Tag: Paul Reynolds

Holborn Assets’ Kensington Fund – Another Trap to Ruin Victims
Holborn Assets’ Kensington Fund – Another trap to ruin victims. Why do I say that? There are many reasons:
1. Firstly, Holborn Assets should compensate the existing victims of past scams before contemplating moving on to new ones. There are plenty of Holborn Assets clients facing disastrous losses because of being invested in toxic UCIS funds such as Premier New Earth Recycling and high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes. Surely, a firm which is as hopeless as that with investments shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near an investment fund? Holborn Assets has already proved it doesn’t understand investments and only has the mentality to flog whatever high-risk crap earns the most commission.
2. Secondly, Holborn Assets’ previous in-house fund, LF Partners, was a dismal performer. It flat-lined at best, and the high charges ate into what little was left of the investments. Holborn Assets have demonstrated they have zero expertise in choosing or managing funds. But what do you expect – they are a shower of ice cream salesmen with few qualifications in financial services, and hardly likely to have any training in investment fund management
3. The way Holborn Assets encourages their troupe of snake-oil salesmen to recruit as many victims as possible is to encentivise them with “privileges” based on their sales volume. This includes invitations to the booze and drug-fuelled orgies – such as earlier this year in Tanzania (with an even more depraved version planned for 2019 in Cambodia).
4. Holborn Assets employs the dregs of the financial services World – mostly unqualified, unprincipled and unscrupulous. Including Paul Reynolds – banned and fined by the FCA – and Darrin Brownlee-Jones – jailed for killing a motorcyclist – the Holborn Assets staff are a motley crew at best. A den of thieves at worst. Even worse, everyone in the firm seems to be happy to stand by and see innocent people’s lives destroyed by Holborn Assets‘ hard-sell tactics, and greedy investment arrangements which disadvantage the investors but pay handsome commissions to the Holborn Assets salesmen.
Back to the Kensington fund. I posted an invitation to comment on the fund yesterday on Linkedin – Monday 18th June 2018. My post has got over 2,300 views in less than 24 hours – and the industry experts are clearly outraged. The views range from Cape Town to Edinburgh; from Aviva and Brooks Macdonald to Globaleye and Standard Bank Group.

Some of the comments include:

“With so many multi-manager, multi-asset funds with demonstrable track records, why would a company chose to recommend a fund that is only weeks old and potentially risk clients money?”

“High commissions, zero repercussions”

“Kensington – is being promoted as Holborn Assets’ “flagship” fund whilst sharing the same Director”

“If you read the instrument of incorporation on the above link and look at “Fees” it suggests the fund can pay 7% up front on a share trade to a range of bodies….”

“No sign of a prospectus or Kiid document either …. about as transparent as a brick…. avoid”

The Kensington Fund website doesn’t tell us much about the fund. It claims to “partner” with Schroders, Rathbones and Marlborough (I wonder if these funds even know!). It doesn’t tell us who is running the fund or responsible for investment decisions.

The Kensington Fund was listed on 12.4.2018 – so it is a brand new fund with no information, no history and no performance. It quotes “virtual” performance by quoting a backtest to try to create the illusion that it can, in the future, perform well.

There are no details of costs, no fact sheets, no details of who is making the investment decisions. The directors are Scott Balsdon, Director of Holborn Assets, Globaleye and Adamou Riyad, CCO of Holborn Assets (and Noel Ford). So the fund is run by the same cowboys who run Holborn Assets – yeehaa!

So, apart from all the above reasons why Holborn Assets’ Kensington fund should be drowned at birth, is the fact that nobody will just pick up the phone and sort out the mess of the past. Instead, they just want to go ahead and cause more messes.

And, finally, Holborn Assets forge five-star Trustpilot reviews. How sad is that?

My advice to any potential victims of Holborn Assets’ Kensington fund: remember that by the time you have paid for the ten-year insurance bond and then have 100% of your life savings invested in this dreadful fund, you will have lost 15% of your money. Avoid Holborn Assets’ Kensington Fund – or, better still, avoid Holborn Assets.
June 19, 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.

**********************************

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
HYPOCRISY BY PARKER – HOLBORN ASSETS DUBAI – MONTFORT INTERNATIONAL

Holborn Assets’ Bob Parker commits a gloat too far.

Holborn Assets Dubai – under the questionable leadership of Bob Parker – has been responsible for ruining quite a number of victims’ pensions. With a deft waggle of the Holborn Assets magic wand, a pension transferred from a gold-plated final salary scheme can be reduced by at least 50% in just a couple of years. Trouble is, the magic kind of runs out of steam if asked to work in reverse.

Glynis Broadfoot and various other victims in Spain were “advised” by dodgy Holborn Assets’ advisers to transfer their pensions into a QROPS with Gower Pensions in Guernsey. Then the victims’ pensions were invested in toxic, illiquid, high-risk, professional-investor-only funds and shrank relentlessly. The problem was that Holborn Assets had no license to provide pension or investment advice in Spain. This is the sort of scam that the CNMV, the Spanish investment regulator, refers to as being operated by “chiringuitos” (bar flies) which translates as “scammers”. And the UK Pensions Regulator clearly refers to scammers as criminals.

Holborn Assets’ home – a low-rise advisory firm amongst the high-rise buildings

So why is Bob Parker – from Dubai – gloating over Geraint Davies from Surrey? OK, Geraint’s firm Montfort International has been sanctioned – and very publicly so. And, knowing Geraint I believe he will take his punishment pragmatically and stoically. He has fought back from other challenges in the past and he will fight back from this. But at the end of the day, whatever other faults he may have, he does have respect for the establishment, the law, the regulators and the ethical sector of the financial advisory profession.

I suspect – if Geraint saw Bob the Knob’s post on the LinkedIn QROPS group – he will have had an ironic chuckle at the Bible-thumper’s hypocrisy. And if he had known that Bob’s response to his various victims’ distress and pleas for help had been “buzz off – case closed” he would most probably have been enraged that Parker the Not-So-Magic Marker should remark on the mote in Geraint’s eye and cynically gloss over the socking great forest in his own.

Of course, Geraint himself will certainly know that Parker’s top salesman is Paul Reynolds who has been sanctioned by the FCA (banned from regulated activities due to lack integrity and fined nearly £300k) and may even have had a wry smile to himself that a man who professes to be a devout Christian is prepared to employ a publicly-condemned pariah of the profession. But, of course, Reynolds is Holborn Assets’ best salesman – flogging toxic assets to ruin their clients – so it is worth keeping him in order to keep the wheels of Parker’s Rolls Royce well oiled.

So, am just wondering how the devout Christian Bob Parker is getting Holborn Assets’ DB pension transfers done now? What dodgy outfit is he using? Because it won’t be anything ethical or honourable. And whichever firm it is, it will be helping Holborn Assets ruin hundreds – or even thousands – of victims have their pensions decimated by execrable, unregulated investment advice.

Despite Parker’s hypocritical post on LinkedIn, I think Geraint Davies’ firm Montfort comes out of this considerably better than Holborn Assets. I have no doubt Geraint will have more success in plucking the mote out of his eye than Parker will in taking a whole sawmill out of his.

July 3, 2017
HOLBORN ASSETS’ NEW CALCULATOR

Holborn Assets’ Bob Parker needs a bit of help with his ‘rithmetic

Holborn Assets has been trying to calculate how much victim Glynis Broadfoot is due in compensation for loss to her pension fund invested by them for the past five years. But it is an uphill struggle and I am not entirely sure that poor old Bob Parker hasn’t either lost his marbles altogether, or never actually did maths in the first place. Either way I’ve decided to buy him a new calculator.

Let’s look at the maths – they are quite straightforward. When Holborn Assets first approached Mrs. Broadfoot, they promised her a “free” pension transfer from her final salary scheme with her local authority employer into a QROPS with Gower Pensions. They assured her this was in her best interests.

Five years and thousands of sleepless nights later, Mrs. Broadfoot has watched the value of her pension fund sink relentlessly while Holborn Assets has showed not a drop of concern and even refused to talk to her about it. They have said “the case is closed”.

To give them their due, Holborn Assets has now at last started coming to the table and have been making offers of compensation for Mrs. Braodfoot’s losses. They started at thruppence and have now upped their offer to £35,000. But let’s have a look at the maths:

Original cash equivalent transfer = £195,105

Actual transfer = £146,379

Big chunk of money inexplicably got lost = £48,726

At a cautious low-risk growth of 4% per year, pension should now be worth £178,000

But Mrs. Broadfoot has £106,730 left of her pension thanks to Holborn Assets

So, even forgetting the £48k that Holborn “lost”, Mrs. Broadfoot needs £71,270 to put her back to where she should be. And then there is compensation for the damage this has done to her health for five years.

So come on Bob, do the maths! We all know Paul Reynolds is making you a fortune so you can afford to pay proper compensation to your victim.

And another thing, Holborn Assets is using cold-calling scammers in Manchester to sign up more victims. Here in Spain, the leads generated by this scam are followed up by Holborn Assets salesman Jason Ryder who purports to have an office in Barcelona and another one in Marbella.

Just hope it is not bank of Dunlop!

Now, come on Uncle Bob, you know Holborn Assets has no license to operate in Spain or provide financial, pension or investment advice here. That is how Mrs. Broadfoot got scammed in the first place and lost such a huge chunk of her pension. So cold calling, scamming, destroying pensions, offering derisory compensation, ignoring a victim’s pleas for help…..not very nice. Get your chequebook out mate!

Finally, how is Paul Reynolds doing? I met him at your office in 2015 you know. He is quite handsome. I hear he is your best salesmen which is why you won’t get rid of him – he is making you so much money.

And what about your 40+ other “consultants”? Don’t any of them care about your firm’s professional reputation?

June 5, 2017

HOLBORN ASSETS (OR LIABILITIES?)

This is the claim made by Holborn Assets’ CEO Bob Parker: “We are professional advisers adhering to the company’s mission which is to ensure that you get quality, independent advice and service, that your money is put in the right place at the right time and that you are treated with integrity and respect. Moreover, our unparalleled relationships with the best product providers help to assure that we make available superior investment and protection solutions for the increasingly sophisticated expatriate community we serve.”

Let’s examine this claim in the context of Holborn victim Glynis Broadfoot. She was given rotten advice and service in 2011 which resulted in her losing a significant portion of her final salary pension. Thanks to Holborn Assets, her gold-plated local authority pension was put into high-risk, professional-investor only investments and she then suffered years of extreme worry and distress while she watched the value of her pension plummet.

Far from treating Mrs. Broadfoot with “integrity and respect”, Holborn refused to help her and simply kept taking their fees from her ever shrinking pension pot.

With Holborn recently ordered by the FCA to immediately stop DB pension transfers:

http://www.international-adviser.com/news/1034897/holborn-assets-immediately-cease-pension-transfers

it is now time to put Holborn clearly in the spotlight, make the complaint against them public and correct their claims of “superior investment solutions”. For several years now I have offered Holborn CEO Bob Parker the opportunity to choose between emerging from this debacle the hero or the villain – but Parker has refused to engage. However, Holborn’s Caleb Burgess reached out to me on LinkedIn yesterday so I am sure he will be eager to engage with me to help resolve this matter.

Formal Complaint against Holborn Asset Management, Dubai in respect of victim Glynis Broadfoot

Desired Outcomes:

Full reinstatement of original pension transfer value
Full refund of all fees paid to all parties
Interest at the same rate as would have been earned had the fund remained in the original scheme
Compensation for the anxiety, stress and pressure which have put at risk Mrs. Broadfoot’s health and life for the past five years

Holborn’s Failures:

False and misleading representations about the investments
Mis-sale of professional-investor-only financial products which were unsuitable for a low-risk investor
Undisclosed fees and commissions which were deliberately concealed
Absence of integrity and professionalism
Firm not licensed to provide pension and investment advice in Spain
Negligent and uncooperative in dealing with the complaint for several years

Summary:

Mrs. Broadfoot had been a member of the Local Government Employee Superannuation Scheme for 29 years
Holborn advised the transfer of pension to a QROPS with Gower Pensions, Guernsey, using estimated figures to make the transaction appear more attractive
Holborn did not advise Mrs. Broadfoot of the benefits of remaining in her final salary secured pension
Holborn informed her that the transfer value would be £195,105 – rather than the actual value of £146,376 which gave her false and misleading information about the transfer
Holborn subsequently admitted that the investment choices were poor and claimed that “if there was something (they) could do to turn the clock back (they) would”
Holborn did not advise Mrs. Broadfoot of her initial losses and when she complained they were dismissive and assured her they were “only paper losses”
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”
Holborn did not disclose their fees of £11K which they were continuing to charge even while her pension was losing money at an alarming rate
Fees of £5,594 paid to Gower were not disclosed by Holborn or agreed by Mrs. Broadfoot
Due to negligent, inappropriate investments made by Holborn, she has lost a substantial proportion of her pension which may result in having to sell the family home and the possibility of her family having to live on government benefits
A Suitability report was undertaken by Holborn Assets which clearly stated: “Annual review to ensure that the underlying investment strategy is still within the member’s attitude to risk”
Annual return was promised at 8% and that Mrs. Broadfoot would never lose any money

Below is an e-mail sent from Robert Parker CEO at Holborn to staff advising them of what to state in an e-mail to Mrs. Broadfoot regarding documentation she had requested:

From:	Bob Parker (robert@holbornassets.com)
Sent:	26 February 2015 07:59:02
To:	Caleb Burgess (caleb.burgess@holbornassets.com)
Cc:	Simon Parker (simon@holbornassets.com); Philip Parker (philip@holbornassets.com); John Broadfoot (broadfootjf@hotmail.co.uk)

If you have already sent transaction detail change the wording on the holding letter and resend. Something like “the attached was sent to you on xx date we are searching our archives for any further information.”

But no transaction details were ever sent to her by Holborn.

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. So contrary to the firm’s grandiose claims on their website, this victim’s money was put in the wrong place at the wrong time and she was treated with complete callousness and contempt.

March 28, 2017

EYE ON DUBAI – GUARDIAN WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND HOLBORN ASSETS

GUARDIAN WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND HOLBORN ASSETS

A TALE OF TWO PUZZLES

Don’t you just hate it when you see a puzzling situation and can’t quite put your finger on what is behind it? There are two firms in Dubai that have got me thinking these past few days and I reckon the “jungle drums” in the Gulf have finally confirmed my best suspicions.

Guardian Wealth Management and Holborn Assets: two financial advisory firms HQ’d in Dubai with clear aspirations to become leading global players, but hampered by the skeletons rattling in their respective cupboards. Both firms have recently poached rivals’ staff in a bid to increase sales. But both have some pretty challenging hurdles to overcome before they can be taken seriously as contenders for the status of leading, award-winning, multi-national advisers.

My guess is that Guardian is likely to win the race, and leave Holborn struggling with its own self-inflicted albatrosses. And the guy who will lead Guardian to victory will be former deVere managing director, Mike Coady who jumped ship from deVere to Guardian a while back. But what was puzzling me was why would a man at the top of his profession, earning an eye-watering £250k salary and heading up the World’s biggest financial services company, take a less senior, non-executive position with a small firm which is heavily in debt to the Welsh government?

Coady’s gone from M.D. to “chief commercial officer” (and you can imagine the chorus of snorts that title caused throughout the industry) in the blink of an eye. A huge disaster for his c.v.? Or a golden opportunity perhaps? I think the answer to that question may be contained in a quote from Coady just a couple of months ago: “there is something that money can’t buy, and that is experience”.

At the beginning of 2016, Guardian poached three of deVere’s staff and paid them nearly a quarter of a million quid in (how should I phrase this?) “bonuses” – aka “golden handshakes”. But only a few months earlier, Guardian had been exposed as having received a GBP 850k grant from the Welsh government for a venture which promptly collapsed, and then failing to repay the grant. So, effectively British taxpayers were paying for the very “experience” which Coady was saying money couldn’t buy.

A “little birdie” has tipped me the nod that Coady is going to rescue Guardian’s tarnished image, by forgoing his GBP 250k annual salary for two years, and forcing the three deVere poachees – John Green, Joe Woodhouse and William Burrows – to repay the GBP 250k “bonuses” they received. And repay the Welsh government every penny they are owed.

Interestingly, Coady has been joined by another ship jumper: Darren Jones of Old Mutual International. I haven’t found out whether he is also going to forgo his previous GBP 250k salary to help speed up the repayment of the Welsh debt, but I am sure somebody in the “jungle” will tell me sooner or later.

Alas, Holborn Assets don’t have a Mike Coady to rescue them and give them a shot at the “crown”. Despite also recently poaching a rival firm’s staff (Finsbury Associates’ Nicholas Thompson and a team of five salesmen), Holborn can’t shake off the disgrace of their adviser Paul Reynolds, now allegedly going under a different name to hide his past. Fined GBP 300k and banned by the FCA for a series of misdemeanours (including falsification of documents- as confirmed by the FCA in the UK), Reynolds clearly knows where the body is hidden as he remains a prominent member of Bob Parker’s team.

Funnily enough, I ran into Reynolds in Dubai last year when I had gone to Holborn Assets’ office to see Parker – who heads up the firm. Parker had been dodging my calls and emails for months while I had been trying to get him to agree to compensate one of his victims whose pension had been decimated by Holborn’s pension investment “advice” in Spain – a jurisdiction where they had no licences. The poor client had spent years watching the high-risk investments Holborn had put her pension into shrink alarmingly, while she discovered the huge commissions and fees Holborn had earned out of her misfortune.

During my wait in reception at Holborn’s Al Shafar Tower office in Dubai, Mr. Reynolds had a visitor – and we had a very nice, interesting chat – not really relevant here or now (another time perhaps). Then Mr. Parker’s charming executive assistant Chimaa Meftah took me to a pleasant(ish) meeting room and listened patiently and sympathetically to my account of how Holborn had ruined a victim’s pension and health. Chimaa promised that Mr. Parker would contact me as soon as he got back from South Africa. However, I fear he may have been mistaken for a missionary as he doesn’t appear to have returned to any part of civilisation which has either telephones or internet.

So the puzzle is solved as the clever and canny Mr. Coady clearly knows something that Bob Parker doesn’t: you can’t move forward successfully until and unless you sort out the messes and disgraces of the past. Coady has a coherent plan for repaying the Welsh government and restoring faith in the integrity of Guardian’s advisers – after all, who would want to listen to any advice, let alone financial advice, from people who have taken bribes paid for by British taxpayers.

Mike Coady made a resounding prediction for deVere back in October 2016: “There’s a clear and definite trend that independent bodies, agencies and organisations are increasingly recognising our (deVere’s) high quality work, advice and service – and I am confident this will gain further momentum in 2017.”

So here’s my own prediction for 2017: in the wake of the recent resignation of Guardian’s CEO David Howell, Coady will, before long, get a promotion and a significant stake in the business. Money may not be able to buy experience – but it sure helps clean the skeletons out of the cupboards. Perhaps, as Mr. Coady won’t be earning any salary for the next two years, he might like to offer his consultancy services and priceless experience to Holborn Assets in his spare time?

December 29, 2016

Tag: Paul Reynolds

Holborn Assets’ Kensington Fund – Another Trap to Ruin Victims

Holborn Assets’ Kensington Fund – Another trap to ruin victims. Why do I say that? There are many reasons:

And, finally, Holborn Assets forge five-star Trustpilot reviews. How sad is that?

Top 10 Deadliest Pension Scammers

10 – Square Mile International

9 – James Lau & Tudor Capital Management

8 – Friendly Pensions

7 – Continental Wealth Management (CWM)

6 -XXXX XXXX

5 – Nunn and McCreesh

4 – Steve Pimlott – Windsor Pensions

3 – Fast Pensions

2 – Stephen Ward

and in first position we have …..

1 – HMRC

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.

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

HYPOCRISY BY PARKER – HOLBORN ASSETS DUBAI – MONTFORT INTERNATIONAL

HOLBORN ASSETS’ NEW CALCULATOR

HOLBORN ASSETS (OR LIABILITIES?)

EYE ON DUBAI – GUARDIAN WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND HOLBORN ASSETS