Tag: Phillip Nunn

QUILTER – A NEW HOBBY FOR OMI?

Quilter – Old Mutual International – new name to try to hide past crimes

QUILTER – A NEW HOBBY FOR OMI? OMI – Old Mutual International – needs to compensate thousands of victims of financial crime which they facilitated. I can’t make up my mind whether they are adopting the brand “Quilter” to attempt to shake off their sordid and toxic past, or whether they are actually taking up quilting.

If OMI really is going to become a quilter, it needs to make a quilt depicting all the criminals whose crimes it has facilitated for so many years. And all the victims who have lost part of or all of their life savings.

What OMI really needs to do is to get firmly behind the prosecution of the criminals – from whom they profited for many years. OMI must contribute to the cost of denouncing these criminals and ensuring they are given maximum prison sentences.

Also, OMI – Old Mutual – must stop allowing toxic, professional-investor-0nly structured notes in their bonds. Typically, these were provided by Commerzbank, Nomura, Leonteq and RBC. If Old Mutual International wants to gamble away its own money on these crap products, then be my guest. But don’t expose retail pension savers to these sordid, high-risk instruments – used by the scammers as mere tiles in a game of Scrabble.

Thanks to IFA Al Rush, there is now a criminal investigation into the hordes of vultures who preyed on the British Steelworkers. This has been eloquently reported by Henry Tapper in his blog about the police investigation at Port Talbot.

Al Rush championing the British Steelworkers who have been scammed

Al Rush has suggested the wording which victims can use to report those who scammed – or attempted to scam – them. And all of what Al and his colleagues have done has been done at their own expense and out of a sense of decency.

Hard to tell the difference between OMI and Quilter and Jabba The Hut

This is in stark and stinky contrast to OMI – Old Mutual International. Since 2011, OMI has sat and watched – like a cross between Jabba The Hut and a Black Widow Spider – while thousands of victims have seen their life savings dwindle away to very little or even nothing. And all the while, taking extortionate fees and paying commissions to the very scammers who ruined the victims in the first place.

So does OMI really think that adopting the name “Quilter” will make future victims fail to make the connection – that this is the same firm that took business from dozens of unregulated scammers such as Continental Wealth Management, Abbey Financial Solutions, Holborn Assets, Guardian Wealth Management, and other “chiringuitos”?

Perhaps the worst crime committed by OMI is not that they took business from unlicensed scammers; not that they allowed 100% of victims’ pension funds to be invested in professional-investor-only, high-risk structured notes; not that they sat there idly and negligently while the clients’ pensions and investments shrank inexorably……

Old Mutual International – the rubbish end of financial services

the worst of OMI’s crimes has been that when there are only a few crumbs left of a life-time’s retirement savings, they will still charge crippling early-exit penalties. OMI, or Skandia, or Quilter or Jabba The Hut or whatever the hell this toxic, evil shower call themselves, have no place in financial services. They have facilitated and profited from financial crime for years and benefited from the misery and ruin of thousands of victims.

In an attempt to emulate Al Rush’s suggested police report for British Steel victims at the hands of the various scammers who targeted, stalked and scammed them, here is my suggested report for OMI victims to make to the police and the regulators. Naturally, this will work equally well for victims of Generali, SEB, RL360, Friends Provident, Hansard, Investors Trust etc.

OMI must be sanctioned for facilitating financial crime

‘I was advised to transfer out of my personal/occupational (delete as appropriate) pension scheme and was lied to when I asked about how much money would be taken from me. I think, over time especially, I will lose/have already lost many tens of thousands of pounds (probably, hundreds of thousands of pounds) in fees which were hidden from me.

This will bleed my pot dry, leave me exposed to poverty in old age and create a burden on the local council.

I was specifically told there would be no penalties or lock-in periods.

Can you help me please, I would like to make a formal statement and help you bring charges against those who did this, and those who helped them’.

January 20, 2018
PHILLIP NUNN – SCAM OF THE YEAR – BLACKMORE GLOBAL

Pension Scammer Phillip Nunn receiving an award for “Entrepreneur of the Year”

Phillip Nunn has been reported to Action Fraud – which John Ferguson of Square Mile Financial Services describes as being “nobody and with no authority” – on numerous occasions by victims of various scams.

Phillip Nunn, cold caller and “fund manager” of the Blackmore Global investment scam, was given the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by JCI Manchester, but this was reversed shortly afterwards:

“JCI Manchester have today been made aware that an audit may be being carried out in respect of the Blackmore Global Fund. This was not information we were privy to before Phillip Nunn was awarded a ‘Manchester Young Talent Award’ this week.

If such an audit is being carried out, we will await the results of the same and we will consider any other information which comes into the public domain. Pending this, the JCI Manchester board have decided to suspend the award given to Phillip Nunn.”

MYT Phillip Nunn Award Retraction

“An independent panel of judges formed their own view on Phillip Nunn’s submission based solely on the written application received.”

I would love to read Phillip Nunn’s submission. It would certainly make very interesting reading. I doubt it would have included the fact that Nunn and his accomplice Patrick McCreesh were cold callers and lead generators in the Capita Oak/Henley Retirement Benefits/multiple SIPPS/Store First scam – which led to well over 1,000 victims losing over £120 million worth of pensions.

The Insolvency Service produced a witness statement which stated:

“Members of CAPITA OAK indicated they were initially contacted by Craig Mason or Patrick McCreesh of Nunn McCreesh of Its Your Pension Ltd and offered pension review services prior to them being referred to JACKSON FRANCIS or Sycamore for the transfer of their pension to CAPITA OAK.

On 3.3.15 I received an undated letter in which it was stated that Its Your Pension had not traded and was a dormant company and that Nunn McCreesh had traded as an insurance brokerage between 2009 and 2012 when they entered into a verbal arrangement with TRANSEURO where in return for providing pension leads to JACKSON FRANCIS they received a commission from TRANSEURO.

Nunn McCreesh provided JACKSON FRANCIS with 100-200 leads per month which were provided by email and/or telephone for which they received £899,829.86 from TRANSEURO during the period 26.3.12 to 14.5.14.”

Phillip Nunn’s lawyers, Slater and Gordon (funny that, also nominated for an award) tried to claim that Nunn McCreesh’s involvement in the Capita Oak scam was “minimal”. But I wouldn’t describe generating 5,000 leads, cold calling thousands of victims and being paid nearly £900k “minimal”.

On the subject of Slater and Gordon, earlier this year they threatened me with defamation proceedings for exposing Nunn’s scamtivities. It was curious that they couldn’t see any conflict of interest in representing Phillip Nunn when they were also representing the very victims (of Capita Oak) whom he had cold called in the first place.

Slater and Gordon’s Steve Kunziewicz claimed that “Blackmore Global is a prestigious, multi-asset investment house with over £60 million in assets under management, offering institutional and high net-worth clients access to a wide variety of investment products in order to maximise their returns.”

But there is no audit for Blackmore Global and only evidence suggesting the fund is invested in toxic, high-risk, illiquid crap including:

Swan Holding PCC

Kingston Capital Partners (Belize private equity vehicle controlled by Nunn & McCreesh)

GRRE Invest

Spinaris 90 ( UK sports spread betting)

The Blackmore Global audit was promised more than a year ago but never materialised. The audit has now been promised “by the end of the year” – but Grant Thornton won’t specify which year.

However, far from the Blackmore Global fund being aimed at “institutional and high net worth clients”, Phillip Nunn targets low-risk pension savers using a variety of unregulated so-called “advisers” such as David Vilka of Square Mile Financial Services. Many of the Blackmore Global victims were cold-called and/or introduced by Phillip Nunn’s cold-calling outfit, Aspinall Chase. Some were transferred to Maltese QROPS run by Integrated Capabilities and Harbour (now taken over by STM) and to Hong Kong.

Blackmore Global is a UCIS fund – unregulated collective investment scheme. And it is illegal to promote these to UK retail investors as this was banned by the FCA in 2014.

I doubt the other nominees and award recipients will appreciate having been listed alongside Phillip Nunn who has a history of promoting other scammers’ pension scams and is now running one himself. Perhaps JCI Manchester ought to vet candidates for the Manchester Young Talent Awards more carefully in the future.

November 26, 2017
BLACKMORE GLOBAL; NUNN McCREESH; SLATER & GORDON; PENSION SCAMS

Pension Investments should be prudent and low risk. Not gambling on crap.

BLACKMORE GLOBAL; NUNN McCREESH; SLATER & GORDON; PENSION SCAMS

Blackmore Global is a UCIS (unregulated collective investment scheme) which is illegal to be promoted to retail, UK investors. The fund is run by Philip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh (formerly of Nunn McCreesh – the lead generation and cold calling firm which introduced around 8,000 victims to the scammers who were running the Capita Oak and Henley pension scams in 2012/13).

It is perhaps more than a little ironic that a pair of cold-callers who were facilitating hundreds of victims being transferred into schemes 100% invested in Store First store pods are now running their own investment fund – Blackmore Global.

Slater and Gordon is a very large firm of no-win-no-fee solicitors with an office in Manchester. I met their National Practice Group Leader and specialist in financial litigation and pension mis-selling in April 2015. His name is Craig McAdam. After going through the various scams I was handling at the time, and the appalling damage done by the scammers to thousands of victims, Craig was thoroughly up to speed on how the scams worked. He was also deeply committed to helping the Ark Class Action and other group actions.

Nunn McCreesh was the introducer of contacts for the pension scammers

Craig McAdam confirmed by email on 16.4.15 that he was looking forward to working with me. A week later he sent a draft engagement letter and confirmed that Slater & Gordon’s success fee would be 15% – although he did revise this up to 18% a couple of days later.

The following month Craig McAdam confirmed he would be attending a meeting with Dalriada Trustees and Pinsent Masons with members of the Ark Class Action. He also confirmed he would be talking to one of Stephen Ward’s many victims: a member of the London Quantum scheme whose trustee was Ward’s firm Dorrixo Alliance.

A month later, Craig McAdam was examining the Capita Oak pension scam run by XXXX XXXX and administered by Stephen Ward, and asked me to put forward one of the victims as a creditor. The Insolvency Service had wound up the trustee of Capita Oak: Imperial Trustees Ltd. Craig then asked me if I was happy for Grant Thornton to be appointed as the insolvency practitioner and I confirmed that indeed I was. I felt that Grant Thornton was a competent and ethical firm and could finally unscramble the mess created by the scammers behind Capita Oak and bring some form of resolution to the victims who were all introduced and/or cold called by Nunn McCreesh.

I was delighted that the same day, one of the Capita Oak victims put herself forward willingly and eagerly as a creditor and Craig McAdam confirmed this to Grant Thornton the following day. At the same time, Craig confirmed that one of the London Quantum victims was a client of Slater and Gordon and made a complaint to FCA-regulated Gerard Associates who had acted as the adviser in that case.

Later in June 2015, Craig McAdam confirmed that Slater and Gordon was instructed by the Capita Oak victim who had volunteered to be the creditor in the liquidation of the trustee of the Capita Oak scam. Craig also sent out letters of engagement to other victims.

In July 2015 I sent a copy of the Insolvency Service’s Capita Oak/Imperial Trustee Services witness statement to Craig McAdam. This statement confirmed that Philip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh’s firm Nunn McCreesh had supplied up to 300 leads a month (for 28 months) to the scammers who promoted and operated the Capita Oak scam: Jackson Francis, Sycamore Crown, Sanderson Clarke, Barncroft Associates, Nationwide Benefits Consultants, Speke Admin, Timoran Capital.

The Insolvency Service witness statement mentioned Nunn McCreesh several times:

“Members of Capita Oak indicated they were initially contacted by Patrick McCreesh of Nunn McCreesh and referred to Jackson Francis or Sycamore for the transfer of their pension to Capita Oak. I wrote to Mr. McCreesh to request a copy of any sales and marketing agreement with Jackson Francis or Sycamore and details of commission received.” Nunn McCreesh and their solicitors admitted they had been involved with the scammers and also Transeuro Worldwide Holdings – one of the main operators of the Capita Oak and Henley scams.

However, Nunn McCreesh was unable to produce copies of invoices or sales ledgers for the money received for their part in these scams. Their solicitors also confirmed that Nunn McCreesh received a commission of 8% of sales and the Insolvency Service stated that there was a “lack of transparency” by Nunn McCreesh.

The Insolvency Service also confirmed that some of the victims had been cold called directly by Nunn McCreesh.

Being in possession of the Insolvency Service’s witness statement clearly galvanised Craig McAdam into an enthusiastic confidence to take on the Capita Oak case and asked me to send him through contact details of all the members. He obviously realised that now the scam was clearly documented and the promoters – including Nunn McCreesh – were now identified without any question of doubt. It was also documented in the witness statement that Nunn McCreesh had earned £900k out of providing at least 8,000 leads for the scam – 300+ of which ended up in Capita Oak and 200+ of which ended up in Henley. It is not clear whether the 8% sales commission was on top of this. 8% of £10.8 million would have been a handsome sum indeed.

I provided Craig McAdam with contact details for the Capita Oak Class Action members and on 21.7.15 he confirmed that cases were “being opened up smoothly”. At the end of 2015, Craig attended a meeting of Class Action members and got to meet a group of victims in person. There can be no doubt that Craig, by now, thoroughly understood the wickedness of the scammers and the profound distress and impending financial ruin of the victims.

So for most of 2015, it looked like Slater and Gordon was going to represent the Capita Oak members – all of whom were initially introduced by Nunn McCreesh. And it looked like Grant Thornton was going to be appointed as insolvency practitioner to Capita Oak’s trustee – Imperial Trustee Services Ltd.

In the event, neither happened. But Capita Oak is now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees – appointed by the Pensions Regulator. And the organisers, promoters and administrators of Capita Oak are all under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Slater and Gordon now represents Nunn McCreesh

In a very curious twist, Philip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh are now running the Blackmore Global UCIS. They are doing the cold calling and the pension administration, as well as running the fund. And you will never guess who their solicitor is: Steve Kunziewicz of Slater and Gordon (Manchester office). And you will never guess who their auditor is: Grant Thornton. You really couldn’t make it up.

Victims of Blackmore Global are indeed extremely distressed. They have either managed to redeem out of the fund at a loss after a protracted struggle, or they are stuck in the fund with no prospect of getting out of it any time soon (if ever).

A year ago, the underlying assets of the fund were confirmed to one victim by Optimus Fiduciaries Ltd, an IoM domiciled company managing the Optimus Retirement Benefits #1 QROPS. Further research discovered these underlying assets were a load of toxic, illiquid, high-risk crap.

Neither Slater and Gordon nor Grant Thornton will confirm what the assets are or how much they are worth – despite Nunn and McCreesh claiming the fund has “£17m under management”. However, £17m is nothing more than a meaningless figure on a piece of paper until such time as the assets are independently verified and audited. Nunn & McCreesh have promised to publish audited accounts for over 12 months now, but failed to do so. One can only assume that to do so would instantly crystallise a true value far below the imaginary £17m and result in a sudden collapse of the fund.

Nunn and McCreesh claim Meriden Capital Partners are the investment manager to the fund

I have asked Steve Kunziewicz of Slater and Gordon on numerous occasions this past couple of months to tell me what the assets are, but presumably Nunn and McCreesh won’t tell their own solicitor – any more than they will tell their own auditors. Perhaps they told the Blackmore Global investment manager, Meriden Capital Partners in Barcelona? The trouble is that Meriden Capital Partners deny that they were ever investment manager to the fund and that Nunn and McCreesh are lying.

I hope the irony of this situation is not lost on the gentle reader: Slater and Gordon solicitors and Grant Thornton being “gamekeepers turned poachers”. My suggestion to both firms is that they should choose their clients carefully and protect their public image diligently. Both firms should decide whether they want to be like Bark and Co who openly represent fraudsters, murderers, insider dealers, hackers, race fixers and other criminals. Or whether they want to be on the side of justice for victims of pension and investment scammers. Because they can’t do both.

September 13, 2017
BLACKMORE GLOBAL FUND – ASSET OR BLACK HOLE?
Blackmore or Blackhole Global fund

BLACKMORE GLOBAL FUND – BLACK HOLE?

A fund like Blackmore Global really ought to be audited as soon as possible – to make sure it isn’t simply a “black hole” into which victims’ hard-earned pensions have sunk. Numerous worried pension savers are stuck in the Blackmore Global Fund and finding it difficult – if not impossible – to get out. They are seemingly “locked in” for ten years.

I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY SINCERE THANKS TO THOSE – INCLUDING IFAs, PENSION TRUSTEE FIRMS AND BLACKMORE GLOBAL VICTIMS – WHO HAVE CONTACTED ME AND SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS, CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

Allegedly, Grant Thornton is working on an audit – and has been doing so since September 2016. They could probably have audited Microsoft in that time – and squeezed in Amazon on the side during the lunch breaks. Just how difficult can it be to audit a fund which only has a handful of assets in it?

Originally, the directors of Blackmore Global were Brian Weal, Patrick McCreesh, and Phillip Nunn.

Brian Weal – sanctioned by the FSC in 2014 – was also a director of Swan Holdings – the only investment that the Advalorem Value Asset Fund made. Brian Weal was also a director of Advalorem. Advalorem lost most of its money because the investments in Swan Holdings were overvalued. The valuations were supplied by Stuart Black who also provided valuations for a Hedge Fund called Heather Capital which lost $300 million because of overvaluations. Swan Holdings had invested a chunk of cash in Etaireia Investments. Stuart Black was a director of Etaireia Investments. Brian Weal owns a controlling number of shares in Etaireia Investments. So, make up your own mind as to whether having Weal as a director of Blackmore Global is a good thing or a bad thing – or a “black hole” thing.

As for Nunn and McCreesh, I will let Leonard Fenton of the Insolvency Service do the talking:
- Documents and information received from members of CAPITA OAK indicated they were initially contacted by Craig Mason or Patrick McCreesh of Nunn McCreesh of Its Your Pension Ltd and offered pension review services prior to them being referred to JACKSON FRANCIS or Sycamore for the transfer of their pension to CAPITA OAK.
- On 3.3.15 I received an undated letter in which it was stated that Its Your Pension had not traded and was a dormant company and that Nunn McCreesh had traded as an insurance brokerage between 2009 and 2012 when they entered into a verbal arrangement with TRANSEURO where in return for providing pension leads to JACKSON FRANCIS they received a commission from TRANSEURO.
- Nunn McCreesh provided JACKSON FRANCIS with 100-200 leads per month which were provided by email and/or telephone for which they received £899,829.86 from TRANSEURO during the period 26.3.12 to 14.5.14.
So, again, draw your own conclusions about those connected with Blackmore Global. Nunn and McCreesh generated up to 200 leads a month to pension scammers in relation to a series of pension/investment scams which are now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. This entailed £120 million worth of pensions being invested in Store First store pods which are now the subject of a winding up petition – and arguably worthless.

When I first started investigating the Blackmore Global fund in 2016, I started with the brochure which makes all sorts of grand claims: “medium to long-term investment vehicle with a diversified investment portfolio
under one structure. The Company allocates investment between four distinct protected cells, giving a true
diversification of assets between property, sustainable, private equity and lifestyle”. Yeah, right. But what are the underlying assets? Where is the audit?

The Fact Sheet goes on to claim the fund’s NAV is £17.65 million and was launched on 1st May 2014. So why no audit? It also claims that the Investment Manager is a firm in Barcelona called Meriden Capital Partners. I thought it a bit strange that a fund based in the Isle of Man would appoint an investment manager in Spain – especially one without a website. So I called Meriden Capital Partners and asked them to confirm that they were the investment manager. They claimed they had never heard of Blackmore Global. Then one of the partners called me back and told me that some man who didn’t give his name had come to their office and asked them whether they would be interested in being the investment manager for Blackmore Global.

The partner at Meriden Capital explained that they had declined because they were not licensed to provide investment management advice to a fund – only to private individuals.

But then I discovered that that hadn’t been entirely true either. Meriden Capital had actually completed an application form to apply to become the investment manager to the fund on 4th April 2014. So either Meriden Capital was lying or Blackmore Global was lying – or both.

The Blackmore Global NAV Factsheet also states that there is a ten-year lock-in to the fund. So why would anyone invest a pension in such a fund? A pension saver has a statutory right to a transfer and might want to take his PCLS – 25% tax free withdrawal at age 55 – or retire, or even die. What on earth is the point in using Blackmore Global for a pension at all? Ever.

As Grant Thorton is clearly having a little trouble with the audit of a five-cell investment fund, I will lay a wee trail of bread crumbs for them to look at. Clearly they can’t even find the underlying assets – let alone value them:

Swan Holdings PCC (controlled by Brian Weal)

Kingston Capital Partners (Belize private equity vehicle controlled by Nunn & McCreesh)

GRRE Invest – fund manager for aptly-named GRREIF fund (Green Renewable Redeemable Energy Investment Fund –

GRRE Investment Fund – suspended by Anguilla FSC. (Brian Weal recently resigned as a director but still holds a controlling interest in the Fund – https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09132685/persons-with-significant-control)

Spinaris 90 – UK sports spread betting (invisible – and what happened to Aria Invest?)

Most of the victims of the Blackmore Global fund were initially cold-called by a firm called Aspinal Chase. And all the victims were advised by unregulated investment advisers Square Mile Financial Services (an insurance license does not cover regulated investment advice). But more worryingly, all of them were put into a QROPS in Malta or the Isle of Man. So why were UK residents transferred to an offshore pension at all, and why were most or all of their pension funds invested in a UCIS which is illegal to be promoted to UK residents?

The list of questions goes on and on. And here, we get back to whether the unscrambling of these pension and investment scams is more about who you know rather than what you know. One victim had his pension invested 75% in Blackmore Global and 25% in Symphony. Symphony was a fund invested in derivatives and highly leveraged. It was also a sub fund of the Nascent Fund run by Richard Reinert. Under the Nascent “umbrella” (a structure for wannabe fund managers) was also the Trafalgar Multi Asset fund which was run by XXXX XXXX who was one of the main distributors behind Capita Oak, Henley and Westminster – all of which are being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.

Now we have gone round in a complete circle. A catalogue of lies, deception, fraud, mis-selling, negligence and incompetence.

I don’t envy Grant Thornton (if indeed they are the auditors) because they have got to unscramble this unholy mess. And I strongly suspect that, behind the scenes, there are certain parties who are busting a gut to ensure the audit is never published. Two of these may well be John Ferguson and David Vilka of Square Mile in the Czech Republic who seem to have a strong vested interest in promoting this black hole of a fund.

Meanwhile, the longer the victims are held back from transferring out of this toxic swamp of a fund, the more serious the complaints against the various parties involved will be. These will include the cold-calling scammers; introducers; advisers; pension trustees and insurance companies such as Investors Trust who allowed this investment and the pensions transfers from unlicensed advisers.

Finally, on the subject of Investors Trust, they showed not a shred of interest in the fact that they had facilitated financial crime in allowing UK residents to have their pensions invested in this UCIS, but when I published a photo of John Ferguson and David Vilka posing as a couple of gaudily-dressed spivs in Las Vegas, Investors Trust objected on the grounds the photograph was their property.

pension-life.com/top-10-deadliest-pension-scammers-hmrc/
July 7, 2017
Pension Life Wish List

Pension Life Wish List:

make a wish; make a list: make a pension wish list!

Pension Life is still dealing with so many victims of scams and scammers. None of the Pension Life wishes published in December 2015 have come true. In the intervening two years, thousands more people have lost part or all of their pensions – and the scammers are all still out there, scamming away merrily.

Maybe the next two years will see some real change? We at Pension Life certainly hope so. Because things cannot continue like this – too many lives are being ruined. The wish list is as valid and urgent now as it was in 2015.

No.1 HMRC to do some basic due diligence before registering pension schemes.

This has to be at the top of our pension wish list – whether for Christmas, Easter, or on May Day! Since pension simplification in 2006, HMRC has done zero checking on a scheme before registering it. They rely on the principle of “self certification” which means that if the person who registers the scheme doesn’t actually admit that it is being set up fraudulently, then HMRC assumes that the scheme is not being set up fraudulently. In fact, HMRC says that even if they had asked the question “are you setting this scheme up fraudulently” the answer would always be “no” irrespective. Interestingly, the same principle does not appear to apply to either the victims or the ceding (original) pension providers as they are supposed to do their own due diligence to establish whether HMRC has “inadvertently” registered a fraudulent scheme.

The 6^th of April 2006, or A day as it is often called, was the date on which the then government simplified pension setup in relation to the tax relievable contributions and the assets in which pension funds could be invested. The intention was to simplify pensions going forward and de-clutter the complicated pension legislation set up by previous administrations. However, evidence suggests the opposite happened, leaving people open to losing their pension entirely or in part. This is especially the case for QROPS, which were introduced as a result of A Day. QROPS allowed unqualified offshore advisers to advise on very complex UK pensions with tragic results. Although simplification started in 2006, a detailed understanding of all the different pension rules that existed before that year is essential. People who joined pension schemes before 1987 or 1989 or 2006 may well have important protections that could be lost through the negligence of an incompetent adviser.

So, in the course of simplifying the pension process the government has left a lot of pension holders vulnerable to pension advisers who are not regulated, or qualified correctly. HMRC now need to implement new criteria for registration of pension schemes.

Currently, there is no list of HMRC registered schemes available to the public. This is something that is desperately needed and it needs to report the regulatory status of each scheme.

To suggest that an ordinary citizen without a background in finance and pensions should do ‘their own due diligence’ is downright ridiculous. Most ordinary people wouldn’t have a clue what to do or what questions to ask. And even if they did, they wouldn’t understand the answers. The best thing to do is to ensure a properly regulated and qualified financial adviser is used before making any changes to pension arrangements. However, in the UK, this advice would not be free and a charge would be made for it. The fraudsters would be offering “free” or “low cost” advice which would be deducted from the transfer – and this is why so many victims are conned.

If an ordinary citizen were to attempt their own Due Diligence they would first need to check if the adviser is regulated. Adviser regulations depend on what they are advising on – be it pensions, investments or insurance. So while an adviser could claim to be regulated, they may not be regulated for the service, product or scheme they are advising on.

The experience and qualification of the adviser is also a very important aspect of due diligence. Unfortunately, glowing testimonials are not sufficient. There is no one-stop resource in which you can be fully confident about the information you get on the adviser.

One simple example of an obvious scam is the company “occupational” pension scheme. If an occupational pension is offered, a transferee needs to be an employee. Bear in mind the reason so many scammers set up schemes as “occupational” is that an occupational scheme with less than 100 members comes under the radar of regulatory scrutiny. In other words, the organisers and promoters of such schemes can get away with setting up fraudulent schemes. So many scams involved occupational schemes since 2010 – from Ark to London Quantum (both placed in the hands of independent trustees Dalriada by the Pensions Regulator). Sometimes, the sponsors of these schemes actually existed; sometimes they didn’t. Rarely had they ever traded or employed anybody. And of course, neither HMRC nor tPR checked this. Anyone being offered a transfer to an “occupational” scheme when they are not genuinely employed by the employing sponsor of the scheme should be extremely wary.

No.2 The Pensions Regulator (tPR) to do some basic due diligence before registering occupational pension schemes.

Also near the top of our pension wish list, is the fact that we want a good, strong and effective pensions regulator – not a chocolate teapot. The Pensions Regulator(tPR) seem to be reactive rather than proactive. The general public are not able to contact anyone at tPR. tPR doesn’t declare what due diligence they do before registering occupational schemes (in fact it is pretty hard to speak to them at all and they don’t answer emails). Parliament gave tPR independence and it appears they are answerable to nobody. They do intervene in some cases and place suspicious schemes in the hands of independent trustees, but there is no evidence that they do anything to prevent scams from getting off the ground in the first place and only take action once hundreds of victims have lost their pensions.

No.3 Known pension scammers to be prosecuted and given maximum prison sentences to send out an urgent message of “zero tolerance” of pension scams.

As far as we at Pension Life know, there are very few instances of scammers being jailed. Known pension scammers are still out there on the streets, having scammed hundreds/thousands of victims out of their pensions and are in the process of scamming hundreds more every week. The same old same old worthless “investments” are still being peddled and nothing is being done to clean up this toxic trade which obliterates so many pensions collected over years of work in the hope of a secure retirement.

2018 has seen many scammers ‘accepting’ bans from acting as pension trustees, however, this is not enough the SFO needs to push forward with their investigation’s and hand out long prison sentences to serial pension scammers AND make them pay the victims back.

No.4 Toxic UCIS’ to be investigated and “toxic” warnings to be issued

The FCA will not allow regulated advisers to sell Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes (UCIS) to anyone other than professional investors. The selling of them by unregulated advisers is actionable by the FCA. The FCA does issue warnings about schemes such as these but their followers are only people working within the financial investment industry and it is only after the investments are made that many of the public become aware of these toxic investments. The general public would not be familiar with the FCA and what it does – as only the industry looks at their website, generally.

Pension Life would suggest that the FCA reaches out to the public and ensure that toxic investments are publicly named and shamed through mainstream media. The problem is that neither the regulators nor the police authorities do anything to stop known high-risk “dodgy” UCIS’ – let alone blatant investment scams. This is especially true of funds such as Blackmore Global and Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund.

No.5 Sanctions for ceding providers who handed over thousands of pensions in a negligent/box-ticking fashion.

Sadly, the very institutions in whose hands the retirement interests of the British public are placed are the worst at admitting liability for handing over £billions haphazardly to obvious scams without any due diligence. All the big names – from Aviva and Prudential to Standard Life and Scottish Widows – were hopelessly inept from 2010 to 2013 and did no due diligence to prevent victims’ pensions from getting handed over to the scammers.

It is now time the government stepped in and reminded these firms of their fiduciary obligations. That is to say that the government and these ceding providers have a duty of acting in good faith with regard to the interests of the ordinary pension holder.

No.6 Government to take an interest in Pension Scams

To all intents and purposes, the government is doing absolutely nothing to prevent pension scams, toxic pension investments, unregulated advisers and non-compliant schemes. As to why the loss of billions of pounds of pension scheme funds should not merit the interest of the government, remains a complete mystery.

The government claims to be “aware” of pension scams and pledges to treat the observation and “monitoring” of this massive-scale fraud as if it were a spectator sport. Iain Duncan-Smith promised to set up meetings with Ark Class Action members and senior government ministers in 2014, but then reneged on his promise. Ros Altmann simply refused to meet the Ark Class Action at all and instructed the DWP security guard to order them off the premises.

No.7 DEDICATED TASK FORCE

As a matter of the utmost urgency – no more messing around and pretending/lying/hiding – the government needs to set up a specialist task force to pull together regulation, policing, public information/warnings and a tax amnesty for victims of pension liberation fraud. It is now irrefutable that the Scorpion Campaign has failed; HMRC’s Project Bloom has failed; the FCA has failed; tPR has failed; the government has failed; ceding providers such as Standard Life, Aviva etc., have failed; Action Fraud has failed; the National Crime Agency has failed. Failure is no longer an option and the specialist task force needs to take over and get this disgraceful mess sorted once and for all.

December 22, 2015