Tag: Old Mutual International

Vueling v Old Mutual International

Intro written by Kim: ‘This week Angie travelled for work (yet again): she had to fly from Granada to Barcelona. Disaster struck – her baggage sadly did not make the full journey -it’s sitting in the triangle of lost luggage no doubt. The airline – Vueling – whilst only providing the flight, was still happy to take responsibility for the loss of her bag and its contents, and compensate her. That got her thinking: if an airline can take full responsibility for a loss, why are life offices like OMI turning a blind eye to the massive losses they have caused to thousands of pension scam victims’ funds?

Over to Angie:

The financial services industry (especially offshore) has a lot to learn from the airline industry. Aviation stakeholders internationally provide the highest possible levels of safety for air travellers. This due diligence is constantly reviewed, updated and improved. The same standard of responsibility routinely happens in all jurisdictions. Regulators, as well as air crash investigators, work together when things go right. As well as when they don’t.

The work of the air industry regulators, investigators and safety trainers never ceases with all parties constantly striving to maintain the highest possible standards of performance and safety. And when something goes wrong, everybody swings into action like the A-team, International Rescue and Tom Cruise combined.

I know all this because one of my members is a Captain with a well-known airline (probably quite easy to guess which one!). He also trains pilots from a variety of other airlines in simulators – and this includes Vueling pilots. I will call him Captain BJ.

BJ is a thoroughly decent bloke and has a rather endearing fondness for chickens. He has devoted his professional life to the business of safety in travel. And behind him is a comprehensive and robust system of regulation – internationally. Financial services regulators, on the other hand, stand by and watch (with their hands firmly in their pockets – and their fingers compulsively searching for something with which to fiddle) as the equivalent of hundreds of passenger planes crash every month. The regulators stare blankly at the charred remains of the passengers’ life savings and shrug carelessly at the huge scale of human misery caused so routinely. With such flaccid regulatory regimes in so many jurisdictions, these chocolate-teapot regulators de facto facilitate and encourage losses caused by negligence and scams.

I know all this because Captain BJ is also a pension scam victim – courtesy of Stephen Ward’s Ark £27 million pension scam. Despite the extreme stress of losing his pension, he has to keep a stiff upper lip and continue with his daily routine of flying thousands of passengers safely around the skies of Europe.

My recent experience on a Vueling flight provides an interesting parallel with the “financial services” provided by Old Mutual International. Vueling sells flights. They provide the aircraft; the pilots and the cabin crew. They offer a selection of routes, food and drink, duty free goods, toilets and the expertise to get many thousands of passengers from one destination to another safely and on time; day after day after day.

What Vueling doesn’t do is operate a baggage handling service – this is provided by the airport you travel through. However, no matter how enjoyable a flight has been (if such a thing is possible!) and how punctual the take-off and landing are, the whole experience can be badly marred by the loss of a passenger’s luggage. While Vueling is responsible for the safety of the passengers, it is NOT responsible for the safety of the passengers’ luggage when it is not in the bowels of the aircraft. However, Vueling goes to extraordinary lengths to help people whose luggage has been delayed or lost. Vueling take full responsibility for a loss of luggage, luckily for me.

Earlier this week, it was the baggage handlers at either Granada airport or Barcelona airport who were responsible for my medium-sized, black, tatty suitcase. And they lost it. The case had been full of clothing typically worn by a slightly fat, grey-haired woman on the wrong side of something ending in a nought. So no desirable or valuable designer totty wear, expensive perfume or sparkly jewellery.

But Vueling provide people like me (who end up wearing the same orange jumper and purple socks two days in a row) with an easy to use, online complaints and redress facility. It wasn’t Vueling’s fault that my luggage got lost, but they take responsibility for it anyway because it is part of the whole flight “package”.

Contrast this with Old Mutual International (OMI) and the IoM regulator. And thank your lucky stars that they don’t try to run an airline (because if they did, it is unlikely any passengers or luggage would ever survive). OMI provides “insurance bonds” or bogus life assurance policies. These products serve no purpose except to pay fat commissions to rogue IFAs. And they feature a selection of risky investment products for the IFAs to earn even more commission. What OMI does not provide is financial advice – that is the job of someone else (i.e. the IFAs). But when the IFAs do the equivalent of losing the baggage, OMI takes no interest or responsibility other than to record the loss.

In the air industry, there are two things that can go wrong that can cause customers financial damage: flight delays and loss of luggage. A comprehensive complaints and redress system is routinely provided by all leading airlines. In the financial services industry, there are two things that can go wrong that can cause customers financial damage: investment failures and disproportionately high charges. No complaints and redress system is provided by life offices such as OMI and no one takes full responsibility for a loss.

If an airline experiences a crash, a huge machine swings into action to investigate the cause and take immediate remedial action to prevent the same or similar event from ever causing another accident. If a life office such as OMI experiences a crash, it pretends nothing has happened. Pension scam victims? No pension scam victims here! OMI denies all responsibility. And blames the IFA. Or the weather. Or Brexit. And keeps charging the victims the same disproportionately high fees based on the huge commissions they originally paid to the IFA that caused the crash.

Here are some examples of OMI’s crashes in the past six years:

* Axiom Litigation Fund – this was a PROFESSIONAL-INVESTOR-ONLY fund which was routinely used by rogue IFAs for ordinary, retail investors (and from which the IFAs earned fat commissions). OMI offered the Axiom fund on the bogus “life assurance” platform. And when the fund went into administration in December 2012, OMI shrugged its shoulders and said “not our problem“. And kept charging the victims the same fees as if the £120 million loss hadn’t happened.

OMI knew that many of the IFAs had been neither regulated nor qualified and that the investors were unsophisticated, low-risk, retail customers.

* LM Australian Property Fund – this was a PROFESSIONAL-INVESTOR-ONLY fund which was routinely used by rogue IFAs for ordinary, retail investors (and from which the IFAs earned fat commissions). OMI offered the LM fund on the bogus “life assurance” platform. And when the fund went into administration in March 2013, OMI shrugged its shoulders and said “not our problem“. And kept charging the victims the same fees as if the £240 million loss hadn’t happened.

OMI knew that many of the IFAs had been neither regulated nor qualified and that the investors were unsophisticated, low-risk, retail customers.

* Premier New Earth Recycling Fund – this was a PROFESSIONAL-INVESTOR-ONLY fund which was routinely used by rogue IFAs for ordinary, retail investors (and from which the IFAs earned fat commissions). OMI offered the PNER fund on the bogus “life assurance” platform. And when the fund went into administration in June 2016, OMI shrugged its shoulders and said “not our problem“. And kept charging the victims the same fees as if the £800 million loss hadn’t happened.

OMI knew that many of the IFAs had been neither regulated nor qualified and that the investors were unsophisticated, low-risk, retail customers. That is £1.16 billion worth of fund losses in just over six years, but they take no responsibility for loss of funds and the pension scam victim gets no redress.

(Note – if you read the above three examples, you will see that although the funds, dates and amounts were different, the circumstances were EXACTLY the same!)

Add to this the £ billions lost through toxic, risky structured notes, and that adds up to quite a cricket score that OMI “wasn’t responsible for“.

The causes were all the same:

UNREGULATED ADVISORY FIRMS

UNQUALIFIED ADVISERS

FUNDS OFFERING HUGE COMMISSIONS

FUNDS SUITABLE FOR HIGH-RISK, PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS SOLD TO LOW-RISK, RETAIL INVESTORS

NO DUE DILIGENCE BY OMI

We know that OMI bought:

£200 million worth of failed Leonteq structured notes

between 2012 and 2016 as OMI is claiming to be suing Leonteq. But this does little to distract attention from OMI’s multiple, long-term failures for allowing such toxic investments in the first place and causing many people to become pension scam victims.

If I give my car keys to someone who is so drunk they can barely stand up – and certainly can’t spell either OMI or IOM – and there is a serious accident, whose fault is it? The drunk’s or mine?

OMI’s CEO is a bloke called Peter Kenny who used to work for the IoM regulator. So he should know better. But he doesn’t. So we must assume he would be happy to hand his car keys over to a drunk or let an unqualified pilot fly a plane with a broken wing. And he would still claim it wasn’t his fault, despite the number of pension scam victims.

The moral of this blog is: never wear orange and purple on a flight; never use an OMI life bond; always use a qualified, regulated and insured IFA. Don’t become the next pension scam victim.

My next dilemma is what to buy with my Vueling compensation. I feel a trip to Marks and Sparks coming on. (I needed a bigger size anyway!).

(Huge thanks to Captain BJ – to whom I owe my sanity).

PS – since we wrote and published this blog, my luggage has been found. Apparently, it never left Granada airport. I suspect somebody pinched it – then found the clothes inside were so dull that they didn’t think it was worth taking it after all.

CWM Pension scam – A victim’s reconstruction

January 17, 2019
Cold calling ban still not approved

FT adviser published an article entitled, Cold calling ban approved by committee. However, do not get too excited as it hasn’t actually been approved by Parliament or got anywhere closer to being included in UK legislation.

Plans to ban cold calling were announced back in August 2017. Scammers love to cold call their victims and hard sell them their schemes. But it seems the number of people being targeted by scammers has risen immensely despite campaigns by the FCA and tPR.

In our opinion, there should be a blanket ban on cold calling and it should have happened many years ago. There really is no debate necessary. Scammers use cold calling techniques to lure their victims in. If they were not allowed to do this, there would be a significant reduction in scams.

Just this week, I have had two scam emails sent to me. One supposedly from HSBC (with whom I don’t bank!) and one supposedly from HMRC. The bank email told me I needed to log into my internet banking via their link and add my card details. The HMRC one promised me a tax rebate if I followed their link and input my credit card details!

To my relatively informed eye, it was obvious these were scam emails, but the offer of money back from HMRC did have a certain compelling lure to it. Several hundred pounds just before Christmas, yes please! However, I haven’t completed my tax return yet and very much doubt HMRC owe me anything. With tempting offers like this, it is easy to see how people can be lulled into a false sense of security, especially by a smooth talking salesman.

In so many scams, we hear the same thing; “I was called by a lovely man and he told me he could make my pension value increase if I transferred into…..but now my pension pot is worth less – much less.” The sad truth is that invariably the salesman is based offshore, is completely unqualified and only interested in the high commissions he will get from selling you a thoroughly inappropriate investment. He will probably sell you a useless life bond too. Both of which will take a huge chunk of your pot before it has actually been invested anywhere.

The government has apologised for missing their deadline on passing this law, but I guess with all this Brexit chaos they are somewhat distracted. Given that they are unable to make a decision or deal on Brixit, I would guess they might struggle with passing a law that would protect their hardworking, tax-paying citizens.

I would also like to suggest that passing the ban might not be quite in the British government’s best interest. Often victims who have been scammed, have also liberated a cash amount out of their pension and this is taxable. 55% taxable to be precise. Therefore, by allowing the scams to go on, HMRC can coin in more tax revenues.

So, as we cannot count on our government to protect us from the cold calling scams, Pension Life is here to help.

Cold called? HANG UP!!!!

You don’t have to say anything, but if you do, make sure it’s something along the lines of:

“Buzz off.”

Trolley’s Pension Scam Guide

In a perfect world, we would also like to see an international ban on the following:

Unregulated advisory firms

Unqualified advisers

Commission on financial products

Life bonds – such as Old Mutual International, SEB, Generali and RL360

Structured notes

Investment funds with entry and exit fees

UK residents being put into QROPS

Retail investors being put into UCIS funds

AND, WE’D LIKE TO SEE LIFE OFFICES AND ADVISORY FIRMS COMPENSATING VICTIMS OF MIS-SELLING, NEGLIGENCE, AND FRAUD.

December 31, 2018
Scammers are criminals. So why aren’t they in jail?

As 2018 draws to a close, a recap is in order to review the year’s progress in the war against pension scammers. Let us not forget – in the immortal words of the Pensions Regulator’s Lesley Titcombe: “scammers are criminals“. However, the sad truth is that most of them have not been prosecuted or jailed.

The vast majority of the well-known pension scammers are still roaming free, busy thinking up yet more life-destroying schemes to make them rich and the victims poor. Whilst the scammers enjoy champagne this New Year’s Eve, many victims will be worrying themselves sick about their bleak financial future.

The Pensions Regulator, the Serious Fraud Office, the Insolvency Service, crime enforcement agencies and courts all seem to drag their feet when it comes to actually bringing charges against these criminals. Yet we see people being locked up for renting out caravans to help vulnerable homeless families! I would love it if this was a short and sweet blog, with many happy endings. But, alas, the scams are plentiful and the victims are left uncompensated for their losses.

Let’s have a quick round up of where we are with the scams and scammers. And remember: all the thousands of victims want to see the scammers sent to jail and the keys thrown away so they can’t ruin any more innocent people’s lives.

5G Futures

5G Futures: in May 2013 Garry John Williams and Susan Lynn Huxley were suspended as trustees of the 5G Futures pension scheme, and from trust schemes in general. Pi Consulting was appointed as the new trustee by the Pensions Regulator.

About 400 people had invested a total of £20m into the 5G Futures scheme – which was invested in high-risk, illiquid off-shore investments, with insufficient diversification making them completely unsuitable for pension scheme investments. There was no due diligence exercised by Williams and Huxley – and the scheme records were a mess.

The scheme operated pension liberation through ‘loans’ to members. Williams and Huxley were found to have taken very high commissions on the investments – taking nearly £900,00 in one year alone.

One of the most worrying things, however, is that the pension scammers don’t just leave the pensions industry and dedicate themselves to helping their many distressed victims – they start up all over again:

Garry Williams and Sue Huxley went on to run Corporate Futures.eu

Neither Garry Williams nor Sue Huxley has ever been convicted or jailed.

Ark

Stephen Ward: (this will not be the last time you hear this name in this blog) was the mastermind behind this scam (dating back to 2010). It was his first known scam – but by no means his last one. What is left of the Ark fund, stands still frozen, in the hands of Dalriada Trustees, who continue to take their yearly costs and fees from what little is left. Dalriada has done nothing to ensure the scammers are prosecuted – saying it is “not within their remit”. The victims of the Ark scam also have the heavy hand of HMRC hanging over them. And let us not forget that it was HMRC who happily registered this scam and failed to withdraw the registration when they discovered that Stephen Ward was operating pension liberation fraud.

Dalriada has never reported Stephen Ward to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

In 2018 we saw Stephen Ward being banned from acting as a pension trustee. Eight years after his first scam, he has still not been imprisoned for the millions of pounds’ worth of life savings he has destroyed and the thousands of lives he has ruined.

Other prominent figures in the Ark scam were Julian Hanson – who went on to play a key role in the Friendly Pensions scam; George Frost who went on to operate a new pension liberation scam using truffle trees as investments; Andrew Isles who went on to sell his accountancy business, Isles and Storer to LB Group; Peter Moat of Blu Debt Management who went on to operate the Fast Pensions scam. None of these scammers has ever been convicted or jailed.

Axiom

Another pension liberation scam, which saw victims with HMRC tax demands of 55%. Rex Ashcroft of Wealth Protection International was one of the main introducers of this scam. According to his Linkedin profile, he offers business development strategy planning for the UK, Spain, Portugal and France. He also offers “day-to-day application of wealth protection strategies”. Ashcroft lied to Axiom victims telling them they could access part of their pensions and not pay tax on the cash they took out.

Rex Ashcroft has never been convicted or jailed.

Blackmore Global Fund

The Blackmore Global Fund saw UK-based victims conned into transferring their pension funds into QROPS in Malta and Hong Kong between 2014 and 2016. After the transfers, the funds were invested in the Blackmore Global UCIS fund (Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme) and the victims were locked in (unknowingly) for ten years. Huge commissions were taken by the introducers, Aspinal Chase and David Vilka of Square Mile International and the fund managers Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh.  Victims locked into ten-year fixed terms are still waiting for a copy of an independent audit – which was promised back in 2016! Despite media attention from the BBC, victims still do not know how much of their pension fund – if any – is left.

David Vilka, Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh have never been convicted or jailed. Blackmore Global Group is still being promoted by Phillip Nunn! Nunn and McCreesh had been the main lead generators in the Capita Oak scam – earning nearly £1 million in the process.

Capita Oak

This was another of Stephen Ward´s scams – on which he worked closely with his pensions lawyer Alan Fowler (ex Stevens and Bolton Solicitors) and his sidekick Bill Perkins. Ward carried out the transfer administration for this scam which was mainly operated by XXXX XXXX who offered victims 5% Thurlston “loans”.   Over 300 victims are facing the partial or total loss of their pensions and are also now being pursued by HMRC for tax liabilities on the “loans”.

Capita Oak – like Ark – was placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees. But Dalriada has never reported Stephen Ward – or any of the other scammers – to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

Stephen Ward, Alan Fowler, Bill Perkins and XXXX XXXX have never been convicted or jailed (although XXXX XXXX is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office).

Continental Wealth Management

Stephen Ward’s firm Premier Pension Solutions (in Moraira, Spain) was the “sister” firm of Continental Wealth Management, run by scammer Darren Kirby. This was one of the biggest single scams – known as CWM – with around 1,000 victims losing part or all of their life savings. Other scammers involved were Anthony Downs, Dean Stogsdill, Alan Gorringe, Richard Peasley, and Neil Hathaway.

This scam was promoted by cold-calling victims and promising unrealistically high returns and “capital protection”. Darren Kirby and Anthony Downs used the victims’ funds to invest in totally unsuitable, high-risk, fixed-term structured notes. This scam saw huge commissions paid by the life offices – Old Mutual International, SEB, and Generali – as well as by the structured note providers: Leonteq, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, and BNP Paribas to this unregulated firm. Let us not forget that this was without question financial crime and was facilitated by the life offices.

Old Mutual International, run by ex IoM regulator Peter Kenny, was the leading life office which facilitated the CWM scam.  Generali and SEB also routinely accepted business from these known scammers and unlicensed advisers.

Stephen Ward, Darren Kirby, Anthony Downs, Dean Stogsdill, Alan Gorringe, Richard Peasley, and Neil Hathaway have never been convicted or jailed.

ELYSIAN FUELS

James Hay and Suffolk Life were accepting Elysian shares for liberation purposes

Another Stephen Ward creation which was operating 80% liberation with the full cooperation of the SIPPS providers James Hay and Suffolk Life. The SIPPS providers and the victims could face tax charges of up to £20 million from HMRC.

Despite clear evidence that Stephen Ward pushed this scam in emails to Alan Fowler and Bill Perkins, neither Ward nor Fowler nor Perkins have ever been prosecuted or jailed.

EVERGREEN RETIREMENT TRUST NZ QROPS PENSION LOAN SCAM

A New Zealand QROPS scam with Marazion pension loans

When Ark got shut down, Stephen Ward went straight to New Zealand to set up his next pension liberation scam with Simon Swallow of Charter Square. A further 300 victims were scammed out of over £10 million and conned into Marazion “loans” AND locked into the Evergreen scheme for five years. After the five years victims were told: ´Despite our best efforts, Evergreen has not been as successful as we had originally hoped.´ Evergreen was wound up April 208.

This scam was promoted by Darren Kirby’s Continental Wealth Management which cold called the victims.

Stephen Ward, Darren Kirby, and Simon Swallow have never been convicted or jailed.

Fast Pensions

Fast Pensions, run by Peter and Sara Moat was wound up by the High Court 30th May 2018, after the six companies and 15 occupational schemes were put into liquidation in March 2018. £21m was transferred into the schemes under Peter Moat’s set of Blu loan companies. However, there was no information on the pension portfolios and what happened to the investors’ funds. Other persons named as being involved in this scam are Miss Jane Wright (who acted as a trustee) and a Mr Chapman. Maladministration was noted by the ombudsman back in 2016. However, nothing was done to stop the Moats.

It was determined that there is no doubt this was a scam.

Peter and Sara Moat and their accomplices have never been convicted or jailed.

Friendly Pensions Limited (FPL)

Back in January of 2018, the Pensions Regulator asked the High Court to act on their behalf in the Friendly Pensions matter. Scammers: David Austin, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson (also involved in ARK) were ordered to pay back £13.7 million they took from their victims and banned from being pension trustees. However, Dalriada the independent trustee appointed by TPR to take over the running of the schemes, is in charge of confiscating the scammers’ assets for the benefit of their victims. (Who knows how long this could take: how long is a piece of string?) As yet, no compensation has been offered to the victims.

David Austin, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson and their accomplices have never been convicted or jailed. However, there have recently been some arrests – so let us hope this results in maximum sentences.

HEADFORTE AND SOUTHLANDS

Two bogus “occupational pension schemes” set up for pension liberation fraud by Stephen Ward after the Evergreen QROPS scam hit the rocks (when HMRC removed Evergreen from the QROPS list). Victims have no idea where or how their pensions are invested. The pensions are allegedly invested in “The Treasury Plus Fund” (whatever that might be – and it is not likely to be anything good) and the trustee is Ward’s bogus trustee firm Dorrixo Alliance.

Nobody knows the total aggregate value of lost pensions and tax liabilities Ward has caused – we hazard a guess at a figure in the region of £100 million +.

Stephen Ward has never been convicted or jailed.

Henley Retirement Benefit Scheme

Another double act by Stephen Ward and XXXX XXXX. This was the “sister” scheme to Capita Oak. Ward did the transfer administration – from safe, well-known and regulated pension providers to this bogus occupational scheme run by XXXX.

Neither Stephen Ward nor XXXX XXXX has ever been convicted or jailed.

Incartus and Bluefin Trustees

Another pension liberation scam – placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees by the Pensions Regulator.

Incartus was placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees by the Pensions Regulator. But Dalriada has never reported the scammers to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

None of the Incartus or Bluefin trustees scammers has ever been convicted or jailed.

KJK Investments and G Loans

£11.9 million worth of transfers were made, with the victims receiving approximately 50% of their pension as a loan and the promise of the rest being invested into a high-interest generating SIPPS. The loans were made from the pensions and therefore the victims have the usual HMRC tax demand letters. Further to the victims’ misery, the other 50% of the funds was not invested as promised. Most of the funds were swallowed by high commissions paid to the scammers.

None of the KJK Investments/G Loans scammers has ever been convicted or jailed.

London Quantum

Another of Stephen Ward’s many pension scams, this one was courtesy of his bogus pension trustee firm Dorrixo Alliance, his accomplice Gary Barlow at Gerard Associates, and introducers at Viva Costa International. Like Ward´s other scams, London Quantum scam was never set up for the benefit of the victims, but in the interests of Stephen Ward and his team of scammers to earn the maximum amount of commission out of the toxic, illiquid, high-risk investments.

The London Quantum scam is now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.

London Quantum – like Ark, Capita Oak and Fast Pensions – was placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees by the Pensions Regulator. But Dalriada has never reported Stephen Ward – or any of the other scammers – to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

Stephen Ward and Gary Barlow have never been convicted or jailed.

Successful Pensions

This pension liberation scam dating back to 2013 and 2014, involved around £1m of victims pension funds. Anthony Locke, was sentenced to a five-year jail term and Ray King, 54, who was employed by Lock, was given a three-year jail sentence.

It is great that these two crooks received jail terms, however, they are relatively “small fry” in comparison to the other serial scammers who are still walking free! The question remains: why have two minor players such as Locke and King been convicted and jailed while the “big fish” remain free to keep on scamming?

Salmon Enterprises

116 victims were scammed out of their pensions by James Lau of FCA-regulated Wightman Fletcher McCabe. Victims were assured the loans they were given did not come from their pension funds and would not be taxable by HMRC. The trustees of the scheme – Peter Bradley and Andrew Meeson (both ex HMRC) of Tudor Capital Management – were jailed for eight years for cheating the Public Revenue. James Lau is currently under criminal investigation by the Insolvency Service. The victims are awaiting a verdict on whether they will still have to pay the tax penalties.

James Lau has not yet been convicted or jailed – although he is clearly a wanted man.

Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund

This fund, created by XXXX XXXX, loaned most of the £21m invested by hundreds of victims to Dolphin Trust. Dolphin Trust is a UCIS which was illegal to be sold to UK residents. The Trafalgar Multi-Asset fund was suspended back in September 2016 and victims are still waiting to find out if they will ever get their money back.

This scam was facilitated by STM Fidecs in Gibraltar – one of Europe’s biggest QROPS providers. The regulator did order Deloittes to carry out an inspection into STM Fidecs’ books, but no action was taken against STM Fidecs for their part in this scam.

STM Fidecs accepted transfers into the QROPS by UK-resident victims “advised” by XXXX XXXX – even though he was not licensed to give financial advice. And then XXXX’s clients were 100% invested in XXXX’s own fund.

XXXX XXXX has not yet been convicted or jailed – although he is clearly under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Westminster Pension Scam

Another of the schemes under investigation by the SFO. This liberation scam with more than £3 million worth of (now worthless) investments was registered and administered by Stephen Ward.

Windsor Pensions

A no-frills pension liberation scam run by Florida-based Steve Pimlott. This scam has been going on for years and there is no sign of any let up – despite the fact that the regulators and ombudsman are well aware of Pimlott’s modus operandi. Pimlott doesn’t bother with any attempt to conceal the loans with fancy “loans” or complex mechanisms to try to “distance” the liberation from the pension transfer. He uses QROPS and a fraudulently-set-up bank account in the Isle of Man (of course!). HMRC catches many of the victims and charges them 55% tax on the liberated amount. Pimlott charges around 15% for the liberation.

Steve Pimlott has not yet been convicted or jailed

What a sorry state of affairs that out of all the pension schemes I have mentioned here, only one of them has seen the scammers jailed. Serial scammers like Stephen Ward and XXXX XXXX seem to slip the noose of justice again and again.

December 31, 2018
Premier New Earth Recycling (NERR) Investment Scam
Premier New Earth Recycling and Renewables PLC (in liquidation) is being wound up by Deloittes. Joint liquidators Alexander Cameron Adam and David Peter Craine have written to shareholders to say the directors of NERR aren’t being terribly helpful. Apparently, they are refusing to cooperate with the investigation into why the company failed and are insisting they will only answer questions put to them in writing. Disappointing, perhaps, but not really surprising – scammers rarely “cooperate”.

NERR was a typical investment scam from the outset. The fund was highly speculative, with underlying assets mostly made up of smoke and mirrors, and a bit more smoke (plus quite a bit of rubbish). But to be fair, the published accounts did draw attention to the inherent high risks of the venture failing.

The fund’s assets were equity and unsecured loans in three UK companies:

1. New Earth Solutions Group Limited (“NESGL”)
2. New Earth Solutions Facilities Management Limited (“NESFM”)
3. New Earth Energy Facilities Management Limited (“NEEFM”)

When the liquidators got called in, they valued the investments at “close to nil”. In fact, the only value was probably the paper that the depressing accounts were printed on. Deloittes will, apparently, be trying to uncover why NERR was NEVER going to do anything other than collapse. So that will require a bit of sleuthing to find out who and what was responsible. The liquidators have applied to the court to have the directors questioned under oath. But the directors – who have undoubtedly made a packet out of this scam – will be able to afford top-class lawyers who will help them muddy the waters.

Deloittes have made the usual “we are limited in what information we can share so that we do not prejudice any potential claims” disclaimer to the distressed shareholders. But I find it worrying that Deloittes is being used at all for this job. Deloittes was used to inspect the books and records of STM Fidecs in Gibraltar – and they must surely have uncovered the massive fraud involved in the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund (under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office). But no action was ever taken against STM Fidecs. So I am not optimistic that Deloittes will do anything other than push a bit of paper around a desk and submit eye-watering fee invoices.

The Isle of Man Financial Services Authority is paying Deloittes’ fees for the liquidation. For now. However, if the IoM regulator had done its job properly in the first place, they could – and should – have prevented this scam and avoided so many thousands of investors losing their shirts.

Read the published accounts for the NERR Group of companies – and I think you’ll agree this was obviously a dodgy investment right from the start. These accounts were prepared by BDO Stoy Hayward – and you’d have thought they would have known better than to fail to blow the whistle on this collection of companies which was, quite frankly, always bound to fail (at best) and an outright scam (at worst). The writing was always on the public domain wall.

2008 Turnover £3.5m Cost of Sales £3.8m Admin Costs £1.8m

2010 Turnover £6.4m Cost of Sales £8.7m Admin Costs £5m

2012 Turnover £24.8m Cost of Sales £25m Admin Costs £5.8m

2014 Turnover £31.9m Cost of Sales £39m Admin Costs £1.7m

However noble, environmentally friendly and ethical the concept of turning rubbish into clean energy may sound in theory, this commercial venture was never commercially viable. In fact, looking at the ever-increasing gross losses from 2008 to 2014: from £0.3m in 2008 to £7m in 2014 – and a total spent on “admin costs” of £14.3m – any half-decent accountant or auditor would have blown the whistle long before 2016.

Pumping more and more investment into this hopeless venture was only ever going to prolong the inevitable. An unprofitable venture is an unprofitable venture – no more and no less. The directors will, naturally, have got fat and rich, but the investors will have lost large chunks of their life savings.

The name “Premier” will, of course, strike a chord with victims of Stephen Ward’s Premier Pension Solutions. Since at least 2010, thousands of victims have lost their pensions to Ward. However, in this case there seems to be no link between the Premier Group investment scam, and Ward’s Premier Pension scam. However, one of Premier Group’s other scams – in addition to the recycling scam – was the Eco Resources Fund which invested in bamboo plantations in Nicaragua. Which sounds awfully similar to the Reforestation Group fund that Ward was peddling in the London Quantum pension scam. This fund was purportedly based on Brazilian eucalyptus trees and land used for plantations. Only it seems there were no eucalyptus trees. And no land.

In total, around 3,250 investors lost almost £300m in the Premier Group investment scam. A great shame it took the Isle of Man regulator eight years to figure out what was going on under its own nose. But then the regulator has a long track record of ignoring financial crime and those who facilitate it – and ignoring it is the same thing as encouraging it. Personally, I would put the IoM regulator in the same category as the Gibraltar regulator: inept and bent – taking no action against scammers or those who facilitate scams.

And, of course, Old Mutual International had a big hand in helping to facilitate the Premier Group scam as this fund was offered on the OMI platform. Had Old Mutual International done even the most basic bit of due diligence, they would have seen it was an obvious scam and more than likely to result in investors losing their money.
The Premier Shareholder’s Group, a campaign group for investors, said Premier Group had paid large commissions to “unqualified and unlicensed” introducers to target pensioners by promoting their funds to low-risk investors. This campaigning group also claims investors were locked in with “punitive” exit fees, often as high as 30%, which they were not told about when they signed up.

Former director of Premier Group – John Bourbon – has apparently denied accusations of mis-selling and mis-representation and is quoted as saying: “It is highly unlikely that anybody could have a significant investment in Premier Group without understanding the risk”. He has also insisted all fees and charges were clearly set out in the offer document that investors were required to sign to confirm their status as “experienced investor”. Bourbon has also moaned that the regulatory action was “something of a witch hunt”.

So, in summary, you’ve got all the same old same old symptoms of yet another scam:

Hopeless, commercially-unviable venture which hasn’t a hope of ever succeeding

Hopeless regulator

Hopeless auditor

Bent introducers and unregulated advisers flogging the high-risk investment to low-risk clients

Huge commissions and punitive exit penalties

Victims conned into signing up as “experienced investors”

Until and unless regulators and crime enforcement agencies make an example out of the scammers who operate such investment scams, nothing is going to change. And until and unless life offices such as Old Mutual International are sanctioned for offering such scams, unscrupulous and commission hungry “advisers” are going to keep on peddling such toxic wares to unsuspecting victims.

The one thing that could stop these kinds of scams from getting off the ground would be to ban commissions offshore and mirror the principles of British RDR. Financial advice can never be truly independent if commissions are payable – whether for useless, expensive insurance bonds, or toxic, expensive investment funds such as Premier New Earth Recycling and Renewables (NERR).

USEFUL CONTACT DETAILS:
nerrenquiries@deloitte.co.uk.
http://www.deloitte-insolvencies.co.uk/kr/new-earth-recycling-and-renewables-(infrastructure)-plc.aspx
Alex Adam: acadam@deloitte.co.uk
David Craine: dcraine@burleigh.co.im
December 28, 2018
FT Adviser Top 100 Financial Advisers 2018

I have enormous respect for FT Adviser. Their articles are written by proper journalists and they generally write competently and professionally. FT Adviser puts International Adviser to shame with their thinly-disguised promotional shows and Micky Mouse “articles” which only ever promote their own sponsors – Old Mutual International and their ilk.

It was really interesting to read FT Adviser’s recent “Top 100 Financial Advisers 2018“. I had, however, never heard of most of the advisory firms. But that is hardly surprising because nobody ever comes to me and says “guess what, I’ve got a really good adviser and am making good returns on my investments”. And I presume that all the advisory firms listed by FT Adviser are full of happy clients who never need to complain about being scammed into unsuitable investments and losing money due to a combination of high, undisclosed charges and trading losses within insurance bonds (particularly OMI’s).

However, and it is a big “however”, there are a couple of firms on the list which should have had big red asterisks against them – largely because they discredit the rankings, the other firms on the list and FT Adviser’s reputation. These are Quilter PLC and Canaccord Genuity Group.

Canaccord Genuity Group is under investigation by the FCA for non-disclosure of investment charges. Coming 24th in the top 100 list, it is very worrying that an advisory firm that lies about how much investments cost should have £990,000,000 worth of assets under management. I wonder what the investment charges are on that little lot and how much non-disclosure of related charges has gone on. Let us not forget that “non-disclosure” means lying – and with almost one billion under management that is very serious indeed.

However, Canaccord Genuity Group’s porky pies do pale into a degree of insignificance when compared to Quilter plc which came sixth with £10.3 billion worth of sales and £29 billion worth of assets under management. Quilter plc is Old Mutual International, which is the life office which helped scam hundreds of victims out of their life savings. So surely FT Adviser should have put a really bright double red asterisk against this firm on the league table? (Or perhaps they didn’t care, as Quilter was the lead sponsor?).

If Quilter is managing £29 billion worth of assets – presumably on behalf of thousands of investors – I wonder how much of this has been used to buy toxic, high-risk structured notes. As Old Mutual International seems to be claiming there is nothing wrong with destroying millions of pounds’ worth of clients’ funds by making inappropriate investments, the same must be true of Quilter plc.

Old Mutual International was buying many millions of pounds’ worth of structured notes provided by Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura and Leonteq between 2010 and 2017. OMI has disclosed that at least £94 million worth of the Leonteq notes were fraudulent, and is now suing Leonteq.

I have to confess, if I were a client of Quilter plc, I would be inclined to change advisers sharpish – although most certainly not to Canaccord Genuity. Mind you, that still seems to leave 98 other firms worth considering.

But, despite the embarrassing inclusion of these two dud firms, congratulations to FT Adviser for the hard work which must have gone into producing this hit parade. This is definitely one in the eye for the hopeless nitwits at International Adviser.

December 3, 2018
International Adviser – Have I Got News For You!

International Adviser really can’t make up its mind whether it is organising a piss-up in a brewery, a news roundup carefully slewed in favour sponsors Old Mutual International, or a marketing machine. I read with interest the recent IA Industry Most Influential Top 100 described by IA thus: “we at International Adviser decided to shine a light on the movers and shakers that have helped this industry get to where it is today”.

But where exactly is the industry today? And have the so-called top 100 moved and shaken the industry in a helpful way or a detrimental way? To find out, why don’t we have a look at a few of the “influencers”. To get the measure of them, let’s put them into a game of “Have I Got News For You”:

Bob Pain in the chair as quiz master. A bloke who ran Cayman Islands-based Investors Trust until recently appointed chair of the Association of International Life Offices, the trade body for international life offices. During his 35 years of experience in financial services, he facilitated the scam run by Phillip Nunn of Blackmore Global and David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial Services. Investors Trust accepted over 1,000 investments into illegal UCIS funds for UK-based victims scammed into QROPS with Integrated Capabilities and Harbour (now STM).

As Captain of the Navel Team, let’s have dashing Tim Searle – Chairman of Dubai-based Globaleye. With his eight-year Naval history, he should make an ideal leader and would come in particularly useful in the event of icebergs, torpedos or sharks.

Captain of the Army Team I nominate as Sam Instone of AES International. His experience as an Army officer should give him the leadership skills to oppose the Navel Team. Sam’s track record as the “enemy of traditional financial services” should give him the basis for a sound battle plan.

On the Army Team, we’ll have international wealth and regulatory specialist, Phil Billingham. Phil must be utterly disgusted with the likes of Stephen Ward (another fully-qualified adviser) messing up the reputation of the profession by running a long series of pension scams and ruining thousands of lives.

And the final member of the Army team will be Paul Stanfield, CEO of FEIFA (Federation of European Independent Financial Advisers). Another real gentleman – and handsome to boot – and one who understands the importance of outlawing scammers. Several years ago he excommunicated Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions from FEIFA to loud cheers from victims and industry professionals alike. (My only gripe with him would be that he still hasn’t kicked out Square Mile Financial Services run by scammers John Ferguson and David Vilka).

On the Navel Team we’ll have Geraint Davies of Montfort International – an expert IFA specialising in international financial services, and Roger Berry of Concept Group Trustees in Guernsey. These two chaps also have, between them, extensive experience of Stephen Ward in their own ways and will, no doubt, have much to talk about.

The contest will be to spot the “odd one out”: Michael Doherty of Woodbrook Group, Conor McCarthy of SEB, Peter Kenny of OMI and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Tim Searle: “They’re all Irish, except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s English?”

Geraint Davies: “They all hate Angie except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s never heard of her?”

Roger Berry: “They all love Angie except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s never heard of her?”

Sam Instone: “They’ve all got names that end in Y except Winnie-the-Pooh?”

Phil Billingham: “They’re all involved in money except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s involved in honey?”

Paul Stanfield: “None of them have applied to be members of FEIFA except Winnie-the-Pooh?”

Bob Pain: “No, you’re all wrong. The answer is Peter Kenny of OMI. The other three have been doing “nothing”: Michael Doherty was employing ex CWM scammers Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway (known as Dog Kill and Hadaway) but claimed he was paying them nothing; Conor McCarthy of SEB has been asked numerous times for his comments on why SEB allowed the scammers at CWM to invest most of their victims’ funds in toxic structured notes, but McCarthy is saying nothing and won’t reply; and Winnie-the-Pool is doing nothing all the time.

The odd one out is Peter Kenny who is doing “something” and is suing Leonteq for the £94 million worth of fraudulent structured notes they sold to OMI.

November 20, 2018
Nitwit or Dragonfly? Gambling or Investing?

Nitwit or Dragonfly? Gambling or Investing? Are investment losses as a result of a bad adviser or a bad investment? Or both? The real question is: how does the consumer tell the difference? A favourite episode of Fawlty Towers involved Basil’s ill-fated bet on a racehorse called Dragonfly. Confusion sets in – fuelled by the easily-confused Manuel – and “Dragonfly” gets muddled up with “Nitwit”. And that is how clients get confused just as easily: by advisers who spout the usual rubbish: capital protected; guaranteed returns; blue-chip investments; solid providers etc. They just leave out the three most important things: the fat commissions paid to the adviser; the high-risk nature of the “investment” and the fact that structured notes are FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY (and not for retail investors).

Equally befuddled – but much less funny – this past few days, has been a bunch of nitwits posing as financial experts on Linkedin. Almost as barmy as Basil and Manuel, these comedians don’t know the difference between investing and gambling. Graham Bentley of a firm called gbi2 has been suggesting that structured notes should be revisited as viable “investments” for valued clients.

Bentley has suggested that structured products are an option that advisers could consider including in their portfolio of investment solutions. If he is talking about outright scammers, then – of course – he is right. Structured products pay juicy commissions of up to 8%, so naturally they are a favoured product for these criminals to sell. Plus, if the clients themselves have so much money they are desperate to get rid of as much of it as possible, as quickly as possible, then structured products are ideal.

But Bentley is missing the point entirely. Structured products have, for years, been sold enthusiastically and aggressively by the usual suspects: Leonteq, Nomura, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada and BNP Paribas; bought by scammers such as Continental Wealth Management for the juicy commissions; harboured by crooked life offices such as Old Mutual International. And the result has been huge losses for hundreds of victims. In some cases, total destruction of a victim’s life savings.

Most advisers who sell these toxic products are too thick to understand how they work – and indeed anything beyond the amount of commission they earn out of flogging them is way too tricky to get their simple minds around. And why should they even bother? They just sell them, collect their 8% and then move on to the next victim. What’s to understand? They know that life offices love them – and indeed Old Mutual International bought £94 million worth of the fraudulent Leonteq ones alone. It is a delightful circle for all concerned: the scammers get rich, the bent life offices get fat and the structured product providers do very nicely thank you. And not a single one of them gives a second thought for the victims.

One cheerful idiot on the Linkedin thread has enthusiastically supported Bentley’s idiotic view:

Mark Coomber, Chartered MCSI Independent Financial Planner at Plutus Wealth Management

“Continue to use structured products (as part of portfolios) both personally and for clients with great success. Most of the negative comments I read about them are born out of ignorance and sheer laziness of some advisers who cannot be bothered to either learn the topic matter or undertake the relevant due diligence.”

And this guy is chartered! As a member of the CISI he should know better than to spout such rubbish – and I feel deeply sorry for any clients of Plutus Wealth Management as they are clearly in danger of being sold these toxic products. In fact, I would go further and suggest the public should be warned about the dangers of using this firm, as Coomber clearly has every intention of flogging his victims these high-risk products. If he is stupid enough to use them for his own gambling fun, good luck to him. But he has no right to inflict them on retail clients.

One of the fraudulent structured notes sold by Leonteq (for 8% commissions to the scammers) was:

Capital Protection on WTI Crude Oil with a Reference Bond (PDVSA)
100.00% Contingent Capital Protection | Credit Risk of Reference Bond Issuer | 5.00% p.a. Guaranteed
Coupon | 6.00% p.a. Conditional Coupon
ISIN CH0234862669 | Swiss Security Number 23486266
Final Fixing Date 20/03/2019

The term sheet did, to be fair, give a clear warning:

“Given the complexity of the terms and conditions of this Product an investment is suitable only for experienced Investors who understand and are in a position to evaluate the risks associated with it.”

Sadly, we have to wait until March 2019 to find out how many victims have lost their shirts on this particular lame horse.

And this is the problem: most advisers don’t understand structured products themselves – all they understand (and care about) is the fat commission. They certainly don’t care that the products are fraudulent. But, more importantly, none of these rogue advisers’ clients are experienced investors. If they were, they wouldn’t be paying a greedy and irresponsible financial adviser to risk their hard-earned life savings for them.

STRUCTURED NOTES ARE GAMBLING – NOT INVESTING!

So my message to Coomber and Bentley is this: read Leonteq’s term sheet:

“Products involve a high degree of risk, including the potential risk of expiring worthless. Potential Investors should be prepared in certain circumstances to sustain a total loss of the capital invested to purchase this Product.” And then try to decide which horse is going to win: Dragonfly or Nitwit.

October 3, 2018
Cartoon blog – Don’t be the next pension scam victim

Written by Kim

All pension and investment scams have one thing in common: if the pension scam victims had asked the offshore advisers some or all of these 10 essential questions, they might not have lost their life savings to the scammers.

Here at Pension Life, we are working hard to help educate the masses and stop pension scammers in their tracks worldwide. By arming and informing the public, and teaching them how to spot the scammers and avoid being scammed, we can help put a stop to these crimes.

With the scammers outsmarted, there will hopefully be fewer pension scam victims!

We have put together this cartoon which provides you, the investor, with 10 essential questions to ask your offshore adviser before you sign your precious pension fund over. Knowing what questions to ask could mean you do not become the next pension scam victim.

1. Pension Life has covered what qualifications your adviser needs to give pension advice. The adviser should also be able to show you their certificates and be registered with the governing body that awarded them – typically CII or CISI qualifications. We have created a series of blogs “firm name – qualified and registered?” which cover many offshore advisory firms and their team members. They show the firms that list employees who claim qualifications but are not registered and have failed to supplied proof and which firms are transparent. Some firms are happy to work with us and be 100% transparent and demonstrate that their team of advisers are fully qualified and registered.

2. Many offshore companies are regulated with an insurance licence ONLY and this is not sufficient to give pension and investment advice. They must have a licence to give advice on pensions and investments.

3. We have seen many companies with flash websites posing as financial advisory firms. Their spiel gives the impression they are a large company, but when you dig deeper you find they are a one-man band like the Imperius Group, and often unqualified AND unregulated like Callaghan QROPS.

4. Insurance bonds are an expensive and unnecessary double wrapper on your pension. If it has already been invested in a SIPPS or a QROPS, insurance bonds are not needed. Insurance bonds are another way for the scammers to skim more commissions from your fund, putting a dent in your start and end value. Life offices such as Old Mutual International, Generali and RL360 are among the firms (known as life offices) to be avoided.

5. Structured note providers such as Leonteq, Nomura, Royal Bank of Canada and Commerzbank should be avoided. These companies are linked to previous pension scams and many victims have seen their pension funds destroyed with these high-risk, fixed-term notes, that are totally unsuitable for a pension fund. Often these structured notes have high commissions that make the ‘adviser’ big bucks.

6. Holding a DB pension puts you in good stead for your retirement. With a pension fund like this you are often better to ‘just do nothing’ and leave it as it is. Transferring it can lead to heavy charges and fees, meaning your fund becomes worth much less than before.

7. A pension is classed as a retail investment and needs to be invested in low to medium risk investments with a steady increase in value. Offers of high returns, especially in investments that use words like “renewable energies” or “property”, are illiquid and high risk. These types of investments are not safe for your pension. An example of this is the Elysian bio-fuels pension scam, facilitated by James Hay and Dolphin Trust – a German housing investment scheme – promoted to British steelworkers.

8. Time and time again, we see pension scam victims receiving the paperwork on the pension transfer ‘deal’ they have signed, only to realise that large fees and charges have been applied. The scammers are experts at hiding the charges and often quote the term: ‘free pension review’. Whilst they do not charge for all their visits and advice before you sign on the dotted line, they make up for this in transfer fees, commissions and often quarterly charges too! The quarterly charges will be applied no matter how your fund is doing. We have seen pension scam victims´ funds end up in negative equity due to being placed into an inappropriate fund which causes losses and second, continuing fees being applied. (Fees are normally based on the start value of the fund).

9. With the technology we have today, like smart phone apps, many firms are offering instant access to the progress of your pension fund through their own app. Options exist to add funds or change your investments and total transparency of investments and progress; a company that offers this service is Pension Bee. You should also get quarterly statements and annual reviews so you can track the progress of your fund.

10. We have seen pension scam victims repeatedly contacting their so-called advisers to try to get information on the demise of their fund, only to meet dead end after dead end. Again, ensure you are using a fully licensed firm that has an admin, compliance and support team. Ensure you are able to get a set of contact details (if not two!) and that there is a ‘real’ address and a landline – scammers often use PO boxes and mobile numbers.

Remember, it is your pension and your investment; you are entitled to ask as many questions as you like. These essential questions to ask offshore advisers should be simple for any trustworthy and transparent adviser to answer quickly and effortlessly. If your adviser is in any way cagey, vague or tries to avoid the question altogether, just walk away. An adviser who is unwilling to be totally transparent could well be a scammer.

Don’t be the next pension scam victim – wise up!

October 2, 2018
International Adviser and the Old Mutual International/Quilter Scams

International Adviser and the Old Mutual International/Quilter Scams. Today’s jolly:

“Future Advisory Forum Europe 2018”

at the Courthouse Hotel, Shoreditch, will see a number of players in the financial services industry discussing – presumably – financial services in 2018. I’ve looked at the agenda, however, and I can’t see anything about pension scams or investment scams and how to prevent them. Neither can I see anything about bringing negligent, lazy, dishonest, callous, greedy life offices such as Old Mutual International/Quilter to justice for facilitating financial crime.

I can’t see any evidence of any of the victims of scams either attending or speaking at this do. Surely to goodness, these people – the first-hand witnesses and experts on the mass destruction of life savings by the likes of Old Mutual/Quilter – should be the stars of the show. How can anyone discuss the future of financial advice in Europe without examining how the perpetrators operate, and planning how to stop them from doing so in the future?

International Adviser should hang its head in shame for failing to make sure that the perpetrators – especially Old Mutual International/Quilter – are brought to justice publicly for the destruction of hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of life savings. And yet IA’s Old Mother Hubbard is consorting with them and giving Quilter’s Ryan Gardner a speaking slot on the “return of volatility”. How absolutely disgusting and sickening! The victims of Old Mutual International or Quilter – or whatever the hell they are calling themselves this week to try to obliterate their grubby past – know far more than this idiot will ever know about “volatility”. One calm and composed victim could sum the subject up in one simple sentence:

“I started with a lifetime’s worth of savings and now I’ve got nothing – although I’m still paying the OMI quarterly charges”.

That is pretty bloody volatile I would say. And all because OMI accepts business from any old filthy, unqualified, unregulated scammers – and pays them handsomely to invest in disgusting, toxic crap like professional-investor-only Leonteq structured notes.

Apart from IA’s Richard Hubbard and Quilter’s Ryan Gardner, the other speakers should know better and hang their heads in shame for consorting with the scum of financial services and leading perpetrators of financial crime.

Michelle Hoskin of Standards International intends to speak about a “global movement of change”. I hope that “change” includes campaigning for all scammers to be brought to justice, and all regulators encouraged to get off their lazy backsides and outlaw scams in their backyards. Michelle doesn’t say whether she wants the change to be good or bad. Hopefully, she means “good” – and that should include boycotting any rogue firms such as Old Mutual International which facilitate financial crime. If this woman wants to know why, she should perhaps ask Ryan Gardner why OMI bought £94 million worth of fraudulent, high risk, toxic crap from Leonteq between 2012 and 2016.

Then she should ask him why OMI just sat there for six years and watched thousands of victims’ life savings dwindle away to nothing. While OMI did nothing. And their victims considered suicide. Putting that lot right would be a pretty good global movement of change.

Other speakers at this CONference include Andy Cowin of Sterling – who wants to talk about taking advice on residency and domicile status. Hopefully, his talk will include advice for OMI’s victims who are in the process of losing their homes and will have nowhere to live thanks to OMI’s negligence. Residency/domicile is a pretty hot topic for these people. If Cowin doesn’t address this particular aspect of the subject, he should hang his head in shame.

And another one is Edward GOTT. Head of FX private clients. Caxton FX. He’s going to talk about “strategies to help high net-worth customers understand the risks relating to Brexit”. Hopefully, he is not going to ignore the plight of OMI’s victims – the low to zero net worth people whose only risk right now is starving or freezing to death – and for whom Brexit is irrelevant since OMI have destroyed all their money and they are staring at the prospect of homelessness in any country (whether part of Europe or not). Hopefully, he’s GOTT the balls to publicly shame OMI for facilitating such large-scale financial crime and hanging their victims out to dry.

Also on the roster of shame at this disgraceful event is Philip Robotham from Schroders. He is going to talk about “conversations advisers have with their clients and the investment selection process”. What he really needs to do is row his bottom to the murky end of the pond and examine why so many scammers were allowed by the likes of OMI to invest clients’ funds in toxic, risky, fraudulent investments. And why OMI accepted so many investment instructions (in toxic structured notes) from pond life such as unregulated Continental Wealth Management.

This event is being hosted by Richard Hubbard, Group Editor of Last Word, and Karen Blatchford, Head of International Proposition & Marketing, Old Mutual Wealth. Hopefully, during the “networking lunch”, their consciences will trouble them enough to give a thought to OMI’s victims. While Hubbard and Blatchford sip their bloody marys, maybe they will ask OMI what the bloody hell they are going to do about compensating their victims.

The victims are bound to ask why OMI are spending a huge amount of money sponsoring this event when, in fact, they have paid zero redress to those whose life savings they are responsible for destroying. Perhaps there are some real investigative journalists out there who would see the disgraceful irony in this and write a proper article on this sickening event.

September 20, 2018
CWM CONference

All victims of the Continental Wealth Management pension scam will agree – this kind of disaster must never be allowed to happen again. Here´s Pension Life´s take on what happened in the CWM CONference given by Darren Kirby.

The CWM advisers. . . Dean Stogsdill * Alan Gorringe * Richard Peasley * Neil Hathaway, but to name a few. . . lied about charges; lied about investment “guarantees” and growth; lied about structured note losses (“don’t worry – they are only paper losses”); lied about the firm’s regulation.

Through a series of cold calls and personal house visits, they were able to persuade the victims into trusting them with their hard-earned pension pots. Aided and abetted by Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions – who provided the initial transfer advice – CWM brought financial ruin to hundreds of victims.

The rogue “advisers” of CWM, forged clients’ signatures on dealing instructions and conned hundreds of victims in Spain, France, Portugal and beyond into transferring their safe, UK-based pensions into this dreadful scam, which was bound to lose some, most of or all of the money in each victim’s pension fund.

Trustees and insurance companies must never give these kinds of firms terms of business again. Old Mutual International (OMI), facilitated the fraud, paid commissions/fees to CWM who not only held no investment licence – but also held no license of any kind. Furthermore, OMI continue to apply crippling fees to these ever decreasing and totally unsuitable investments they made. SEB also acted as facilitators to this heinous crime.

These so-called advisers must never be allowed to work in financial services again. However, the sorry truth is that they all are still working AND they are still scamming!! Raising awareness on how scammers work and how to avoid being scammed, seems to be the only defense we currently have.

Pension Life will continue to speak out against these companies – the public must be warned – loudly and publicly. Scams like the Continental Wealth Management (CWM CONference) disaster must be stopped!

SCAMMERS ARE CRIMINALS!!!

September 6, 2018
YET ANOTHER STRUCTURED NOTE SCAM BY OLD MUTUAL INTERNATIONAL

ROLL UP! ROLL UP! ME HEARTY SCAMMERS! OMI’S LATEST STRUCTURED NOTE SCAM IS ONLY AVAILABLE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 28TH SO GET A JIGGLE ON WHILE STOCKS OF THIS TOXIC CRAP LAST! WE ARE PROUD TO OFFER OUR VALUED SCAMMERS YET ANOTHER INVESTMENT SCAM

BY OLD MUTUAL INTERNATIONAL.

This wonderful investment scamming opportunity with OMI, is open to all scammers – you need no qualifications and don’t have to be regulated. If you want a bit of training in how to sell this rubbish inappropriate structured product to as many victims as possible, we can give you a quick five-minute whisper behind the bike shed. But, trust me, it is easypeasylemonsqueezy – just lie. Tell the victims about the “guaranteed 10% return” bit, but don’t tell them about the “capital at risk” bit.

So, what are you waiting for? You’ll earn 8% by selling your victims a useless OMI “PORTFOLIO” bond (don’t mention this is illegal in Spain) and then a further 8% from selling this toxic, high-risk BNP Paribas structured note (rubbish inappropriate structured product) which will tie your victims in for six years.

This will give you plenty of time to explain away the losses as “only secondary market values” or “only paper losses”. And by the time your victims realise what you’ve done to them, you’ll be long gone. And most of them will commit suicide anyway, so they won’t be coming after you any time soon.

BNP Paribas has a good reputation as being an ethical, solid company so that will certainly help you with sell these inappropriate structured products. Just remember, tell the victims as little as possible about this product and hide the commissions you will earn – they will never find out and by the time their life savings have all gone up in smoke you will be sunning yourself on a Caribbean island, far away from the misery of those whose retirement income you will have destroyed.

If the victims are ever organised enough to band together and form a group action, I’ll just promise to pay redress for their losses, organise a meeting and then cancel it at the last minute. That ought to buy you enough time to make your getaway.

Happy scamming – smiley face. Love from Pete

p.s. BTW, don’t worry about the email below the Mad Woman of Spain has sent out – most of the new victims will never have heard of her and by the time they do, it will be too late. You’ve only got until 28th September to scam as many suckers as possible, so don’t just stand there – SCAM AWAY ME HEARTIES!

p.p.s. Don’t worry about my quote about inappropriate structured products – I was just lying (something I’m pretty good at). With the announcement of new regulations in Malta for QROPS, International Adviser has quoted managing director of OMI (soon to be Quilter) Peter Kenny: “Old Mutual International is encouraging all market participants to help rid the industry of inappropriate structured products”

———————————————————————————————————————————————————-

ATTENTION PAUL EVANS – Head of Region – Middle East & Africa
Old Mutual International (International Structured Scam Specialists)

intmarketing@engage.omwealth.com

1st September 2018

Paul, are you completely mad? OMI has been offering and buying inappropriate structured products for years and facilitating financial crime by scammers such as Continental Wealth Management. OMI bought £94 million worth of fraudulent notes by Leonteq – which paid the scammers an extra 2% in commission. So you must have been accepting business and investment instructions from other scammers besides CWM for at least six years between 2012 and 2016 – as well as for years prior to and subsequent to this period.

And now you are offering more structured notes so scammers can line their pockets and ruin more victims? Read your own marketing material Mate:

“An autocall product with a six-year term paying at least 10% a year in USD or at least 7% a year in GBP. This is a capital at risk product.”

You are a pathetic and revolting human being. Which bit of CAPITAL AT RISK don’t you understand?? OMI has already disgraced itself by offering, buying and selling these totally inappropriate structured products – scam products -, and caused millions of pounds’ worth of destruction to innocent victims’ life savings.

You, Peter Kenny, Steve Braudo and Paul Feeney are all as bad as each other – and none of you should be working in financial services. Your conduct is utterly sickening: you are now proposing to ruin more lives and you still haven’t paid compensation for the lives you have destroyed already.

How much commission are you paying the scammers on these toxic products? 6%? 8%? 10%?

Instead of behaving with decency and dignity and honouring Old Mutual International’s promise to pay redress for OMI’s past failures, you are now preparing to launch a whole new tranche of financial crime and inappropriate structured products.

You are all disgusting and this needs to be exposed and all of you outed for the evil scum you are.

Angie

From: Paul Evans – Old Mutual International <intmarketing@engage.omwealth.com>
Subject: Competitive, transparent, simple – new tranche of structured products

September 1, 2018
Structured notes – knowing the risks

In many pension scams, we see the use of totally unsuitable, high-risk, for-professional-investor-only structured notes. These notes often offer the introducer high commissions. However, they are risky, fixed-term investments that often end in the loss of some – or even all – of the fund invested. Therefore, these types of investments are totally unsuitable for a pension fund. Firstly, let me explain what a structured note is, and then we can go through structured notes – knowing the risks.

So what the hell are structured notes? And why should retail investors say NO to them?

A structured note is an IOU from an investment bank that uses derivatives to create exposure to one or more investments. For example, you can have a structured note betting on the S&P 500 Price Index, the Emerging Market Price Index, or both. The combinations are almost limitless.

A pension fund is referred to as a retail investment, so it should be placed in a low to medium risk investment. Generally, structured notes are labeled high-risk, for professional investors only and, therefore, no pension fund should ever be invested into them.

Structured notes are frequently peddled by less-scrupulous financial advisers – as well as outright scammers – as a “high-yield, low-risk”, supposedly backdoor way to own stocks. However, regulators have warned that investors can get burned – which they frequently do. If the investment banks can flog it, they will make just about any toxic cocktail you can dream up. In reality, a structured note is an unsecured debt issued by a bank or brokerage firm – and the amount of money the investor might (or might not) get back is pegged to the performance of stocks or broad market indexes.

Say NO to structured notes for pensions!

With structured notes, there is no capital protection; no flexibility; no portfolio enhancement; no increased returns and no limit to the risk of loss of capital.

In the case of CWM, 1,000 people with 100 million pounds, were invested in structured notes and many of them lost large chunks of their funds. The CWM scam, headed by Darren Kirby, used structured notes with Commerzbank, Nomura, RBC and Leonteq, and many of the notes crashed.

John Rodgers fell victim to the CWM scam after being cold called by a salesman called Dean Stogsdill . His £202,000 pension pot was invested into high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes referred to as “Blue Chip Notes”. Today John’s pension fund is worth just £60,000 (if he is lucky).

OMI help facilitate the unqualified, unlicensed and unregulated CWM scammers – victims of this scam were also tied into a useless, pointless insurance bond for ten years – courtesy of OMI. Whilst the value of these pension funds steadily plummeted, OMI stood idly by and watched it happen.

In the case of the Continental Wealth Management scam, the life offices – Old Mutual International, SEB and Generali, invested up to 1,000 victims’ life savings in structured notes. The majority of these toxic notes were from Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura and Leonteq – some of which were, allegedly, fraudulent. Victims are facing huge losses – and a few have had their retirement savings wiped out entirely and a couple are now in negative territory due to the parasitic life offices continuing to take their quarterly fees (based on the original investment) as the investors are trapped into these spurious “bonds” for up to ten years.

We are now fighting to get the investors’ money back. But meanwhile, we must stress: do not use an advisory firm that uses structured notes. These toxic instruments are only for professional investors and should not EVER be used for ordinary, retail investors.

August 14, 2018