Tag: Richard Reinert

AZURE PENSIONS – a reputation built on lack of trust

Integrated Capabilities – a Trust Company based in Malta have created their own Pension Scheme – Azure Pensions. On the face of it, however, the management team do not appear to have learned anything from their previous experience with Optimus Retirement Benefit Scheme No.1 and their association with David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial. It appears they have now teamed up with some very dubious friends – the result of which is very likely to create more victims of UK pension scams.

I AM GRATEFUL TO STEVE – ONE OF THE BLACKMORE GLOBAL/DAVID VILKA VICTIMS – FOR RE-WRITING THIS BLOG AT THE REQUEST OF INTEGRATED CAPABILITIES’ LAWYER.

The Azure website states: “We believe that trust is built and earned. As such we have an ingrained and sustained desire to develop long-term relationships with our clients”. These are just words and words are easy. It’s what you do that counts.

In 2015, the Optimus scheme started out with 26 members and by the end finished up with 1,176 – that’s a gain of almost 100 new members per month! I was one such member conned into transferring my pension by fraudulent misrepresentations made by David Vilka of Square Mile Financial Services.

My pension was inappropriately invested in unregulated collective investment schemes, wrapped in a useless life assurance bond from Investors Trust (based in the Caymans). One of those funds was Blackmore Global run by Phillip Nunn & Patrick McCreesh. This pair is on record for earning almost £1m generating leads for the Capita Oak and Henley scams.

This new pension arrangement locked me in for 10 years – definitely a “long-term relationship” – giving all parties the opportunity to drain my pension dry in fees. Credit where credit is due, however. Once I discovered I was in a scam, the director Andy Dawson (bottom row, 3rd from the left) did make an extraordinary effort not only to redeem the investments but successfully persuaded most parties to waive their early exit penalties and refund their fees. Only the greedy Symphony Fund chose to keep the penalties and that’s after mysteriously dropping in value 30% just before redemption. Thanks to Andy Dawson and his team, I did manage to get back 92% of my pension. But the BIG QUESTION is what has happened to the other 1,100+ members? It is inconceivable I was the only one transferred into this scheme via Vilka et al.

Another claim made by Azure Pensions is: “Our people are highly experienced, knowledgeable and motivated to do their utmost to ensure that they deliver a superior, professional and hassle-free service.” But this firm, and the people in it, have a history of working with scammers and investing members’ retirement funds in investment scams such as Phillip Nunn’s Blackmore Global and Richard Reinert’s Symphony Fund. So I would take issue with claims like “highly experienced” and “knowledgeable”.

If they were highly experienced and knowledgeable they would have known that, at the time I was being advised by Vilka in January 2015, Aktiva Wealth Management (later changed to Square Mile and now called Michalska Holding) was NOT regulated by the Czech National Bank. According to the CNB records, this didn’t happen until 5th May 2015 and then, only for insurance mediation and not for transferring pensions!

If Integrated Capabilities had been “highly experienced and knowledgeable” then they would have known the Symphony Fund – regulated in their own jurisdiction by their own regulator, the MFSA – was NOT permitted to be offered to me, a retail client. And they knew this because they had the Symphony documentation which clearly prohibited its promotion to UK retail clients.

I complained to the MFSA but they didn’t care and Malta’s “Ombudsman” equivalent – what they call the Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services – deters complaints because they have this small print that says if you lose, the other side can be awarded legal costs!

If Integrated Capabilities had been “highly experienced and knowledgeable” they would have known the Blackmore Global fund had never published audited accounts and still hasn’t to this day (December 2018). Something that in January 2015 caused Kreston (pension provider on the Isle of Man) to write to its members explaining their concerns over Blackmore Global and also stopped taking new members from Vilka.

So if they were “highly experienced and knowledgeable” then why did they allow all this to happen? It certainly had nothing to do with “motivation to do their utmost”. It is clear their only motivation was to take on as many members as possible – irrespective of which scammer introduced them and what unsuitable investments were made for them. Also, they claim to have a “long history and proven track record of providing expert and value for money multi-jurisdictional fiduciary solutions, so our clients and partners can have great peace of mind in the knowledge that our board of directors has over 100 years combined expertise in this field.” The proven track record is that they have taken on hundreds of new members per month from a known scammer – and the last thing their members have is peace of mind – far from it.

Angie has referred to these people at Integrated Capabilities/Azure Pensions as a “bunch of cowboys” and their lawyer recently wrote to her and objected to the phrase. You make your own mind up.

How do they earn trust when they have accepted transfers and investment instructions from known unregulated scammers Square Mile and David Vilka? Why would victims “desire” to have a long-term relationship with Azure when funds were previously placed in an unnecessary, expensive insurance bond by Investors Trust in the Cayman Islands (the only purpose for which is to pay commission to the scammers)?

Azure Pensions also claims that one of its partners is Carey Pensions UK LLC. Carey is facing a legal battle for investing a member into unregulated collectives in Australia through a Carey Pensions SIPP.

Carey is in hot water for allowing investments into high-risk scams, and is also now part of STM – undoubtedly the biggest scammers in the offshore pension trust industry. It would seem the Azure team have not learned anything from their previous experience.

If, as they say “We believe that trust is built and earned …”, then you actually have to do some “trust building” with actions – not just weasel words. The indisputable facts seem to indicate “business as usual” but with a different name.

It is highly probable that Integrated Capabilities still has at least 1,100 victims invested in scam funds such as Blackmore Global by scammers such as David Vilka of Square Mile. It looks like most – if not all – of these victims were UK residents who should never have gone into a QROPS at all in the first place. The only reason for transferring these pension funds to a QROPS was to get the money away from UK regulation so that the scammers could invest them in commission-paying UCIS funds – such as Blackmore Global.

The public should be very wary of Azure in the first instance, do a lot of due diligence and make sure their pension funds don’t go anywhere near offshore unregulated collectives wrapped in an assurance bond that can suck your pension dry.

Azure states on their website that: “Notwithstanding your appointment of a Financial Adviser, ICML has an overriding right to refuse to make investments, or to disinvest, where it believes that a particular investment proposal may not be consistent with the Scheme’s Investment Policy or any investment restriction applicable under Retirement Scheme Law.”

Is this a change in policy? Are they going to put their “knowledge and experience” to meaningful use by exercising some due diligence? Is this a statement that means they have sorted the 1,100+ members in the Optimus Scheme that are most likely locked into “investments … not consistent with the Scheme’s … Policy?” Or are these just more weasel words with no substance?

Reformed management team or a “bunch of cowboys”? The jury is still out. The association with Carey & STM doesn’t appear to show a reformed team. What has happened to the 1,100+ members in the previous Optimus Scheme? Has anything been done to remedy the situation?

I believed, and still do, that this team was unwittingly drawn into facilitating a scam by David Vilka of Square Mile, and that in essence Integrated Capabilities/Azure Pensions are a respectable team. However, if they want to be seen as having learned from their past failings they could take some actions. First, help the 1,100+ members to avoid financial ruin and secondly assist in the prosecution of the architects of the scam facilitated by Integrated Capabilities. I am sure they will have a considerable body of evidence that could be used to show fraudulent misrepresentation and thirdly drop the association with companies with an already poor reputation for their involvement with scams or unregulated collectives being promoted to retail clients.

With thanks to Steve – one of the Blackmore Global/David Vilka victims.

November 2, 2018
Serious Violation of Investors’ Trust – by Investors Trust (life office)
Investors’ trust is what gets violated in so many cases by irresponsible and negligent insurance companies such as Old Mutual International, SEB, Generali, RL360, Friends Provident International – and, of course, the firm in the Cayman Islands: Investors Trust. These companies – also known as “life offices” (although we prefer to call them “death offices” because they help destroy victims’ life savings – and sometimes cause the death of their distraught victims) – have a number of lethal practices which result in financial ruin for thousands of policyholders:
- The life offices take business from any old known scammers – firms without proper licenses and with a known history of defrauding the public
- The life offices will offer toxic, illiquid, risky funds – including UCIS funds – such as LM and Mansion on their platform (without doing any proper due diligence as to how quickly these funds can eradicate the life offices’ victims’ life savings)
- The life offices will accept investment instructions from unqualified scammers who work for firms with no investment license – and, in some cases, with no insurance license either
- The life offices will accept dealing instructions – often with fraudulently-copied or forged signatures – on dealing instructions for toxic assets such as professional-investor-only structured notes
A prime example of these vile practices was in the case of Mr. S – a driving instructor from Milton Keynes. His final salary pension scheme was transferred to a QROPS in Malta despite the fact that he was a UK resident and had no need for his pension to be transferred offshore. His “adviser” was David Vilka from a firm called Square Mile International Financial Services. This firm had an insurance license but no investment license. Therefore, Square Mile could legally sell insurance products such as dog insurance – but could certainly not provide investment advice.

Mr. S’ pension fund was then placed in a “life bond” with Investors Trust in the Cayman Islands. This was an entirely gratuitous transaction, as he had absolutely no need of such a bond – known to be a spurious life assurance policy used for what is called a “single premium” insurance contract. These bonds are illegal in Spain, since the Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that they are being used to hold investments in contravention of the nature of what insurance is supposed to be (i.e. risk for the insurer).

The entire fund – which represented Mr. S’ retirement savings – was then invested in two toxic UCIS funds (illegal to be promoted to UK-resident, retail investors) called Symphony and Blackmore Global. Investors Trust negligently accepted these investments from Square Mile – in the full knowledge that this was absolutely against the interests of the policyholder and that the “advisory” firm had no investment license.

After a protracted battle, waged with great tenacity and dogged determination, Mr S did indeed get back a large proportion of his fund. But he still suffered what can only be described as a harrowing experience which resulted in a total loss of a significant chunk of his pension to the scammers (who will have profited handsomely from scamming him in the first place).

Far from being contrite or apologetic, however, the scammer who risked Mr. S’ pension in the first place – David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial Services in the Czech Republic – showed no shame and made no attempt to recover the remainder of his victim’s pension. In fact, when I exposed Vilka’s vile scam, I was threatened by his two-bit American lawyer Douglas Davies of Lowell Davies LLP.

But what of the Cayman Islands-based life office – Investors Trust? Did they try to help Mr. S recover his serious losses? Did they offer him compensation for the significant distress he suffered at the hands of the scammers at Square Mile? Did they publish a statement demonstrating recognition of the damage done to victims’ life savings by investing in toxic crap like Blackmore Global on the instructions of scammers like David Vilka?

The answer, of course, is a resounding “no”. Investors Trust could have done so much to reform these illegal practices and expose the likes of scammer David Vilka who scammed not only Mr. S out of a big part of his pension, but also scammed hundreds of victims into the Hong Kong QROPS scam (many of which got invested in Blackmore Global).

Instead of showing any contrition or regret for facilitating financial crime, an idiot at Investors Trust called Lindsay Paris emailed me threatening to sue me for using a picture of David Vilka and John Ferguson posing as vulgar spivs at Las Vegas. This revolting photograph is, apparently, the property of Investors Trust:

“This is my second attempt to reach you regarding the copyright infringement on your website. Please have the image removed immediately or we will have no other choice but to seek legal action.

This is not the first time you have fraudulently misused private images and copyrights without authorization. You are imposing on our ownership rights and we would appreciate it if you would refrain from any future use of Investors Trust-owned materials. It is a serious violation which we will continue to pursue.

Please have the image on this page https://pension-life.com/david-vilkas-vile-us-attorney/ removed immediately.

Thank you,

Lindsay Paris, Media and Communications Manager, Investors Trust Administration

lparis@investors-trust.com”

So, no apology for destroying victims’ life savings; no apology for taking business from a firm which was not regulated to give investment advice; no apology for investing a victim’s pension in a toxic UCIS fund run by known scammer Philip Nunn….just a complaint about a violation of their ownership rights of a picture of the scammers bearing the Investors Trust logo.

It is reported that Old Mutual International has put aside £69 million to pay compensation for their victims’ losses. May I suggest that Investors Trust should do the same thing – and then I will happily take down the vile picture of Vilka and Ferguson. But until then, it stays up. And if you want to sue me – go ahead: make my day.
August 13, 2018
STM Fidecs and the Gibraltar FSC – Evil lives on at the rock
STM Fidecs and the Gibraltar FSC – Evil lives on at the rock

I have read the report about what happened to the scammers at STM Fidecs in the wake of the Gibraltar FSC’s investigation and Deloitte’s so-called “expert report”.

Frankly, I am stunned. I have members who are victims of the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund and STM Fidecs and they are, understandably, stunned as well. I have met the people at the Gibraltar FSC and they had seemed decent guys |(but WTF do I know?!). Maybe they’ve all left, because the people I met appeared enthusiastic and conscientious. But perhaps they’ve been replaced by a bunch of malfunctioning robots, or ex-scammers or – much worse – ex STM Fidecs employees.

Serious Fraud Office investigating XXXX XXXX

The bottom line is that STM Fidecs scammed hundreds of victims out of their pensions. STM Fidecs took business from unlicensed scammer XXXX XXXX of Global Partners Limited (only had an insurance license with Marcus Groombridge’s firm Joseph Oliver) and then invested 100% of the victims’ funds into an illegal UCIS fund – run by XXXX XXXX (now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office – although I really don’t know what they are playing at because XXXX still isn’t behind bars).

The rest is history. The Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund is being wound up, and after paying the liquidation costs to Stephen Doran, of Doran + Minehane, there is unlikely to be much – if anything – left. Deloittes spent weeks supposedly investigating STM Fidecs’ books. I reckon the chumps at Deloittes probably spent most of that time on the golf course with Alan Kentish having a chuckle and a side bet about how feeble the Gibraltar FSC was likely to be. And, of course, they were right.

Now, of course, Deloittes and STM Fidecs are celebrating, as the GFSC has done nothing to stop this iniquitous, dishonest, incompetent and negligent firm from trading. Whether STM Fidecs bribed the Gibraltar FSC, or merely got them drunk on the golf course, we will never know. And it makes no difference. But certainly the matter has been brusquely brushed under the carpet and the hundreds of ruined lives have been conveniently ignored and forgotten.

Neither STM Fidecs nor the Gibraltar FSC has said a word about redress for the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund victims.

The only words spoken are that the Gibraltar Regulator has told STM Fidecs to “improve its compliance”. Improve?? How can you improve something that doesn’t even exist at all? We know that one victim (of scammers Holborn Assets) was bullied by STM Fidecs for trying to improve compliance and harassed for trying to stop obviously non-compliant transactions when she was employed by them. She was subsequently “paid off” and threatened with a gagging order.

“STM is now expected to engage with the Gibraltar FSC in order to discuss the Recommendations of the report, and agree a plan of action to implement them.” (according to the report by FT Adviser). Recommendations? Where are the sanctions? Where are the appropriate fines? Where are the bans to stop Alan Kentish and David Easton from ever practising in financial services again? Where is the cancellation of STM Fidecs‘ license?

With this in mind, here are some idiots’ guides as to how to become a pension trustee, and how to become a regulator. Both are equally easypeasylemonsqueasy – any old idiot or scammer could do it.

HOW TO BE A PENSION TRUSTEE IN EASY STEPS
1. Think of a catchy name: obviously inspired by the acronym STD, Alan Kentish came up with the name STM. FIDEC is an acronym for “Fighting Infectious Diseases in Emerging Countries”. Here’s my suggestion: Trussed4U – wadya fink?
2. Think of a jurisdiction with the most ineffective, pathetic and corrupt regulation – such as Gibraltar
3. Find an unlicensed scammer like XXXX XXXX who will transfer lots of UK-resident victims into an offshore QROPS and invest their life savings in whatever crap will pay him the highest commissions
4. Sit back and rake in the profits
5. Forget fiduciary obligations or anything with the word “trust” in it – only concentrate on the word “trussed“
6. Play golf with the regulator
HOW TO BE A REGULATOR
1. Join a golf club (that isn’t too picky about who it lets in)
2. Give licenses to as many scammers as possible – the more the merrier
3. Buy lots of blindfolds (to help turn a blind eye to scams and scammers)
4. Play lots of golf with the scammers and bent pension trustees who facilitate financial crime
5. When an advisory firm or a trustee firm gets caught scamming, slap a few people on the wrist with a wet fish
6. Write meaningless reports about robust compliance
HOW TO BE A SCAMMER
1. Find yourself a bent jurisdiction (such as Gibraltar)
2. Find a bent trustee who will accept business from any old unlicensed scammer (such as STD FIDEC)
3. Find a bent “umbrella” fund which will facilitate financial crime – such as Richard Reinert’s Nascent Fund
4. Find a Ponzi scheme such as Dolphin Trust which will issue “loan notes” at 10% interest per annum (and up to 25% in introduction commission)
5. Transfer hundreds of UK residents to a Gibraltar QROPS scam
6. Get the trustee to agree to invest 100% of 100% of the victims’ retirement savings in … your own fund!
See how easy it is to be either a trustee, a regulator or a scammer? But, equally, remember how easy it is to be a victim!

Quite frankly, Gibraltar should be towed out to sea and sunk. It is a disgrace to the British nation. Just give it back to the Spanish and let them clean it up – they would soon kick the likes of STM Fidecs out and stop any further scams and scammers from operating on Spanish soil. Soil being the operating word.

Rather than going on about how utterly disgusted I am with the Gibraltar regulator, I will leave it to the eloquent words of one of the STM Fidecs/Trafalgar Multi-Asset victims to put this sickening disgrace into perspective.

VICTIM: “I have been quietly simmering away but feel I have to release my anger having again read the response from GFSC.

Firstly, do Gibraltar FSC actually realise over 1,000 individuals and their families are affected by the Trafalgar fiasco, who will potentially all suffer negatively in many different ways during their retirement years? On a personal level, I should have known better but was caught out by cleverness at a weak moment in my life, but many others I have spoken to had no understanding at all of financial affairs and put all of their trust in the hands of STM and all connected parties due to their apparent convincing knowledge and lies – shocking!!!!!

Due to my own personal research, I know of several other financial institutions who were offered and were involved in discussions regarding Trafalgar. But due to having correct procedures in place (unlike STM), they clearly ”smelled a rat”, and were far more ”ROBUST” in their approach. The only rat STM smelled was some form of hopeful ”Magic Money Tree” with no concern for its clients’ wellbeing – apart from its own pound note signs.

As you already know I have previously discussed this matter with my local MP and with your permission would like to highlight again the manner in which Gibraltar FSC have dealt with and inadequately reacted to STM’s performance. STM’s website highlights their glowing history and expertise, but at no point mentions their clearly poor basic audit and compliance mechanisms.

Hopefully, at some point in the future all the evil parties – including STM – in this matter are dragged through the courts, eventually embarrassed and humiliated by the press, and made to pay both financially and personally for their hideous crimes – I can only dream.

Still angry and in despair.

STM Fidecs/Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund Victim

That victim may well have lost her entire life savings thanks to XXXX XXXX and STM Fidecs. I am sickened and disgusted with our own onshore regulator’s pathetic failings: the FCA. But, quite frankly, the Gibraltar FSC makes the FCA look like Superman with TWO pairs of pants on outside their tights!

Interestingly, Justin Caffrey – who used to run Harbour Pensions in Malta – told me a year or so ago that he had been approached by XXXX XXXX who wanted to flog his toxic Trafalgar Multi Asset crap.

Caffrey claimed to have sent XXXX packing with a flea in his ear because he twigged straight away that XXXX was a no-good spiv. However, he had no such ethics when he invested victims’ pensions in Phillip Nunn’s Blackmore Global crap.

But now STD FIDEC has bought Harbour and Caffrey has been given the heave-ho. You couldn’t make it up!
June 16, 2018
STM FIDECS – SAFE HARBOUR FOR ALAN KENTISH

Gibraltar’s most wanted man – Alan Kentish, CEO of STM Fidecs

STM Fidecs needed a safe Harbour. And now they’ve got one – but is it really safe?

LETTER TO ALAN KENTISH – CEO OF STM FIDECS:

Dear Al, hope you are well. I’m not anticipating a response to this because I know how difficult it must be to type emails when you’re wearing handcuffs. However, I thought I would drop you a line because I am genuinely worried about you.

STM’s harbour for investment scams

You see, I heard you’d bought Harbour Pensions for £1 million – a book of 1,600 members. But how many of these members will want to stay once they find out they are now in the hands of STM? If any of them have got any sense they will transfer out to a decent QROPS trustee who can be trusted to look after their pensions. STM Fidecs allowed hundreds of victims – advised by a known scammer running an unlicensed firm (XXXX XXXX) of the Pensions Reporter/Global Partners Limited) – to be 100% invested in XXXX’s own fund, Trafalgar Multi Asset (now suspended, under investigation by the SFO and being wound up).

The Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund was a sub-fund of the Nascent Platform – one of many operated by Custom House Global offering scammers a cost-effective place to waste pension pots. This provided a low-cost solution to wannabe fund managers to try their hand at playing musical money with victims’ life savings.

What surprises me, is that having proved that STM Fidecs is an incompetent firm run by inept – or perhaps even crooked – people, you would be splashing money around acquiring more victims and more toxic assets. Instead, you should have been paying compensation to your existing victims who may well have lost a substantial proportion of their retirement savings due to STM Fidecs’ own failings.

Having acquired Harbour, you have now added the toxic, illiquid, high-risk, un-audited Blackmore Global fund to your portfolio of worthless crap. Your balance sheet must need disinfectant and a good old scrub.

STM’s balanced portfolio of toxic investment scams – Trafalgar Multi Asset and Blackmore Global

Furthermore, you will now be in league with not one but TWO lots of scammers who are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. XXXX XXXX (Trafalgar Multi Asset) and Nunn McCreesh (Blackmore Global) were both behind the Capita Oak and Henley Retirement Benefit pension scams – all 100% invested in Store First store pods.

Seriously, Al, you should think about cleaning up your act – not making it dirtier and murkier. Hope those handcuffs don’t chafe too much.

Best, Angie

November 16, 2017
THE ROT OF GIBRALTAR’S “GOLDEN SA-TURD-AY AWARD”

What a wag that Michael Howard was on Saturday. But his timing is brilliant as we do have one little “mess” which needs sorting out urgently, and a bit of a hole – about the size of Howard’s mouth – in regulation and financial crime prevention in Gibraltar: the STM Fidecs/Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund pension scam.

Known for many years as a haven for crooks, tax evaders, swindlers, fraudsters, money launderers, drug traffickers and assorted rascally turds, Gibraltar is also home to STM Fidecs. Allegedly a pension “trustee” firm. So, this blog is addressed directly and unashamedly to STM Fidec’s Alan Kentish and David Easton.

“Alan and David, the word “trustee” has got the “trust” bit in it for a reason. Members are supposed to be able to trust a pension trustee to ensure that investors are not advised by a two-bit, unregulated, serial scammer. And further, that they are not advised by a two-bit, unregulated, serial scammer who is also the investment manager of the very UCIS scam he is promoting to UK residents who should never have been put in a QROPS in the first place. And further still, that the investors’ pensions are not 100% invested in that high-risk, toxic rubbish which is illegal to be promoted to UK residents.

Talking of words, I was curious as to what “Fidecs” actually means and when I Googled it, I got “fighting infectious diseases in emerging countries”. Well, that’s about right if you ask me. And who asked me? Victims of the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fraud (£21 million suspended and arguably worthless). And a dying elderly man to whom you caused immense anguish by refusing to release a portion of his pension so he could have life-saving cancer treatment – and whom you gagged when eventually you did relent (although he had told me all about before you gagged him).

And talking of gagging, what about the woman you gagged because she worked for you and objected strongly to the amount of business you were signing off which was non-compliant and would put investors at risk? She happened to know what she was talking about because she had been a victim of the scammers at Holborn Assets in Dubai who came close to losing her all of her pension – so she knew her stuff. So you gagged her too – but not before she had told me every detail – as she is a member of the Pension Life Group Action.

So, Al and Dave, I am sure it goes without saying that you won’t be gagging me, and a detailed report is being prepared for Messrs. Coles, Crossman, Tricker, Ashton, Barrass and Garner. It would be nice if you came forward, admitted your negligence like men and put your professional indemnity insurers on notice without squirming and slithering around.

Let’s see if you are men; whether you can put the “trust” back in “trustee”, take the turd out of Saturday and kick the rot out of Gibraltar. Then Lord Howard can take his foot out of his mouth and Gib might have a chance of rescuing its tarnished imagine as the harbourer of financial crime.”

April 2, 2017
“Action Fraud are nobody and have no authority”: John Ferguson, Square Mile Financial Services

John Ferguson, Square Mile Financial Services

http://www.lillywhiteint.com/about-us.html

I am worried about the whereabouts of John Ferguson of Lillywhite International and Square Mile Financial Services (Czech Republic). The last I heard he was boarding a long-haul flight on 23rd November 2016 to an unknown destination. His solicitor assured me Mr. Ferguson would get back to me as soon as he landed to deal with a victim’s pension losses.

Mr. Ferguson has invested a number of victims’ pensions in the Blackmore Global and Symphony funds and was asked to provide a copy of the audit for Blackmore Global which his firm has been promoting and which appears to have some questionable assets – described as “esoteric” and “alternative”. He was also asked to provide evidence of his firm’s regulation to provide pension and investment advice.

One victim had threatened to report the matter to Action Fraud when he discovered multiple irregularities with his pension scheme. Mr. Ferguson had dismissed the victim’s complaint saying:

“All fine as Action Fraud are nobody & have no authority. But does that now mean we don’t have to answer his formal complaint?”

The factsheet for the Blackmore Global fund had falsely claimed a firm in Barcelona was the Investment Manager for the fund – robustly denied by the furious firm in question. Mr. Ferguson clearly has questions to answer and the victims’ losses to deal with – so I do hope Ferguson is safe and well. I am comforted by the fact that as recently as 26th November he was Tweeting about football https://twitter.com/thfcfancz so perhaps he just forgot my questions about audit and regulation?

NOT SO SQUARE MILE – AND FAR FROM LILLY WHITE

November 30, 2016