Holborn Assets or Guardian Wealth Management – will be first past the post to compensate their victims. One from Israel and one from Australia. The stakes are high; the going is firm; the prize is glittering (a glowing compliment on the Pension Life blog). Take your seats for an exciting race.

April 21, 2018
Holborn Assets – What a cheek!

Seems we can´t get enough of Holborn Assets’ cheek this week. CEO Bob Parker has sent out a Q1 2018 newsletter and included on his mailing list a very unsatisfied and traumatised client who, through Holborn Assets’ negligence, has suffered a significant loss to her pension fund, with no compensation – or even apology.

Glynis Broadfoot was a victim of Holborn Assets’ rotten advice and service in 2011 and which resulted in her losing a significant portion of what had originally been a final-salary pension which should never have been transferred in the first place. Holborn Assets refused to help her, and simply kept taking their extortionate fees from her ever-shrinking pension pot. They had invested her in high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes which were totally inappropriate for a low-risk investor.

You can imagine Mrs. Broadfoot’s fury and disgust when this message popped up in her inbox.

In summary, despite the expensive advice given to Mrs. Broadfoot by Holborn Assets, and assurances that her pension would grow at 8% per annum, she ended up losing nearly a third of her fund. Despite the fund’s losses, Holborn Assets continued to apply their fees to the fund, totaling somewhere in the region of £11k!

Holborn Assets informed her, at the height of her distress over her losses, that they “had closed the case, and would not enter into any further correspondence”. Yet now, several years on, it appears she’s still on their mailing list – despite knowing full well they have left this victim’s retirement prospects in tatters.

Mrs. Broadfoot’s case was typical of “fractional scams“: expensive and unnecessary insurance bond (only purpose was to pay a fat commission to the scammers); expensive, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes (again, high commissions for the scammers and heavy losses for the victim); hefty advisor fees. This was a very obvious scam which caused great suffering for the victim who is resident in Spain – but Holborn Assets was not licensed to provide investment advice in Spain.

In the years since Mrs. Broadfoot was scammed, Bob Parker did start to engage half-heartedly with a process of negotiating compensation for her losses. But so far she has not received one penny. Her local government final salary pension scheme – which she was conned into sacrificing by these unlicensed scammers – would have provided her with a guaranteed, index-linked pension for life and she could have retired comfortably. Instead, she has a seriously damaged fund which is unlikely to ever recover and provide her with the retirement income she needed and deserved.

So, far from getting the “best level of service and advice available” as boasted by Bob Parker, Mrs. Broadfoot was conned, scammed, fleeced and then dumped by Holborn Assets.

Which brings me on to the Trust Pilot reviews. Only 2% scored Holborn Assets as average or poor. Which is very surprising – given the number of people who report similar stories to Mrs. Broadfoot’s. But I think it is likely that those who gave four or five stars, haven’t yet found out what their losses are. In fact, some of these reviewers admit they were cold called by Holborn Assets. We know for sure Claudia Shaw was flogging the high-risk Premier New Earth Recycling UCIS fund to her victims and that there have been heavy investment losses.

One person who has given Holborn Assets a “poor” rating on Trust Pilot is a Mr. Norton who writes:

Not very impressed

I don’t believe anyone from Holborn has contacted me since September last year. In August 2016 I was contacted and advised to switch my policy which seemed ridiculous considering the additional charges I would incur, the fact it was even suggested causes me concern.

Then in September 2016, I was contacted to recommend my wealth manager for an award, again the audacity of this makes me wonder.

I have no idea on what your investment performance to date is over the past 12 months and I have not been given any confidence how my investments will be managed going forward now that I have finished paying your fees and I actually begin to get money invested.

I do plan to visit within the next month and hopefully by that stage you in a position to assure me I did not make a big mistake investing my money with you.
Regards
Ian Norton

Another victim has complained directly to Pension Life about the appalling treatment he has had at the hands of Holborn Assets:

“Since 2013, the fund has not done anything at all. The fees are much too high, excessive transactions have been made to earn themselves money on my account and the investments went down in value. There is no communication with Holborn Assets and they are unwilling to discuss this matter with me or to do anything about it.”

So, as the cheeky Bob Parker is aiming to infiltrate South Africa with his new weapon – the bright-eyed and bushy-chinned Lourens Reichert – I thought now would be a good time to make friends with Reichert and see if he can put some pressure on Uncle Bob. Reichert will, no doubt, be very pleased to help me sort these victims out – as he has a big bulging lump in his trousers courtesy of Bob’s golden handshake.

I might even nip down to Johannesburg and have a cup of tea and a cheeky biscuit with him. No doubt, he won’t want the sordid details of Holborn Assets’ scams to compromise his quest to conquer South Africa. If the natives find out just what his colleagues have been up to, he might find himself on the wrong end of a Zulu spear.

April 19, 2018
Holborn Assets Johannesburg – Damaging more life savings?

EXCLUSIVE: Holborn Assets opens new office in South Africa. Oh, how wonderful for them! However, not so wonderful for the new victims Holborn will obviously be trying to scam into losing large percentages of their pension funds.

None of the existing victims have received compensation yet for their crippling losses due to expensive insurance bonds, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes, and even higher-risk UCIS funds such as New Earth Recycling. And yet Holborn Assets appear to have plenty of spare cash to open a new office in Johannesburg. This new venture will be led by Lourens Reichert and will apparently employ an eight-strong team of advisers. Seems Holborn Assets is now set to exploit this new market and will, of course, have no trouble finding plenty of new victims and relieving them of their pension savings.

Bob Parker, Holborn Assets’ CEO and founder, said: “South Africa is full of potential. There’s an enormous amount of capital held by residents outside of the country and Lourens and his team are experts in advising clients on how to manage that for maximum growth and efficiency.”

You can almost hear Bob Parker smacking his lips and rubbing his hands with glee as he is already counting the enormous amount of money he is going to make out of scamming more victims.

If you are new to Holborn Assets here is a bit of background information on them. The outfit is based in various locations including Dubai, Saudi and Kuala Lumpur, as well as the UK and run by various Parkers: Simon, Bob, James etc. They have used mass cold-calling techniques to lure in victims and place their pension funds into high-risk, toxic investments – that pay maximum commissions.

Holborn Assets’ past victims have seen heavy losses to their pensions due to negligent, unregulated, unqualified advice into entirely inappropriate, high-risk, illiquid assets. This includes one victim’s $600k life savings – half of which were invested in New Earth Recycling (which, of course, was paying the best investment introduction commissions at the time).

Not only is Holborn Assets in the habit of destroying pension funds, the firm also has no shame in who they stick on their payroll. Take Paul Reynolds, who was banned by the FCA and fined nearly £300,000 for giving unsuitable and misleading financial advice, yet Bob Parker of Holborn Assets Dubai welcomed him with open arms. Holborn Assets also employed Darin Brownlee-Jones: the “Champagne Killer“. A drunk hit-and-run driver who killed an innocent man then walked away to drink champagne.

Bob Parker is clearly a man whose conscience bothers him not one bit after failing to compensate victims. He has the astonishing audacity to have his own page on his website to warn people about scammers!

And now Holborn Assets has employed Lourens Reichert, to be the face of Holborn Assets Johannesburg. Reichert has reportedly said “Holborn has a great reputation for its integrity, professionalism and for supporting its staff and investing in them and the business. It is also going in a really exciting direction and it’s great to join the company when it is on such a growth track.”

He obviously hasn’t done much research on the company he now works for and represents. Or did the whopping “golden handshake” he received from Bob Parker make him turn a blind eye to the grubby goings on inside Holborn Assets?

Reichert has apparently stated:

“Coming to Holborn gives my team and I the opportunity to grow the business even further. The first priority will be within South Africa and then we will explore the many opportunities that exist for providing specialist advice across the African continent.”

But Reichert has said nothing of repairing the damage done to so many victims and Holborn Assets’ failure to compensate them. Is Reichert really so blind? Or is he just greedy, selfish and heartless – willing to go on and do to more victims what Holborn Assets has already done to so many?

All that’s left to say then is “Look out South Africa!” If any South African residents get cold called by Reichert and his merry men, just tell them to hop it.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate scheme. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

FOLLOW PENSION LIFE ON TWITTER TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THINGS PENSION RELATED, GOOD AND BAD.

April 18, 2018
A win for the FCA against Capital Alternatives
Pension Life is pleased to report that the FCA has woken up long enough to do a spot of regulating and has won an important case over the promotion of unregulated investment schemes. The firm flogging the schemes, Capital Alternatives, must pay back nearly £17m to investors.

The FCA alleged that Capital Alternatives used “false, misleading and deceptive statements” to lure unsuspecting investors into four toxic, high-risk investments (scams) between 2009 and 2013. Capital Alternatives, ran investment schemes/scams involving rice farm harvests in Sierra Leone and carbon credits across Sierra Leone, Brazil and Australia.

In reality, Capital Alternatives sold more land to investors than it actually owned.

Court proceedings have been taking place since July 2013, with The High Court deciding in February 2014 that the schemes/scams were collective investment schemes which could not be lawfully operated by the defendants. Since this date defendants have been appealing the decision.

It must be highlighted that Capital Alternatives are not the only defendants involved in this case. This is perhaps why proceedings have taken so long. In fact, the FCA stated that there are a staggering 15 more defendants involved in this case.

The FCA lists the defendants:
1. Capital Alternatives Limited
2. Capital Secretarial Limited
3. Capital Organisation Limited
4. Capital Administration Services Limited
5. MH Trustees Limited
6. Marcia Hargous
7. Renwick Haddow
8. Richard Henstock (case settled)
9. African Land Limited
10. Robert McKendrick
11. Alan Meadowcroft
12. Regency Capital Limited
13. Reforestation Projects Limited
14. Mark Ayres/Eyres
15. Mark Gibbs
16. the estate of David Waygood (case settled).
The eighth and sixteenth defendants settled their cases previously and have paid £33,000 and £200,000 towards compensation for the investors. The FCA has received this money and will hold it until the Court issue further directions to the FCA about the return of money to victims.

The bad news for investors in Capital Alternatives, is that the High Court’s decision is still open to appeal. The FCA can proceed to obtain monies from the Defendants only when no further appeals are made. In the meantime, the FCA is seeking new injunctions restraining the assets of some of the defendants. We sincerely hope this means there will be some funds left to be returned to the victims of this scam.

But it would be better news if the other 14 defendants find it in their conscience to settle out of court and put the victims out of their misery. It is terrible to find out that you have put hard-earned money into high-risk, illiquid or even worthless investments.

FCA Director of Enforcement Mark Steward has been reported as saying:

“This judgment should send a clear message to all of those who use corporate facades to sell dubious investments. We will do what it takes to hold them to account for their misconduct.

We are acutely aware from experience that the risk to investors who deal with unauthorised firms is that most, if not all, investors are likely only to get a fraction of their money back.

Consumers should recognise that there are huge risks involved when investing with unauthorised businesses.”

Investors should be aware that investments into sustainable/renewable energies, farming and recycling schemes are favorites of scammers. They entice you in with promises of your investment being good for the environment. However, they are rarely good for your pocket. James Hay and Elysian Bio fuel is one example of toxic investment using biofuels as a lure.

In Novemeber 2017 we also wrote about the SFOs letter to Frank Field. The letter highlighted cases of prosecutions against pensions fraud.

Sustainable Agroenergy (SAE) Plc: investors were told their investments were in biofuel products, that land was owned in Cambodia and planted with Jatropha trees – a tree with highly toxic fruit that could be used to produce biofuel. At the time of sale, there was already evidence to show that the product was neither sustainable nor profitable.

New Earth Recycling fund – an investment scam promoted by a number of dodgy firms including Robert Parker of Holborn Assets and Paul Herd of Elite Wealth Management. This high-risk, toxic investment offered big fat introduction commissions. The introducers were the only ones to profit from this investment.

The BARRATT AND DALTON PENSION SCAM: – one couple fell victim to this scam despite being advised by their pension provider that it could be a scam. They received a lump sum and were told their pension was invested in truffle trees. After reporting the case to the police, they were later informed that their lump sum was from their own funds and HMRC promptly served them with a large tax bill.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate scheme. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

Follow Pension Life on twitter to keep up with all things pension related, good and bad.
April 12, 2018
Top 10 Deadliest Pension Scammers

Pension scammers are hidden all around us, often dressed in smart clothes, driving smart cars and carrying impressive leather folders. They offer what seems like smart investments, push through your pension fund transfer swiftly and seamlessly. However what you don´t see on the surface is their hidden parasitic ways. These scammers will drain the funds from your pension, investing in high-risk, toxic investments, that only they will profit from.

Here´s Pension Life´s, “Top 10 Pension Scammers”. (Please note: this information is correct as of the today´s date only, as pension scammers are evolving daily and as one falls another will rise!)

10 – Square Mile International

John (Gus) Ferguson’s firm Square Mile International promote unregulated toxic crap to pension savers and employs unqualified David Vilka. The so-called “advisers” promoted the Blackmore Global Fund.

It is still unclear what has actually happened to the money invested into the Blackmore Global Fund.

9 – James Lau & Tudor Capital Management

James Lau was a financial adviser with Wightman, Fletcher McCabe (FSA regulated) – part of the Clarkson Hill Group. Along with directors Peter Bradley and Andrew Meeson, of Tudor Capital Management (subsequently jailed for eight years for money laundering and tax fraud), James Lau conned 116 victims into transferring their pensions, investing in forex trading companies, and liberating up to 85% of their pensions. Lau is now rumoured to be in hiding in Hong Kong. The victims are now facing 55% tax charges by HMRC.

8 – Friendly Pensions

David Austen of Friendly Pensions, used cold-calling and high-pressure sales tactics to strong-arm 245 victims into investing in 11 fake schemes, including a truffle farm.

Dalton, Barratt and Hanson all served as trustees on the fake schemes set up by Austin – who is described as the mastermind – and were paid more than £550,000 between them. The four scammers who conned pension savers out of £13.7 million have now been banned from the industry but not imprisoned. The victims, however, lost everything.

7 – Continental Wealth Management (CWM)

One thousand people were relieved of up to £100 million worth of pension funds. Conned by a motley assortment of snake oil salesmen, the victims were promised high returns, but all they got was high losses. Old Mutual International (OMI) were the provider for the bulk of the insurance bonds in this scam. Funds were invested in risky, toxic structured notes which were clearly labelled as “for professional investors only”. Clients were lied to, as when they saw the value of their funds plunging dramatically, the Continental Wealth Management scammers assured the victims that the reported losses were “only paper losses”. Continental Wealth Management collapsed in September 2017.

6 -XXXX XXXX

XXXX XXXX was the “distributor” of the Capita Oak, Henley, Westminster and various SIPPS scams in 2012/13. He was also operating pension liberation fraud with his “loan” company: Thurlstone. When these schemes collapsed in 2013, he went on to launch an investment scam called Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund. Capita Oak, Henley, Westminster and Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund are now all under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. XXXX XXXX has been arrested and his offices searched.

5 – Nunn and McCreesh

Phillip Nunn – along with his sidekick and partner in crime Patrick McCreesh – provided “lead generation” services to the Capita Oak and Henley scams. At up to 200 leads a month for more than two years, he was responsible for the destruction of £ millions of pension funds – and got paid nearly £1 million in fees for doing so. He then went on to set up an investment scam called Blackmore Global – a UCIS which is illegal to be promoted to retail pension savers. It is not known whether the investors have lost some, most or all of the funds in Blackmore Global as Phillip Nunn refuses to have an independent audit carried out on the fund.

4 – Steve Pimlott – Windsor Pensions

Steve Pimlott has been running Windsor Pensions for at least seven years. He claims to have done around 5,000 pension liberations and assures victims that HMRC will be “unlikely” to catch up with them. Pimlott uses QROPS schemes such as Danica in Sweden and then sets up a fraudulent bank account in the Isle of Man. The transfer never goes anywhere near Danica, of course. But the transfer is sent to the IoM bank account – 85% is paid out to the victim and Pimlott trousers the other 15%. HMRC is now taxing the victims at 55% – although they have never taken action against Pimlott who is still operating happily in Florida (not far from where Stephen Ward has his six luxury villas).

3 – Fast Pensions

Peter Moat and his wife Sara Moat were chums of Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions. They ran a loan company called Blu Debt Management and also had several other businesses involving estate agency and pension administration. Hundreds of victims were transferred into the Moats’ Fast Pension schemes, and now the victims cannot access their pensions or transfer out. Peter and Sara Moat live in the Javea area of the Spanish Costa Blanca and have had 18 Pensions Ombudsman’s determinations against them for mal-administration of the pension schemes they are running. It is thought that around 400 victims are affected, although it is not known how much they have lost between them. It is known that several years ago, a substantial amount of the funds were loaned to Bridgebank Capital and then used as bridging loans for property developers. But the money has since been repaid and goodness only knows where it is now. Certainly not accessible to the members.

2 – Stephen Ward

Ark: 486 victims; £27 million at risk; 55% tax penalties on 50% loans

Evergreen: 300 victims; £10 million at risk

Capita Oak: 300 victims; £10 million at risk; tax penalties on XXXX XXXX’s Thurlstone “loans”

Westminster: 200 victims; £7 million at risk; tax penalties on “loans”

Southlands, Headforte, Feldspar, Hammerley, Maribel, Dorrixo Alliance, Halkin, Bollington Wood, Randwick Estates, Elysian Fuels, London Quantum – and many more. Stephen Ward remains active with DB transfers.

and in first position we have …..

1 – HMRC

Yes, you read correctly, HMRC is our number-one culprit in the Top 10 pension scammers list. And here’s why:

Since at least 2010, pension scams have been on the rise. That’s 8 years, yet regulations have not been changed, HMRC has not become vigilant or conscientious about registering pension scams, and new laws have not been put in place to stop scammers.

In fact, the scams are registered in the first place by HMRC, and in the case of occupational schemes also by tPR.

No notice is taken of whether the schemes are registered by known scammers and no questions are asked as to the purpose of the schemes.

In the case of James Lau’s Salmon Enterprises, the trustees – Meeson and Bradley – had been investigated by HMRC and arrested in March 2010 on suspicion of money laundering and tax fraud. However, HMRC did nothing to warn ceding providers or the public and Salmon Enterprises was left as an HMRC-registered, fully-operational occupational scheme.

Later that year, one ceding provider queried the legitimacy of the Salmon Enterprises scheme, but HMRC refused to elaborate on why the trustees had been arrested. A transfer went ahead – along with 115 others – while HMRC sat back in the full knowledge that all these victims would be bound to face unauthorised payment tax charges.

In the Ark case, HMRC spoke to the organisers and promoters (including Stephen Ward) of the six Ark schemes on several occasions. They then had a meeting with Craig Tweedley and Ward in February 2011 to discuss their concerns that the 50% “loans” paid out to scheme members constituted unauthorised payments. At this point there was a “mere” £7 million worth of transfers. Nothing was done to suspend the Ark schemes for another three months – during which time a further £20 million was transferred in. HMRC is now trying to tax both the members and the scheme for unauthorised payments.

In the full knowledge that Stephen Ward was behind Ark and numerous other scams, HMRC ignored evidence of his pension trustee/administrator firm – Dorrixo Alliance. In May 2014, they discussed prosecuting Ward, but did nothing about the London Quantum pension scam, and in August of the same year, a police officer lost his police pension to Ward’s scheme.

Therefore, HMRC takes 1st place, due to its downright lack of motivation to help stop the scams, yet speedy tax demands fly out for the unauthorised payments arising from the so-called “loans” operated from the very schemes that HMRC themselves registers.

Furthermore, HMRC taxes the victims of pension liberation scams – and not the perpetrators.

List of 10 deadliest parasites borrowed from listverse website for comparison.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate scheme. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

Follow Pension Life on twitter to keep up with all things pension related, good and bad.

February 18, 2018
HAVE YOU HEARD OF PAUL HERD? HE’S AT ELITE WEALTH MANAGEMENT.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF PAUL HERD? HE’S AT ELITE WEALTH MANAGEMENT.

Before joining Elite Wealth Management, Paul Herd was with a firm called MFS Partnership – which went belly up. Now, I have never run a financial advisory firm. If I had a fanciful idea of starting one, I probably wouldn’t know where to start – but one thing is for sure: I would not employ anybody who had caused clients to lose £290k of their retirement savings.

It has been widely reported in the media during January and February 2018 that Paul Herd invested his clients’ pension funds in the New Earth Recycling fund – which is now worthless. Herd’s victims, David and Sheila Solomon, were awarded £500k in compensation by the court, but the firm – MFS – also went belly up. So the Solomon´s had to fall back on the FSCS and only got £50k each. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but still nowhere near their £290 original pot which they had entrusted to their adviser, Paul Herd.

This begs the question, why Paul Herd invested his clients’ fund in the New Earth Recycling fund. As in, all of it. The answer lies, of course, in the fact that Mr. Herd had heard that New Earth was paying big fat introduction commissions. And he had probably also herd (sorry, heard) that lots of scammers at leading scamming factory in Dubai, Holborn Assets, had got rich conning their victims into toxic crap like New Earth.

Why on earth would any adviser put his clients into a fund which was clearly described in the fund’s offering document as being high risk? “Substantial recovery of value from those investments may be unlikely”. The Premier New Earth Recycling fund was set up by Premier Group in 2012 (originally to invest in bamboo plantations) and was also described in its offering documents as being high risk.

Paul Herd, ex MFS Partnership, has since started working at Elite Wealth Management. Director Alan Powell describes Herd as having “extensive knowledge of retirement and pensions”. I think Mr. Powell has probably missed out the most important bit – which is that Paul Herd obviously has extensive knowledge of how to flush a pension fund down the toilet.

Alan Powell has been reported as saying that he believes in giving people a second chance. He was, apparently, actually referring to “financial adviser” Paul Herd. He has also said that he is leaving it to the FCA to decide whether Paul Herd is fit and proper to work in a financial advisory firm. So I am going to give Mr. Powell some friendly advice:

GET SHOT OF PAUL HERD!

www.cii.co.uk still list Paul Herd as a member despite his previous company, MFS Partnership´s, misdemeanors!

David and Sheila Solomon – Herd’s victims – have gone through years of hell due to Herd’s greed and negligence. They are astonished that Herd can carry on – business as usual. Does Powell have no conscience? No sense of the damage he is inevitably doing to his own firm? Who, in their right mind, would want to use a firm which employs an adviser who negligently invested his clients’ funds in a high-risk asset?

When I first read this story, it made me want to cry. If Alan Powell really believed in giving people a “second chance”, wouldn’t he would be paying Paul Herd’s salary to the Solomons who are facing poverty in retirement? Powell is employing a man who invested his clients’ pension funds into a high-risk and entirely unsuitable investment and caused the victims to lose £290k.

I don’t know if Mr. Powell is doing anything to help the Solomons. But I do know that he is helping Paul Herd to carry on – business as usual.

February 6, 2018