Tag: Peter and Sara Moat

High Court finally winds up the truffle saga pension scam

This could possibly be described as wonderful news for the victims of Viceroy Jones New Tech Ltd, Viceroy Jones Overseas PCC Limited, Westcountrytruffles Limited, Truffle Sales Ltd and Credit Free Limited. Or maybe not. The whereabouts of the funds is unknown. This pension liberation and investment scam saw 100 investors conned out of £9m of their pension savings.

The full story can be read here:

https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2018/12/13/companies-behind-9m-pension-truffle-scam-shut-down/?utm_campaign=FTAdviser+news&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=

In short, Viceroy Jones used unregulated financial advisory firms to persuade victims to invest in ‘high-value truffles for commercial sales’. With the promise of high returns on this fixed-term investment (lasting 15 years), investors believed they would reap the benefits once the truffles were harvested.

No truffles were ever harvested.

In reality, the investment saw most of the £9m of funds invested being paid into offshore bank accounts. These funds were then paid out in high commissions to the unregulated advisers who mis-sold the scheme. No supporting documents have been found regarding these investments, so the whereabouts of any remaining funds is unknown.

As I said above, it is only possibly wonderful news for the victims. Whilst the company has been wound up, the victims have been promised no compensation and do not know where their money is. This is a not an uncommon situation in scams like these. The victims of Peter Moat’s company – Fast Pensions, also do not know where their funds have gone.

Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

“We take the matter of unregulated pension liberation investment schemes very seriously and will take action to stop any such schemes who have acted unscrupulously.”

However, I feel I have to disagree.

What message does the Insolvency Service send?!?

Are the perpetrators behind bars? NO!

Are the perpetrators having all their assets frozen and liquidated to pay the victim’s back? NO!

Are the perpetrators facing life without a pension? I DOUBT IT!

Are the perpetrators sorry for what they did? I DOUBT IT!

There is a long list of other pensions scammers who have scammed millions out of the public and still walk freely, creating new scam after new scam.

But to name a few of the scammers:

XXXX XXXX

Stephen Ward

Peter and Sara Moat

Phillip Nunn

David Vilka

Some of the scams they have sold:

Ark pension liberation scam

Capita Oak

Continental Wealth Management

Blackmore Global Fund

Fast Pensions

See our blog on the Top 10 Deadliest Pension Scammers.

Winding up these companies is often of little help to the scam victims. What is left of their funds (if any) is passed on to another trustee (often Dalriada) to deal with the ‘clean up’. This action, however, is not without cost and often the funds just sit there doing nothing.

Take the Ark victims whose schemes were transferred to Dalriada – they have not had any compensation in the seven and a half years Dalriada has acted as their trustees. Dalriada, however, has continued – without fail – to charge their yearly fees and costs, further decimating the victims’ funds. AND without any suggestion of what will happen next!

Furthermore, victims that fell prey to these scams, face more stress as they are also contending with HMRC. The Taxman is sending out demands for huge tax bills, as they claim the money the victims liberated (“borrowed”) from the Ark schemes was not tax free. 55% tax is applied to money that was liberated from pension funds – this is deemed an “unauthorised payment charge” by HMRC.

The High Court needs to do a lot more than this, to send a clear message to these scammers. Prosecutions, jail sentences and large fines would be a good start.

All enquiries concerning the affairs of the companies should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT. Telephone: 0207 637 1110, Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

Cartoon blog – Don’t be the next pension scam victim

December 18, 2018
The wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all

This week Henry Tapper wrote a blog entitled, “The wheels of the law turn (too) slowly”. He exposes the fact that when it comes to financial crime the justice system in place just isn´t enough.  I think he was being generous with his title. The wheels of the law don’t just turn slowly – they just don’t turn at all. Friendly Pensions has been in the news this week.

In the case of Friendly Pensions, we know ringleader David Austin is guilty of setting up 11 fake schemes, with toxic investments including a truffle farm. We know that he and his partners in crime, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson (also connected to the Ark Scam), are guilty of scamming 245 pension savers out of £13.7 million. We knew all of this back in January 2018, yet no arrests have been made!

The FCA has, however, just yesterday, managed to enforce the following:

“David Austin, 52, has been banned from serving as a pension trustee and disqualified from working as a company director for 12 years. His business partners Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt, and Julian Hanson have also been barred from trustee roles.

David Austin’s daughter, 25-year-old Camilla, has been banned from serving as a director for four years for helping him with the scheme.”

They have been asked to pay the money back but by the looks of their social media accounts, I don´t think there is much left. Camilla’s Facebook and Instagram accounts show her sunning herself on beaches and yachts around the world, and posing at luxury alpine ski resorts. David Austin is pictured on a gondola in Venice. They certainly got to enjoy the proceeds of their many victims’ pensions.

Camilla Austin was a central part of the operational side of the Friendly Pensions scam. She and a number of her girlfriends went into nursing homes and approached elderly, frail and vulnerable elderly people. They easily conned them into signing transfer request forms – all that is required to get their hands on millions of pounds’ worth of pension funds. And, of course, we all know that the ceding providers do nothing to stop fraudulent transfers.

As Henry points out, banning these people from acting as trustees or directors, does little to deter past, present and future pension scammers. A ban is barely a slap on the wrist as far as we are concerned; these scammers can still launch any number of future dodgy schemes by simply finding the next crooked stooge – just as XXXX XXXX used the idiotic Karl Dunlop to be a director in the Capita Oak scam.

Keeping pension savers safe from financial crime should be at the top of the list – but, instead, it is at the bottom. Pension scammers are left free to commit their crimes over and over again. Take Julian Hanson: he was busily scamming dozens of Ark victims out of more than £5.3 million worth of pensions back in 2011 and 2012, yet he was not prosecuted or jailed. Hence, he was still able to get “friendly” with David Austin and go on to scam hundreds more victims out of their pensions.

Remember the Capita Oak, Henley Retirement Benefits and Westminster pension scams?   These were scams run by XXXX XXXX of Nationwide Benefit Consultants. However, XXXX was never brought to justice and so went on to operate the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund/Victory Asset Management scam (STM Fidecs acted as the trustees here). So hundreds more people were again scammed out of their pensions. XXXX is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office – but effectively still free to operate more scams.   We already have our suspicions about his connections to new scams.

Capita Oak was registered by HMRC on 23.7.2012 (PSTR 00785484RM) by Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Transfers of 31 Memorial Road, Worsley and Premier Pension Solutions of Moraira, Spain. Ward was responsible for the ARK debacle – also with Dalriada – the scam that was to create the birth of Pension Life.

Despite investigations being made into these schemes, Ward was still able to go on and create the CWM monster scheme that saw around 1,000 victims conned out of their pension funds. Ward is hovering somewhere between his collection of luxury villas in Florida and the Spanish Costa Blanca – but at least he is no longer doing pension transfers. Over the past nine years, Ward can be linked to dozens more pension scams that have left thousands of victims’ funds decimated.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. We must not forget Philip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh´s investment scam Blackmore Global. This was in the wake of them doing the lead generation for the Capita Oak and Henley Retirement Fund scams.  The Insolvency Service has wound up these schemes, yet Nunn and McCreesh remain free to defraud more victims as they have never been brought to justice.

David Vilka of Square Mile International was one of the main promoters of the Blackmore Global Fund scam.   He “advised” dozens – possibly hundreds – of victims to invest their pensions in this scam (despite the fact that he is neither qualified nor regulated to give investment advice). Again, he has never been prosecuted or jailed, so still remains at large – free to continue scamming people out of their pensions.

We published the Top 10 Deadliest Pension Scammers blog back in February 2018. In this blog, you can read about Fast Pensions and the Moats, as well as Steve Pimlott of Windsor Pensions. Whilst the Fast Pensions scheme has been wound up by the high court and placed in the hands of Dalriada, neither Sara nor Peter Moat is behind bars.

You can see a depressing pattern here: these words are about cold, hard facts. The authorities are leaving known scammers free to keep scamming.

Victims of these scams have been left in misery and financial ruin. Some have taken their own lives. Yet the perpetrators, those guilty of these repeated financial crimes, are free to do as they please.

This area of financial crime really is where the wheels of the law don´t seem to turn.  Shame there aren’t any regulators capable of doing any regulating, or law enforcement agencies capable of enforcing the law.

October 24, 2018
High Court Winds up Fast Pensions
Yesterday, Wednesday 30th May, in the High Court, the petition to wind up Fast Pensions and the associated companies and occupational pension schemes, was heard. The order was made that the companies and schemes should be wound up.

I would like to thank Michael Gibbon, the son of one of the Fast Pensions members, for attending the hearing and representing Pension Life and the 400 victims. Michael has been enormously supportive of our work behind the scenes – although this has clearly been hindered by the obfuscation of the Moats.

Michael has kindly summarised the details of the proceedings – and I have added some further information and thoughts.

I will now be asking all the Fast Pensions members to provide their documentation to my Assistant who will be collating as much evidence as possible for the Insolvency Service, insolvency practitioner and/or independent trustees.

The six companies originally placed into provisional liquidation by the Insolvency Service on 29th March 2018 were:
- Fast Pensions Ltd – company registration number 08121954 – was incorporated on 28 June 2012. The company’s registered office is at Crown House, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX
- FP Scheme Trustees Ltd – company registration number 09126225 – was incorporated on 11 July 2014. The company’s registered office is at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU
- Blu Debt Management Ltd – company registration number 06699233 – was incorporated on 16 September 2008. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
- Blu Financial Services Ltd – company registration number 05912973 – was incorporated on 22 August 2006. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
- Blu Personal Finance Ltd – company registration number 07758290 – was incorporated on 31 August 2011. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
- Umbrella Loans Ltd – company registration number 07331044 – was incorporated on 30 July 2010. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
The fifteen occupational schemes run by Peter and Sara Moat were:

Broughton Retirement Plan
DM1 Retirement Plan
Elphinstone Retirement Plan
EP1 Retirement Plan
Fleming Retirement Plan
FP1 Retirement Plan
FP2 Retirement Plan
FP3 Retirement Plan
Galileo Retirement Plan
Golden Arrow Retirement Plan
Leafield Retirement Plan
Springdale Retirement Plan
Talisman Retirement Plan
Templar Retirement Plan
VRSEB Retirement Plan

Despite the Moats being caught up in six companies and 15 occupational schemes no one was present to represent any of the named companies or schemes.

Peter and Sara Moat are not the only people connected in this pension liberation scam.

A connected party to the companies was Miss Jane Wright who is a former employee of Peter Moat. Mrs Sara Moat/Mr Peter Moat and Miss Jane Wright had an unhealthy connection as they were all in a net of other associated companies. A Mr Chapman – who did apply for administration before the last hearing but this was rejected – is also said to have been instructed by Peter Moat.

The Moats various companies were operating pension liberation schemes in the form of loans. The victims of these liberation schemes were later met with tax demands by HMRC as they payments they received were deemed as unauthorised payments.

When selling the schemes the Moats used unacceptable sales techniques – cold calling, mis-selling and with-holding important information were among these. Furthermore an upfront fee of £1,000 was taken from each investor at the start of the investment of the funds – and this was undisclosed to the members as well.

A total of £21m was transferred into the schemes under

Peter Moat’s control however there was no information on the pension portfolios and what happened to the investors’ funds. The victims have had no updates on the funds, commissions or fee´s. Miss Jane Wright (who acted as the “trustee”) would always state she would seek and come back when questioned by the members about their funds.

Furthermore it is now clear that Peter Moat was acting as a de facto director in breach of his disqualification while acting for Blu Finance Group.

AND

Mr Henderson – accountant to ALL the schemes was also a disqualified director.

In attendance for the Insolvency Service were Mary Greenwell, and colleague, Tim Ward, Provisional liquidator. With the following points being raised:

* There was a Lack of information and cooperation with the Insolvency Service investigation

* Failure to respond to determinations by the Pensions Ombudsman and/ no evidence of compensation paid to members

* No professional advisers were involved

* Commission on the investments were not disclosed – no transparency to the investors was given

* On reporting on schemes, there was simply one page per scheme which was very concerning

* Evidence of the lack of proper transfer requests

* The six selling points used to sell the schemes proved to be false

* Very unclear on the advice provided to investors

* No commercial prosperity

* No information re bank balances

* Lack of transparency to ALL involved – members/Insolvency Service/Pensions Ombudsman/Pension Life

* The skeleton argument showed a flowchart which demonstrated the net of the Moats

See how fast your pension can disappear?

All the companies involved in this scam were controlled by Peter Moat ( acting under disqualification) and using other people. The whereabouts of the funds presently is unclear – funds were transferred to and through other companies controlled by Peter Moat. Some of it was invested in Umbrella Loans which was insolvent. Some of it was transferred to the Blu companies.

All the funds will need to be traced as it is unclear what monies are outstanding, however with very limited information provided by the companies this may prove to be difficult. It is thought that a huge amount of funds will be practically impossible to track or find. Then there is the £4m paid in commission which obviously came from investors’ funds and is therefore no longer attainable.

What can be ascertained is the clear evidence of mis-selling and based on the evidence, it was in the public interest to wind the companies and schemes up as it was a very clear case that these people could not be allowed to continue

With all this evidence there was no doubt that the order should be made that the companies and schemes should be wound up.

What is a Pension Scam?
May 31, 2018