Tag: Premier New Earth Recycling fund

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
Holborn Assets Johannesburg – Damaging more life savings?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reichert has apparently stated:

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

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

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

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

What is a pension scam?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GET SHOT OF PAUL HERD!

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

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

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

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

February 6, 2018
SCAMS AND SCANDALS SYMPOSIUM – TRANSPARENCY TASK FORCE 15.11.17
IT IS A SCANDAL THAT THE WOLVES, VULTURES, SCORPIONS AND BLOOD-SUCKERS OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES WORLD STILL FLOURISH

SCAMS AND SCANDALS SYMPOSIUM – PART OF THE TRANSPARENCY TASK FORCE: WEDNESDAY 15TH NOVEMBER AT THE OFFICES OF IG GROUP, 12.30 TO 5PM

Pension and investment scams and scandals are a blight on financial services and saving for retirement. The energetic and inspired campaign by Darren Cooke of Red Circle successfully raised awareness of the problems of cold calling. But the snap general election scuppered serious traction on this and the most the government has achieved so far is to make a vague promise to talk about talking about it. But still it is not illegal, and still the scammers are scamming away merrily.

Chair of The Transparency Task Force

The Scams and Scandals team was formed as a result of inspiration by the Transparency Task Force’s Andy Agathangelou. It has attracted a group of like-minded professionals who believe passionately that a concerted effort should go into coordinating a zero-tolerance approach to scams and scandals. All members of the team are committed to producing a White Paper which can focus the minds of government ministers, regulators and law enforcement agencies on the whole problem – not just the cold calling bit.

Irrespective of which version of which political party we are talking about, the ultimate object of a successful and fulfilled life is to be happy, healthy and solvent. And this includes getting a decent education, leading a responsible and law-abiding life, and saving for a comfortable retirement. Millions of British citizens manage to achieve this goal, but sadly many thousands of them lose part of all of their retirement savings to the armies of scammers.

Pension Life has been dealing with dozens of different scams in different jurisdictions by an army of repeat scammers since 2013. These include Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund scam operated by XXXX XXXX and facilitated by STM Fidecs in Gibraltar; Continental Wealth Management pension investment scam (with much of the transfer advice provided by “sister” company Premier Pension Solutions run by Stephen Ward); Blackmore Global run by Nunn and McCreesh (who ran the cold calling and lead generation for Capita Oak and Henley); Fast Pensions run by Peter and Sara Moat in collaboration with Bridgebank Capital; Premier New Earth Recycling Fund; Park First – part of Group First (along with Store First); Windsor Pensions and the Danica QROPS liberation scam; London Quantum and Stephen Ward’s Dorrixo Alliance; Holborn Assets in Dubai; Ark (Lancaster, Portman, Cranborne Star, Woodcroft House, Tallton Place, Grosvenor); Toby Whittaker’s Store First; Elysian Biofuels liberation scheme; Axiom UPT; Capita Oak; 5G Futures; Guardian Wealth Management; Square Mile Financial Services; https://pension-life.com/incartus-investment-pension-scheme-in-the-hands-of-dalriada-trustees/Incartus Investment Pension Scheme; KJK Investments and G Loans; Westminster pension scam run by XXXX XXXX; Salmon Enterprises – run by James Lau; Pennines, Malvern and Mendip liberation scams; Henley pension scam run by XXXX XXXX; Evergreen QROPS and Marazion loans; Bespoke Pension Services.

XXXX XXXX, one of the many pension scammers ruining thousands of victims’ lives

All these scams and scammers have caused thousands of victims to lose hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of retirement savings. And caused untold misery – in many cases exacerbated by HMRC punishing the victims rather than the perpetrators.

The Scams and Scandals Team has a clear five-point goal:
1. Ban UK cold calling and fraudulent calling
We must not let this disappear off the agenda and must keep up pressure on MPs and Ministers – as well as the regulators. But this must also be extended to overseas as we already know that the UK-based cold calling outfits have made arrangements to move their operations or merely facilitate re-routing of phone numbers. However, the twilight industry of “introducing” must also be examined as this is a serious source of scam facilitation.
1. Support Lesley Titcomb “Scammers are Criminals”
Ms Titcomb has publicly declared scammers to be criminals

We must work with the regulators, government and law enforcement agencies to enhance existing and introduce new regulation and legislation to prevent new scams, close down known existing scams and bring those involved in conceiving, operating and promoting both to account.
1. Revitalise Scorpion Campaign
Fundamental to preventing scams is communication to the public of the dangers of cold calls and pension/investment scams which would include the Scorpion Campaign – but so much more as well. A key part of this exercise is the use of social media and the plan to produce a documentary and Youtube channel giving real-life examples of past and current scams. Explaining the mechanics of a scam is one thing – but showing an actual example of a victim and the scammer is bound to have even greater impact.
1. Write off HMRC debt where scams are proven
HMRC celebrating the tax they collect from victims of pension liberation fraud

We need the help of the government here and could do with an actuary to help us work out what the cost to the State is of taxing victims of scams. If we can demonstrate that by ruining a scam victim (who has already probably lost part or all of his pension) with the tax charge, the long-term cost of supporting the victim and his family will far outstrip the tax collected. This is especially well demonstrated in the Ark case where the victims have got to both repay the “loans” and pay the 55% tax even if the loans are repaid.
1. Ensure AML regs include pension scamming
TOBY WHITTAKER’S TOXIC EMPIRE WILL FINALLY BE HUFFED AND PUFFED AWAY

I would widen this to include investment scams. This is because at the heart of every pension scam there is a fraudulent investment (and/or loan). The actual pension itself is harmless as it is essentially just a box with a label on it and only becomes toxic and dangerous once you put the scorpions, snakes and cockroaches inside it. You could equally put fluffy kittens in it. It is the mis-use of the pension “box” which is the scam.
November 6, 2017
PREMIER NEW EARTH RECYCLING FUND IN LIQUIDATION

Investors are likely to have lost all their money in Premier New Earth Recycling fund – now in liquidation. The liquidator is Deloittes and they can’t say much, if anything, about what is happening as they are looking into the possibility of claims against third parties and don’t want to prejudice any possible action.

Rather than getting into the nitty gritty of the liquidation of this fund – and the appalling possibility that the investors may very well have lost everything – let us take a good look at the fund itself.

It is a UCIS. Nothing more to say – except:

“Specialist, qualifying, and qualifying-type experienced investor funds are unregulated collective investment schemes which are neither approved nor reviewed by IOMFSA. Once launched, the funds must be registered with the authority within 14 days. These types of funds cannot be sold to the retail public. Access to such funds is only available where investors confirm that they meet the fund type’s minimum entry criteria. This includes a statutory certification that they have read the scheme’s offering document and understand and accept the specific risks associated with that type of fund.”

So, instead of writing lots of fascinating stuff about the wonderful topic of generating energy from rubbish (which I am sure is really interesting and good for the planet), why don’t we stick with the unchallengeable fact that the fund was a UCIS and should not have been promoted to retail investors. End of. No argument. Non-negotiable. Talk to the hand. Stick your UCIS where the sun doesn’t shine.

In fact, the same was true (should have been true) of the Connaught bridging loan fund; EEA Life Settlements; LM; Store First, Park First, Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund and Blackmore Global. So why did so many advisers promote them and invest their clients’ money in them? £$£$£$£$£!!! Commissions. Backhanders. Sandwiches. And the distressed investors are now paying the appalling price for rogue advisers’ greed and negligence.

And what does this look like from the investor’s point of view?

Appalling investment losses on Premier New Earth Recycling

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

What is a pension scam?

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

August 2, 2017