Tag: RL360

INTERNATIONAL ADVISER’S GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES AWARDS 2025 By Gary Robinson

Gary Robinson of International Adviser celebrates global undisclosed commissions on June 25th 2025.

Gary Robinson, journalist and filmmaker, now heads up International Adviser. IA poses as a financial services news magazine. In reality, it is a rag for promoting the products of the life offices (more accurately known as death offices) such as Utmost International, RL360, Hansard and Investors Trust. This enriches the commission-hungry firms – such as DeVere, Guardian Wealth Management, Holborn Assets and Mondial in Dubai. (See victims’ reviews below).

Gary Robinson, also MD of Money Map Media, pictured above promoting Nigel Green of DeVere, claims:

“Really exciting to bring back the IA Global Financial Services Awards 2025 where the shortlist is solely decided by our advisers, brokers and wealth managers.”

Death Office Quilter – now Utmost – set to win awards for misrepresentation and undisclosed commissions.

But Gary’s “excitement” is disingenuous as he knows full well that the advisers, brokers and wealth managers are at the receiving end of the fraudulently-concealed commission machine operated by the death offices. This leads to sales of inappropriate and risky investment products. And the word “adviser” is grossly misleading as the majority of the firms don’t sell advice – they sell products for fat and destructive commissions.

Gary’s predecessor was Kirsten Hastings. In 2020, Hastings handed out awards to her paymasters to rapturous canned applause:

“And the winner of international life group non-UK is Quilter International. Congratulations!”

“And the winner of International Portfolio Bond is Quilter International. Congratulations!!”

“And the winner of Digital Proposition is Quilter International. Congratulations!!!

Hastings said that Quilter had been “overwhelmingly nominated by the advisers”. Hardly surprising since that’s where their juicy, fraudulent commissions come from.

These undisclosed commissions come in two layers: 7% or 8% on the portfolio bond itself. Then commissions of up to 19% or more on the toxic, high-risk assets on the investment platforms provided by the death offices. So the “advice” to get sucked into these products is certainly not “independent”.

Five years later, the 2025 IA awards not only target the death offices but also the rogue jurisdictions which act as enthusiastic incubators for so much international financial crime. IA Nominations for International Financial Centre of the Year include:

Hong Kong, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.

All of which have harboured fraud, negligence and mis selling – with little or no intervention by the regulators.

Hong Kong is not as popular among fraudsters as Malta, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man. However, in 2014 a group of conmen in Hong Kong – including Neil Masters, Michael Foggo, Mark Wearmouth and Chris Beale – launched the GFS Superannuation Scheme 2 occupational pension. They then operated a multi-million-pound investment fraud in partnership with Czech broker Planet Pensions (aka Aktiva and Square Mile).

Neil Masters – Mastering the art of investment fraud.

Hundreds of UK-residents were then conned into transferring their pensions to GFS in Hong Kong. They lost everything in toxic, unregulated, high-commission investments. Convicted criminals Mark Donnelly and Gordon Couch of Brite Advisors then tried to take over the scheme using Donnelly’s Hong Kong company Tribune – set up jointly with Nigel Green of DeVere. Donnelly then bought Planet Pensions for £650,000 using money stolen from his Brite Advisors clients.

The Hong Kong regulator did at least deregister the scheme when it realised it had been used for investment fraud – but then took no criminal action against the perpetrators.

Guernsey and Jersey have also been involved with various investment scams over the past decade. These include the 💲100 million unregulated collective investment EEA Life Settlements scam based in Guernsey and the £40 million Privilege Wealth payday loans swindle used as 100% investments in pension portfolios in Jersey.

The Isle of Man hosts some of the World’s worst facilitators of fraud – including Hansard, Utmost, Quilter, Friends Provident International and RL360. These firms have been responsible for the destruction of billions of pounds of life savings and are currently standing trial in the Isle of Man for misrepresentation and undisclosed commissions in two claims for £400 million worth of losses for hundreds of victims. And these death offices have for many years paid millions of pounds in secret commissions to the worst of the commission-driven “advice” industry.

Hopefully Gary Robinson will give the audience, at the awards ceremony on 25th June, details of the crippling losses caused by Friends Provident International and Quilter International (now Utmost).

The IA Award nominations for best international pension provider include Momentum Pensions in Malta. This is astonishing as Momentum has the most Arbiter complaints of all the QROPS providers in this ineptly-regulated and corrupt jurisdiction. The Malta Arbiter’s website clearly contains details of nearly 100 serious complaints against Momentum – most of which were upheld. The Arbiter found that Momentum had failed to comply with the Malta financial services regulations and to have failed in its fiduciary duty to the scheme members. And yet still the Malta regulator – despite the Malta Arbiter’s damning condemnation – has still not shut down Momentum (or STM for that matter – which came a shameful second to Momentum).

Momentum Pensions had allowed millions of pounds’ worth of investments in toxic, high-risk structured notes by unregulated Spanish firm CWM. Most of these failed, wiping out hundreds of members’ pensions.   The sole director of CWM has recently been convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.

Momentum Pensions was not the only QROPS provider in Malta to facilitate investment fraud by rogue brokers. This is borne out in detail through serious complaints published on the Malta Arbiter’s website also include Dominion Fiduciary Services, STM, Optimus, ITC and Mark Donnelly’s MC Trustees. All these firms negligently allowed high-risk, high-commission, unsuitable investments by unscrupulous brokers (resulting in total loss for the victims).

These Malta-based pension providers open the gateway to the death offices in the Isle of Man – who host the high-risk investments and facilitate the illegal commissions. The Asset Review Team at Quilter International had reported concerns about this a decade ago:

“Commerzbank and Leonteq structured products appear to be risky and not good value due to relatively high commissions.”

The Asset Review Team also described the undisclosed commission arrangement operated by Nigel Green’s DeVere:

“DeVere’s model is that they take 4% for advice plus an arrangement fee of 4%. The 4% advice fee is disclosed. The arrangement fee is not disclosed to the customer. The client pays 104% for a structured product with an issue price of 100%. If the client tried to exit the product on day 2 they would receive 96% for something that they paid 104% for.”

(And let us not forget that this is just DeVere’s commission on the investments – they also receive up to 8% on the insurance bonds as well).

Former IoM regulator Peter Kenny – as MD and CEO of Quilter International – did accept liability in 2018 for facilitating the CWM fraud. He agreed to compensate the victims. But then he realised this could compromise the £200 million claim against rogue structured note provider Leonteq – and reneged on the agreement.

So, Gary Robinson, Head of International Adviser, before you start popping the champagne corks and handing out awards to firms which have facilitated fraud, why not announce a minute’s silence to remember the victims. Describe the misery they have suffered; the poverty; the loss of a lifetime’s work to build up a pension; the broken marriages; the lost homes; the distress and depression. And don’t forget the deaths. NEVER FORGET THE DEATHS GARY.

Gary Robinson of International Adviser celebrating global financial services fraud

DeVere Reviews

de Swaan 30 Mar 2025

Stay away from DeVere at all cost

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of the pathetic service that, for four years (from 2020 to 2024) I received from the Mexican subsidiary of de Vere Group. Today I received a message from Trustpilot informing that my review was removed for “containing possible defamatory accusations”. I have expressed to Trustpilot my absolute willingness to present the evidence for each of the arguments contained in that message, which I summarize below.

1. de Vere Group is the typical financial company that will approach you with a lot of kindness and good treatment in the first meetings, but then it will basically disappear and it will be up to the customer to chase it to be served.
2. de Vere Group has the highest personnel rotation you’ve ever seen in a company. In four years I had five financial advisors, which basically leaves the client in an absolute state of defenselessness, because there is no institutional strategy and invariably the advisor in turn will blame the previous one for the decisions and poor performance of your portfolio.
3. De Vere Group has no incentive for its clients to do well (and it shows) because its commissions are totally unrelated to the financial performance of its clients. Always look for advisors whose fees are related to the performance of your financial boards.
4. After the departure of each advisor, with de Vere Group it will be up to the client to pursue the company to be served again and it is impossible to demand that there be the slightest continuity in the strategy because the new advisor will start the relationship as if you were a new client and promote new strategies criticizing his predecessor.
5. When they retire, each advisor will seek to get you to maintain the relationship with him or her by talking badly about the company they are leaving (and I don’t blame them)

I have dozens of emails that can prove every word of what I expose here. I wish de Vere were as good a financial advisor as he is to accuse defamation.

Date of experience: 30 June 2024

Joe Dobert 24 Feb 2025

Avoid

They have possibly up to 10% markups on their structured notes and their advisors are not even aware of this. My recommendation: always compare with other providers.

Date of experience: 24 November 2024

David 15 Apr 2025

I have lost more than 80 % of what I invested in cash more than 18 years ago.invested USD 103,000 in a collective…

I invested USD 103 000 in a collective investment bond with this company in Qatar in 2007. I was promised quarterly meetings with the advisor for him to give me advise. Subsequently, the company closed their Qatar office, closed their Dubai office, closed their Oman office, closed their South African office etc. As of 2025, My investment is worth USD 21000 and I am battling to get the money out of a company Utmost in the Isle of man. They are making me jump through hoops to provide them with all sorts of information before they will pay out. I have received no advice in 18 years, the bond has been handled by several organisations over the years and I have made several attempts to stop the constant fees. I hold De Vere totally responsible for the losses. What they are doing is destroying peoples lives by hiding behind their lawyers, the small print in their systems and collusion with other corrupt financial organisations.

Date of experience: 15 April 2025

Guardian Wealth Management Reviews

R Reames 6 Nov 2023

Poor communication

Poor communication. Happy to take their fees but with no portfolio management. Allowed my investment to lose almost 40% with no intervention.

Date of experience: 06 November 2023

Martyn Kilburn 30 Sept 2023

#leavemealone

I would have not even bothered writing a review but skybound wealth keep hassling me about my investment. I looked on website reviews and they are all 5 stars. I can only imagines they have been left by the friends and family of skybound wealth. For me the whole investment thing was a bit of a mummer’s farce. I can only describe it as imagining you had two uncles visiting your house. 1. Uncle skybound wealth/uncle jimmy saville and 2. Uncle guardian wealth/ uncle rolf harris. Either way they seemed alright at the beginning but in the end violated you financially.

Date of experience: 30 September 2023

Holborn Assets Reviews

Chad Kassis 17 Dec 2024

Save Your Money And Go Somewhere Else

Holborn Assets has been one of the most disappointing companies I’ve ever dealt with. A few years ago, I entrusted them with a significant investment, expecting the typical services of a reputable asset management firm, regular updates, performance reviews, and professional portfolio management. Unfortunately, none of these expectations were met. Most of my emails went unanswered, their performance was subpar, and their high annual fees were completely unjustifiable. I was paying 3% annually for literally nothing! I initially thought the issue might be with our manager, but even escalating concerns to his superiors and their superiors proved futile. In reality, Holborn Assets seems to function more as a glorified sales operation than a legitimate asset management firm. If you’re looking for a trustworthy investment partner, a company that does the bare minimum of customer support, I strongly advise looking elsewhere. Save your money and your peace of mind! I will be writing an in-depth blog and video posts to document and share this awful experience!

Date of experience: 15 December 2024

Steve Poll 10 Nov 2024

Verified

Lost over 40% in a moderate risk fund over 7 years

We invested a lump sum with Holburn Assets in 2017 with a risk profile of moderate (so, not high risk). By 2023 we had had enough of the fund depreciating in value each year. Having requested early exit from the scheme, it took 10 months to get our remaining monies transferred out. Whenever we or our new financial advisor provided information required to complete the exit, yet another request for even more information would suddenly appear.

By the time we paid the early exit fees our investment had depreciated by over 40% (and that’s before you allow for inflation).

When we complained to Holburn Assets we were told that the low amount of monies we got back was due to the exit fees. While these exit fees were high, most of the losses were from their poor investment and high annual fees. At no time did they suggest we move the monies into another fund.

Our new financial advisor (who has performed well so far) summed up our experience with Holburn Assets very well – excessively high annual costs and extremely poor performance.

Date of experience: 10 October 2024

Verified

Mondial Reviews

M Robinson 8 May 2025

Beware!!!!!!

Beware. Mark Donnelly owns a large stake in this company. Mark is a convicted criminal in the UK. He oversaw the collapse of Brite Advisors which was forcibly liquidated by Australian regulator because of massive irregularities – Mark then quickly left Australia to come to the UAE.

Date of experience: 09 May 2025

15 May 2024

Be Careful!

Be Careful!
A major Owner of this business was the owner of the firm of advisors that managed my retirement savings. Margin loans were raised by the firm of advisors, using our retirement assets (which were supposed to be held in trust) as collateral. Money went missing and the loans were not repaid. The firm has been placed in receivership by Australian Authorities. Our retirement assets are now frozen.

Date of experience: 15 May 2024

Useful3Share

MU

12 May 2024

My UK offshore retirement fund (QROPS)…

My UK offshore retirement fund (QROPS) is now frozen, until the Receivers of Brite have figured out where the missing funds went and how much is left of retirement investors Assets. These assets (supposedly held in trust) were used by Brite as collateral for margin loans, to expand their portfolio of clients and to buy luxury cars. Brite stopped paying the loans, were placed in receivership and investors assets were frozen. The owner of Brite is a major owner of Mondial Dubai, think twice before investing there.

Date of experience: 12 May 2024

British Expat in Colorado

8 May 2024

AVOID

I don’t know about how Mondial operated previously, but recently I understand a certain Mark Donnelly acquired 75% controlling ownership. He had previously led Brite Advisors globally which was shut down by regulators in Australia early in 2024 after reporting issues and a significant hole was ‘discovered’ in client’s pensions Assets under Management – I would NOT recommend getting involved with ANY company associated with him.

Date of experience: 01 May 2024

June 4, 2025

POST OFFICE V LIFE OFFICE

The Post Office scandal is routinely referred to as being the worst betrayal of justice in British history. It is hard to argue that there could be anything worse than what the liars and fraudsters at Post Office Limited and Fujitsu (and their various lawyers) did to hundreds of innocent sub postmasters. But the Life Offices – including Utmost International – and many of the brokers with whom they have terms of business – certainly come a close second.

The Post Office scam was led by Paula Vennells – an ordained Anglican Minister. She was CEO from 2012 to 2019. It is hard to figure out which bit of the Ten Commandments she omitted to read, especially “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness”.

Listening to the testimonies in the Post Office Horizon Enquiry led by Sir Wyn Williams, it is clear there is a sub-group of human beings who have little right to call themselves “human”. This includes the bosses at Post Office Limited and Fujitsu (as well as their various lawyers) who knowingly sent hundreds of innocent victims to prison (including a pregnant woman). Having extorted money from their victims to repay the “shortages” falsely reported by the Horizon software, the Post Office bosses then paid themselves whopping bonuses.

There is a great deal of information, background and commentary on the Post Office scandal – including Nick Wallis’ excellent book “The Great Post Office Cover Up“; Computer Weekly’s excellent, comprehensive coverage; the British government’s own report; and even a television docudrama which reconstructed the appalling events in Mr. Bates vs The Post Office.

The Post Office/Fujitsu scandal was the subject of a public enquiry which exposed the appalling events and profound negligence and criminality by Post Office and Fujitsu bosses and staff. Thanks to the exceptional diligence of the barristers who represented the victims and expertly dragged the truths, half truths and lies out of the perpetrators, the public can finally see the truth.

What remains to be seen, however, is what compensation the victims of the Post Office and Fujitsu fraud will receive. Hundreds of sub postmasters were wrongly convicted of false accounting and theft, and in numerous cases made to pay back the money they had never stolen, and often sent to prison. Hundreds of lives were ruined and some victims committed suicide because of the shame of being viewed in their close-knit communities as guilty of theft and false accounting. Taking into account the wider interests of the families of the victims, however, this atrocity has ruined thousands of lives.

The Post Office has, reportedly, spent hundreds of millions on legal fees – to defend its position, deny responsibility and culpability, and delay paying out compensation to its victims. Figures vary, but it is clear the Post Office has spent way more on its own fees than it would have done had it simply paid fair compensation to its victims.

While the Post Office/Fujitsu enquiry is now complete, the civil litigation against the Life Offices is currently going through the Isle of Man courts. And, like the Post Office, the Life Offices are throwing millions of pounds at their lawyers to try to evade paying their victims the redress they deserve.

There are numerous similarities and differences between the Post Office scandal and the Life Office scandal (Utmost International, SEB, RL360, Investors Trust etc). The bosses at the Post Office and Fujitsu had a limited, finite pool of victims in the UK – whereas the Life Offices had – and still have – an unlimited pool of victims globally. Plus, the Life Offices did not falsely prosecute their victims or send them to prison. But they still ruined their lives nonetheless.

Let’s compare some of the tragic similarities between both scandals:

The Post Office was headed up by an ordained Anglican minister (Paul Vennells). She should have known better.	Quilter (Old Mutual) (leading player in the Life Office scandal) was headed up by a former Isle of Man regulator (Peter Kenny). He should have known better.
The Post Office knew that Fujitsu’s “Horizon” accounting software was full of bugs and could not be relied upon. Horizon would inevitably report false statistics and financials.	The Life Offices knew many assets offered on their investment platforms were high-risk, high-commission and bound to fail. These investments would inevitably cause severe losses.
Fujitsu is a key “strategic supplier” to the UK government, making £100m a year from this work, and has won 150 new contracts worth £2.04bn since the 2019 court ruling that Fujitsu’s Horizon IT system caused accounting errors that were blamed on the sub-postmasters.	The Life Offices (Utmost, RL360, Hansard etc) are still to this day used extensively by virtually all offshore brokers and QROPS providers. Posting eye-watering profits and AUM, the Life Offices continue to flourish but offer to pay no compensation to their victims.
Fujitsu’s clients for these lucrative contracts include the Home Office, HMRC, the Foreign Office, the MoD, and the DWP. Plus the £2.4bn lifetime contract Fujitsu still has with the Post Office for the Horizon system.	Life Offices continue to provide unnecessary insurance bonds for virtually the entire offshore financial services market. These products serve only to pay undisclosed commissions to the brokers and provide no benefit to the investors.
Fujitsu and The Post Office have jointly caused millions of pounds’ worth of financial losses and damage to hundreds of sub postmasters. Still only pitifully small amounts of compensation have been paid to the victims.	Life Offices have caused many hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of financial losses to thousands of investors. Still no compensation has been paid or received.
The Post Office continues to pay a herd of lawyers millions of pounds to fight against paying just compensation to the sub postmasters who were victims of this scandalous crisis.	Life Offices Utmost International and Friends Provident are paying lawyers in the IoM to fight against paying compensation to the victims of investment fraud and undisclosed commissions.

WHICH IS WORSE? THE POST OFFICE SCANDAL OR THE LIFE OFFICE SCANDAL?

It really is hard to say. In both cases, thousands of people’s lives have been ruined. Marriages have been destroyed, homes and businesses lost and unnecessary deaths have occurred. The Post Office (and Fujitsu) had a limited and finite pool of victims (only the sub postmasters and their families in the UK) – whereas the Life Offices have an infinite pool of victims across the globe. And this scandal continues to this very day – entirely unsanctioned.

Save for the outstanding justice and compensation due to the sub postmasters, and the impending criminal proceedings against those responsible at The Post Office and Fujitsu (and possibly some of the lawyers who helped cover up their fraud), this matter is over bar the shouting. By contrast, the Life Offices are continuing full blast with the same business model which has destroyed countless lives, families, marriages and life savings.

The Post Office/Fujitsu victims will still have to wait many years for their rightful compensation – while the lawyers continue to get rich and the government prevaricates feebly. There are faint signs that Paula Vennells and Nick Read may yet serve time behind bars. But at least something is being done, and there is a legal process in place. However, the Isle of Man and Irish governments and regulators have shown zero interest in the fraud committed and facilitated by the Life Offices.

January 21, 2025

Utmost Leonteq Fraud
In 2018, Old Mutual International (now Utmost International) announced it was suing structured note provider Leonteq. This was over a series of rogue structured notes with an extra layer of secret commission paid to scammers without Utmost International’s knowledge (allegedly). These notes had failed because they were so enormously high risk. The result was thousands of Utmost’s victims losing huge amounts of their pensions and life savings.

On 28th May 2024, it was announced by QROPS trustees and Old Mutual (later renamed Quilter and now owned by Utmost International – formerly Generali) that Leonteq had settled out of court for the damages caused by these toxic structured notes to thousands of investors.

This announcement was reported by Momentum Pensions in Malta – among other QROPS trustees. Some victims of offshore pension scams facilitated by Old Mutual, Generali, Utmost, RL360, SEB and other life offices will get some compensation for a small part of their huge losses.

Old Mutual International, the life office responsible for thousands of ruined lives in Spain and beyond, announced in 2018 that it was suing structured-note provider Leonteq. There had been a series of extra toxic, high-risk notes for which Leonteq had been paying scammers additional commission “under the table” (i.e. not disclosed to Old Mutual). In early 2023 the matter was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

But this is no real compensation for the years of distress and poverty the many thousands of Utmost’s victims have gone through. Lives have been ruined. Families torn apart. Homes lost. Victims have died miserable, lonely deaths – leaving distraught and destitute spouses and partners.

It had originally been reported that Old Mutual had been suing Leonteq for somewhere between £94 million and £200 million. The basis for this action was undisclosed commissions – which is fraud. But Utmost (along with all other life offices) had been quite happy to pay millions in undisclosed commissions to the vast array of scammers who sell their offshore bonds and toxic investments (such as structured notes). But while Utmost had no problem with these outrageous commissions being kept secret from the victims, they objected to the Leonteq commissions being hidden from Utmost themselves.

Momentum is taking further advice on the legalities and tax implications of paying this compensation to pension scheme members. Presumably, STM, SEB and other QROPS providers who had facilitated this fraud will be doing likewise.

While this is indeed welcome news for the thousands of pension savers whose lives were ruined by these failed investments, it does leave many unanswered questions:
- Why did the life offices such as Utmost give terms of business to the scammers in the first place?
- Why didn’t Utmost ensure the scammers disclosed the commissions on the insurance bonds and also on the investments?
- Why did Utmost allow retail investors’ money to be invested in professional-investor-only, high-risk investments?
- Will Utmost be paying compensation for all the other structured notes which were toxic and which failed?
Utmost’s answer to these questions would, obviously, be: “We didn’t give investment advice”. And this is the excuse they will make when they testify in the Isle of Man court – where Signature Litigation and Forsters are suing them and Friends Provident International for £400 million for this very crime.

Utmost and all the other life offices did not – indeed – give investment advice. However, they did act on the investment instructions (often forged) of unlicensed scammers – and reported on the resulting crippling losses for thousands of policyholders. Despite being fully aware of these losses, Utmost continued accepting investment instructions (often with forged investor signatures) for years – paying the same undisclosed commissions to the same scammers, with the same resulting losses.

In fact, Utmost International continues with this fraud to this very day. And now there is evidence that they are paying even higher undisclosed commissions to the very same scammers who have already ruined so many lives for well over a dozen years.

Utmost had not been the only life office involved in the Leonteq structured note scandal. Friends Provident International, Generali, Investors Trust, Julius Baer, RL360 and SEB had all been similarly culpable. But it looks like Utmost had been the only one to sue Leonteq for this fraud.

And let us be clear, undisclosed commission does constitute fraud – irrespective of whether it is committed by the scammers, Leonteq or Utmost International.

There had been many scammers involved in the receipt of the Leonteq extra (under-the-table) commissions. Known as “Chiringuitos Financieros” by the Spanish regulator, the CNMV, they included Finsbury Financial, Chase Buchanan, Square Mile (later known as Planet Pensions) and – of course – the notorious Continental Wealth Management in Spain.

Perhaps the biggest question which remains unanswered is why the regulator – the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority – has done nothing to sanction the likes of Quilter, Utmost, Friends Provident and RL360? The regulator’s Chair – Lillian Boyle – has been in place since 2015 so she must have known perfectly well how much fraud had been facilitated by the life offices.

Boyle had previously been the CEO, Director and Chair of Isle of Man international life companies and their overseas subsidiaries and branches. So she must have had intimate knowledge of how the secret-commission fraud worked. And yet she has stayed silent.

The IoM FSA’s Chief Executive is Bettina Roth. She has worked for the regulator in the Cayman Islands (that well-known jurisdiction for dodgy financial dealings – including the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund investment scam). And yet she too has stayed silent. Both Boyle and Roth must know that the Isle of Man is under the spotlight with nearly half a billion pounds’ worth of claims against the death offices for fraud (and a billion more in the pipeline).

The IoMFSA’s own website claims it is “responsible for protecting consumers, reducing financial crime and maintaining confidence in the financial services sector through strong prudential supervision”. And yet the very financial crime that Old Mutual and Utmost International have been committing for more than a dozen years – under the very nose of the regulator – is ignored.

It is indeed great news that Leonteq has paid up. But, did that payment include all the extra-commission paid on the toxic structured notes? And any interest, damages and compensation for the losses and the fraud? And what about the other structured note providers whose toxic products caused just as much (and sometimes more) damage to thousands of victims?

Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura and Commerzbank also listed their toxic products on Utmost Internationals’ investment platforms. A multitude of scammers (who had terms of business with the life offices) used these to ruin their low-risk, retail victims. Did any of these big financial institutions care that they were facilitating financial crime on a massive scale – and ruining thousands of lives?

With the IoM regulator silent, this massive international fraud continues to this day. The life offices are still paying the scammers huge undisclosed commissions for both the insurance bonds and the investments listed on their platforms. In fact, the bond commission can be as high as 9% – for a product that nobody needs and which only serves to facilitate fraud against the policyholders.

In 2018, Utmost International commissioned a report on the Leonteq structured note scam from https://www.futurevc.co.uk/ – a consultancy firm which specialised in structured products systems and research analytics. Their Managing Director, T. M. Mortimer, analysed a test sample of 100 notes and reported the below fees and commission figures:

Fee Level Number of Occurrences
Less than 6% 9
6% – 8% 4
8% – 12% 21
12% – 16% 26
16% – 20% 14
20% – 24% 12
24% – 28% 6
28% or more 8
100

Mortimer concluded: “In my view a total fee of 8% taken between Leonteq and its associates would be reasonable. This corresponds to the entries in the first two rows in the table.”

This means that only 13% were reasonably (i.e. viably) priced. The remaining 87% were vastly overpriced with extortionate commissions paid to the scammers.

The insurance bond scam continues to flourish in all the typical British expat destinations – from Spain and Portugal to Thailand and the Middle East. Life offices such as Utmost International and RL360 continue to fuel the global undisclosed commission fraud machine – with scammers posing as financial advisers and selling over-priced products rather than proper financial advice.

Leonteq is still doing a roaring trade – thanks to the offshore scammers and the life offices. The secret-commission fraud still flourishes unhindered. Utmost International and Friends Provident International are throwing millions at defending the Signature and Forsters actions brought by thousands of victims. The regulators remain silent.

Every day more victims are created. How many more victims need to be ruined before something is done to put a stop to this huge-scale offshore financial crime? Leonteq may have paid up – but now the life offices themselves (including Utmost International, RL360 and SEB) need to pay up too.
June 12, 2024
TOP 3 WORST LIFE OFFICES
For over a decade, life offices (more accurately known as “death” offices) have been the centre of millions of pounds’ worth of destroyed pensions. So here we are going to name the top 3 worst life offices…

These are just some of the things they’ve been up to:
- Collaborating with scammers: unregulated, rogue firms posing as “advisory” firms
- Giving terms of business to firms run by people with criminal records for embezzlement, fraud, theft and proceeds of crime (as well as murderers, drug dealers and prostitutes)
- Paying hidden commissions to unlicensed, unqualified advisers with a long track record of scamming
- Accepting obviously forged investment dealing instructions from the scammers
- Reporting on huge losses in pension portfolios without warning the victims not to use the scammers responsible any longer
- Continuing to charge disproportionate fees even after the loss of half or more of the pension. (There are, in fact, some victims whose entire portfolios have been destroyed – but the death offices keep on applying their charges long after there is nothing left)
- Offering high risk, toxic investments paying huge commissions to unqualified advisers and scammers on their investment platforms
- Failing to disclose the secret commissions paid to the scammers
- Failing to treat investors as “retail” or unsophisticated investors
- Failing to obtain confirmation from the victims that they understand the risks involved in both the insurance bonds and the toxic investments – which are only suitable for professional investors
In fact, much of what these death offices have been up to is outright fraud. The public needs to be warned. The existing victims are suffering terribly – dealing with poverty and extreme distress. Some of them are dying; some of them have died – killed by the death offices’ and the scammers they do business with.

The most important thing of all is to try to prevent further victims. But this is difficult because so many scammers are still aggressively selling their victims these toxic, unnecessary and expensive death bonds. Also known as “portfolio bonds”, “offshore bonds” and “wrappers”, these products pay the scammers huge commissions which are hidden from the victims.

So who are the three worst offenders:

David Kneeshaw

Number 3. Friends Provident International – based in the Isle of Man and run by David Kneeshaw – Executive Director and Group Chief Executive Officer. Kneeshaw also runs RL360 – another death office – which bought Friends Provident International a couple of years ago for a quarter of a billion pounds. Friends Provident International has a long history of investing its victims’ life savings and pensions in toxic, risky funds such as Axiom Legal Financing, LM Managed Performance, Premier New Earth, Premier Eco Resources, and Kijani . These investments were high risk and unregulated as well as only suitable for sophisticated or professional investors.

Paul Thompson

Number 2. Generali (now known as Utmost International) – based in Guernsey and with the head office in London. Utmost has terms of business with the worst of the scammers in the advisory community – paying the illegal, secret and abusive commissions and featuring the worst of the highest-risk investments (including structured notes with a risk to the investor of total loss). Run by Paul Thompson – who claims to have over 30 years of industry experience as an investment banker. Generali – or Utmost – has a track record even worse than Friends Provident International’s. The same secret commissions are paid to the same scammers – with the same result – crippling losses, poverty, misery – and even death for the victims.

Peter Kenny

Number 1. Old Mutual International (now known as Quilter International) – Based in the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland, this death office used to be run by Peter Kenny who was a former Isle of Man regulator. But being a former regulator didn’t stop Kenny from doing business with the worst of the unlicensed pension scammers and allowing them to forge signatures on investment dealing instructions. Being a former regulator didn’t stop Kenny from paying out millions in illegal commissions to the dross of the offshore financial services community – for illegally-sold death bonds and unregulated investments and structured notes. Quilter International was sold to Utmost International last year (2021) for nearly half a billion pounds. Because there’s money in misery; there are fortunes to be made out of trading with criminals; there are huge profits to be made out of contravening pretty much all of the EU regulations.

All of the worst three life/death offices are still doing a roaring trade. Business has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Europe is their biggest market – with many of their victims based in Spain, Italy, Germany and other expat countries.

International Adviser – the advertising and marketing rag for the death offices – reported last week that not only was business booming for the death offices, but was now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. In 2020 they wrote £58 billion worth of business. And in 2021 it was £68 billion.

But these huge numbers mean nothing to the victims who have lost their homes, their marriages, their retirement futures. Three quarters of a billion pounds may mean nothing to the likes of David Kneeshaw, Paul Thompson and Peter Kenny. Sometimes fifty grand can mean the difference between life and death for a victim of the death offices. With Friends Provident, Utmost and Quilter International likely to do £78 billion worth of business in 2023, there will be even more misery, destitution, and death for the victims. And the scammers will already be counting their future profits from the illegal commissions.
July 20, 2022
Fraud in Spain – Julius Baer

Spain is, sadly, the World’s capital of wealth scamming. For more than a decade, wealth planning has been perverted and converted into a commission-laden fraud. This financial crime has relieved thousands of victims of their pensions and life savings.

Originally a private Swiss bank, Julius Baer now wants to diversify into the Spanish wealth market. Hopefully, this is very good news. To date, Spain has been dominated by the dross of the commission churning machine. Some genuine, professional, qualified, fee-based financial advice in Spain would be welcome and also essential to clean up this crime-ridden territory.

Julius Baer has created a new team which includes Claudio Beretta and Claudia Linares. So just to give them a few friendly, helpful tips, here’s my message to them – which I hope they will accept in the spirit in which it is given.

If this newcomer to the Spanish market can bring proper fee-based financial advice to British expats in Spain, Julius Baer could change financial services the World over. The absurdly-stupid EU regulator: ESMA allows firms with only an insurance-mediation license to provide investment advice on portfolios held within insurance bonds. This, of course, facilitates most of the financial crime in Spain and the rest of Europe.

This widespread fraud – encouraged and handsomely rewarded by the death offices – oils the wheels of the illegal commission machine. These freely-spinning wheels result in herds of unqualified “advisers” (including drug addicts, convicted killers, prostitutes and fraudsters) conning thousands of victims out of their pensions.

Julius Baer proudly reports that it has created a new team, headed by Claudio Beretta and Claudia Linares, which includes Jorge Saavedra Doménech and Carlos Navarro Sabán.

This team is looking to provide services in the fields of wealth planning and wealth management. Julius Baer reports this constitutes;

“the overall Bank’s strategic conviction to further strengthen their presence in Western Europe and particularly in Spain.”

Hopefully, Julius Baer will avoid death offices and unlicensed spivs. And, even more essential to the fraud-saturated Spanish market, Julius Baer must make it clear there will be no secret or half-secret commissions involved – and concentrate purely on proper fee-based advice which is qualified and truly independent.

June 15, 2022
Pension Scams Explained – Stage 2

Our last blog in this series recreated the offshore pension scam process. We covered the set up and hard sell. The slick salesman prepared the unwitting victim and convinced him his pension would be better off out of the UK.

The silver-tongued spiv, Darren, posing as an adviser, conned his new client with no problem at all. The poor victim was duped into believing he should transfer his pension into a QROPS – an overseas pension scheme. The con worked because the experienced scammer pressed all the right buttons:

Your pension will be looked after better, it will be cheaper to manage, you’ll pay less tax, you won’t lose half of it when you die, you’ll get to choose your own pension investments!

Of course, the scammer, didn’t point out that once out of the UK, John’s pension would have no protection. Complete control of the money would be squandered will now lie in the hands of the unqualified, unlicensed scammers.

The victim, John had stressed:

I’ve paid tax all my life, so I feel I’ve paid my dues. I definitely don’t want to pay too much once I’m retired because every penny is going to count.

But sadly he’s played right into the scammer’s hands. His precious pension will be transferred into a QROPS and then into an insurance death bond:

John: I worked for thirty years to build up that pension and I don’t want anything to happen to it.

Darren: So, let’s look at all the ways you can improve your pension and make sure its protected.

But far, far from improving or protecting the investor’s pension, the scammer has removed the precious retirement fund from the safety of the UK. He’s sent it off to Malta or Gibraltar and then on to the Isle of Man or Guernsey. The money is now well beyond the protection of British regulation or compensation.

John had stressed how he wanted low risk, but has now signed dozens of forms – and this will guarantee that his pension will be exposed to high risk. Darren didn’t give him a chance to read or understand these long and complex forms. And the most important form of all was a blank investment dealing instruction. Once this has been signed by John, the scammer can copy it dozens of times and invest the pension money in whatever pays the highest commission.

The whole point of this scam is for the scammer to make money out of the victim by a whole series of hidden commissions.

Darren: My firm would charge you a small fee for setting up the transfer and then looking after your pension investments moving forwards.

But what will actually happen is that the scammer will openly charge three or four – or more – percent in set-up fees, plus one or two percent a year service charge. But, under the table, he will earn a further 7% hidden commission from the death office – such as Quilter International, Utmost International, RL360 or Friends Provident.

Darren: Right. And then we can start investing your pension and making it grow – so you’ll be able to have a happy and healthy retirement.

John, and all the other victims, will be a long way from being happy or healthy. Because the death office has a platform that the scammer will use to pick the highest-commission investments. So John’s pension fund will be used to line the scammer’s pockets for the next ten years – as he will be stuck in the death bond for that long.

Investments that pay the highest commissions – such as structured notes and unregulated collective investment schemes – are also the highest in terms of risk. John’s pension can now only lose money. And as the value of his hard-earned retirement savings goes down and down, the scammer’s commissions will keep on going up and up.

John, along with all the other victims, will end up losing part – or all – of his pension. He may well lose his home, see his marriage break up, develop depression or a life-threatening illness. He may even take his own life.

But John and his dire poverty will be long forgotten by the slick, silver-tongued scammer. He’ll be busy rubbing his hands with glee at his next batch of victims. Because there’s plenty of them and this form of pension fraud is showing no sign of slowing down any time soon.

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May 25, 2022
Pension Scams Explained
Every offshore pension scam starts with a “financial advisor”. Or, at least, a slick salesman posing as a financial adviser. This person can also call himself a “wealth consultant” or “senior associate”.

After the scammer pretending to be an adviser, the next player is the life office. More accurately described as a “death” office, this type of insurance company pollutes and corrupts financial services by ensuring three things:

Few so-called “financial advisers” offshore are truly independent. They are tied to – and dependent on – the life offices for fat, abusive and undeserved commissions.
There is virtually no such thing offshore as providing proper qualified advice – only selling products for commission. Products recommended to the victim are chosen because they pay the most commissions – rather than because they are in the investor’s interests.
The victim will be placed into a “death bond” – also known as a life bond, offshore bond, portfolio bond, insurance bond or wrapper. This toxic, high-risk, expensive and unnecessary product serves only one purpose: to pay a hidden commission to the so-called adviser.

Death bond providers (also known as “life” offices) have facilitated vast amounts of fraud for well over a decade. This has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of pensions and life savings across Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and beyond.

With the recent merging of RL360 and FPI, as well as Utmost and Quilter, this trend is set to increase.

The only way to protect consumers from being defrauded in the next decade is to educate them. The next raft of potential victims needs to be warned, informed, educated and prepared – so they too don’t fall victim to the death offices and their associates.

Here we recreate a typical exchange between a potential victim and a salesman posing as an adviser. Watch and learn; read and weep. This is what has already happened to thousands of expats. Don’t be the next victim conned by a fraudster and a death office.

Introducing Darren Blacklee-Smith of High Assets Wealth and John Carson – a builder who moved to sunny Spain to retire early.

Darren: Nice to meet you John. So, you want to move your frozen pension out of the UK as you now live in Spain?

John: Yes, I’ve been in Spain a few years now, with Brexit and everything, I’m not sure I should leave my pension where it is.

Darren: Very wise to look at your options. Your pension would probably be better off in a QROPS because it would be looked after better, would be cheaper to manage, you’d pay less tax, and you wouldn’t risk losing half of it when you die. Best of all, you’d get to choose your own pension investments!

DING! This is the first warning sign. The old “you’d pay less tax” trick… normally it’s the hook, line and sinker for this type of scam. Who doesn’t want to pay less tax after a lifetime of it? However, the so-called “lower tax charges” are nothing compared to the hidden commissions on the death bond and the toxic investments.

John: That all sounds like it would be better for me in the long run – and cheaper. So where would I move my pension to?

Darren: We’d recommend a QROPS in Malta as this is one of the best countries to move your pension to. It is a safe place for your pension to be looked after properly.

DING DING!! Malta was a prolific harbour for pension scams for a decade. It was a grey area, making it easy for scammers to make as much money as possible. The Malta regulator has tried to tighten up the regulations to prevent further scams, but the scammers always find a new loophole.

John: So how much would all this cost me?

Darren: My firm would charge you a small fee for setting up the transfer and then looking after your pension investments moving forwards.

DING DING DING!!! Oh how he makes it sound so simple! The fees that these advisors take are hefty. And they are not the only charges that will contribute to the destruction of the pension – because of the hidden commissions.

John: Sorry to ask this question, but how is your firm qualified or licensed, or whatever, to look after my pension investments?

Darren: Very important question to ask John – and I am more than happy to give you all the information you need to be comfortable that we are fully licensed.

DING DING DING DING!!!!You can look up any company or person’s license to verify if they’re actually registered or not. But most consumers don’t know how to do this.

John: Oh, I’m glad about that – I didn’t want to offend you, but you do hear stories don’t you…..

Darren: Absolutely. Now, we’re fully regulated and I’m fully qualified. It’s all on our website and here’s my business card and you can see all my qualifications.

John: I’m glad about that. I worked for thirty years to build up that pension and I don’t want anything to happen to it. The wife and I moved to Spain to have a comfortable retirement, and I need to make sure I’m making the right decision.

Darren: Absolutely. Definitely. So, let’s look at all the ways you can improve your pension and make sure its protected. The first question to ask is whether you want tax efficiency? You don’t want to pay too much tax do you?

John: I’ve paid tax all my life, so I feel I’ve paid my dues. I definitely don’t want to pay too much once I’m retired because every penny is going to count.

Darren: Well, that’s why we often recommend our clients should use a tax-efficient insurance bond, like Quilter. This is one of the World’s biggest insurance companies and this will not only protect your pension, but will also make sure you don’t pay too much tax.

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!! And this is the most dangerous part. Quilter will almost certainly be the death of your pension. A bond is not suitable for a pension. It is way too expensive and inflexible. And provides no tax advantages within a pension for someone living offshore.

John: That sounds great. So how do we go about this? How do we get the ball rolling, and what do you need me to do?

Darren: Right, I’ve got some forms for you to sign……we’ll need to get your pension transferred over to Malta, and then open up the insurance bond. And then we can start investing your pension and making it grow – so you’ll be able to have a happy and healthy retirement.

Darren: So, this is the transfer application, sign here…..

John: Ooh, not sure if I’ve got a pen…..

Darren: Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty!

This will complete the first stage in the pension scam process. It is a condensed version, as it can take weeks or months of email/phone exchanges. But the result is usually the same: Loss and destruction of the pension.

The scammer posing as an adviser hasn’t explained or revealed the charges and commissions. And he hasn’t told the victim how inflexible the bond is or how it provides no protection or tax savings in reality. And now the scammer has a signed, blank dealing instruction so he can proceed to invest the victim’s pension in high-risk, high-commission investments provided by the death office.
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March 30, 2022
Utmost Fraud approved by EU Commission

Utmost (formerly Generali) is proposing buying Quilter (formerly Old Mutual). The deal is due to be completed by December 2021. The agreed price is nearly half a billion pounds. It is reported that Margrethe Vestager, Vice President of the European Commission, has “approved” this acquisition.

Margrethe Vestager – EU Commissioner Executive Vice President

The “approval” by the European Commission of this deal is an insult to thousands of victims of pension and investment fraud. Widespread financial crime has been facilitated, encouraged and rewarded by Utmost and Quilter over the past decade. The appalling result has been the destruction of millions of pounds’ worth of life savings and pensions.

Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner Executive Vice President, has proved that the Commission hasn’t got a clue about Utmost’s and Quilter’s role in offshore financial services fraud. And this deal between these two death offices will create a monopoly over fraud against expats in Europe.

For death offices – such as Utmost and Quilter – fraud against expats is clearly a lucrative business with a huge market. The horrific damage – including distress, poverty and suicide – gives neither Utmost’s CEO Paul Thompson nor Quilter’s CEO Paul Feeney any cause for concern. Thompson has described the proposed acquisition as:

“highly attractive and in line with our growth strategy”.

But growing an industry based on fraud should neither be countenanced by the European Commission – nor the European Markets and Securities Authority.

Paul Feeney CEO of Quilter

Paul Thompson CEO of Utmost

Utmost Fraud approved by EU Commission

Utmost announced the planned takeover in April 2021. CEO Paul Thompson has bragged this would add £22 billion and 90,000 policies to its existing portfolio. This would give the Utmost/Quilter combo a total of £58 billion of funds. And much of this will have been acquired through fraud. It will also give them 600,000 “customers”. And many of these will have been victims of fraud – some of them currently on the verge of suicide.

The toxic assets and suicidal victims result from Utmost’s and Quilter’s long-standing practice of giving terms of business to unlicensed scammers. These death offices have paid huge, undeserved and undisclosed commissions to these scammers for more than a decade. And there is no sign that there is any intention to pay redress to the thousands of victims who have lost their life savings and pensions in death bonds.

The Commission’s approval of this iniquitous acquisition is a grave insult to Utmost’s and Quilter’s existing victims. It also puts thousands of British expats across Europe at risk of becoming future victims of the fraudsters to whom the death offices give terms of business.

There are three clear strands to the fraud with which both Utmost and Quilter are undeniably complicit:

1. The insurance bond – also known as a life, portfolio, or offshore bond. This is the core “product” routinely used and abused by the unethical sector of the offshore financial services market. This toxic sector – which includes many known scammers – sells products and not advice. Bonds can – under certain, limited circumstances – play a valid tax-mitigation role in the UK. But offshore, they serve zero purpose – other than to pay commissions to many unauthorised introducers and fraudsters posing as advisers. Insurance bonds should never be used with offshore pensions (QROPS) since the pension is already a tax “wrapper” in its own right.

2. The terms of the insurance bonds are clearly abusive to consumers as retail, inexperienced investors. The high charges are mostly for the purpose of clawing back the concealed commissions paid to the introducers (many of whom are unauthorised). Utmost and Quilter had known for years that large numbers of these introducers had no license to provide insurance mediation or investment advice. They had also known that these same introducers had long-established track records of mis-selling and fraud. And yet Utmost and Quilter continued to give them terms of business. They allowed them to invest thousands of victims’ pensions and life savings recklessly – and disastrously.

3. The toxic, illiquid, high-risk “investments” offered by the death offices. These products were offered on the death offices’ platforms for the scammers to sell to their victims. Investment products have included dozens of failed funds such as LM, Axiom, Premier New Earth, Quadris Forestry and Kijani. Worse still are the professional-investor-only structured notes supplied by Leonteq, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada and Nomura.

This toxic “triptych” has resulted in horrific losses for thousands of victims over the past ten years. And if this iniquitous acquisition goes ahead, there will be just as many – if not more – casualties in the next ten years. The EU Commission – along with ESMA – will be complicit.

Of course, I might be entirely wrong: Utmost’s half a billion might have been subject to a sequestration deal enforced by the Commission. Perhaps this money is going to be used to repay all the victims the hard-earned money they have lost? And any surplus used to prosecute the dozens of fraudsters to whom the death offices had given terms of business? (Sadly, I am not often wrong).

Death offices Utmost and Quilter (as well as FPI and RL360) have routinely given terms of business to known scammers and unlicensed salesmen posing as advisers since 2010. They have created a toxic industry of selling dodgy products – not professional financial advice. The result has been predictably awful. Victims have paid the price with poverty and misery in retirement. Utmost’s acquisition of Quilter is likely to result in a huge increase in this widespread crime.

The facts behind this perilous situation are irrefutable. Quilter itself is suing Leonteq for £200 million for just one series of high-risk structured notes. This was for an extra 2% hidden commission on top of the 6% hidden commission allowed by Quilter. Chief Executives Peter Kenny and Paul Feeney know that these toxic products should never have been promoted to retail, naive investors. Kenny and Feeney are fully aware that their unlicensed introducers will sell any toxic and high-commission crap to their victims.

John Ferguson (left) & David Vilka (right) of Square Mile International

In 2016, Quilter provided hundreds of these toxic Leonteq structured notes (with total concealed commissions of up to 14.57%) to distributors such as Satori, Mayfields and Morgan Capital. Quilter also sold these notes to known, serial scammers Square Mile International. In the same year, Utmost sold the same Leonteq notes with hidden commissions of over 12%.

Utmost Fraud approved by EU Commission

The EU Commission needs to understand why Utmost’s proposed acquisition should not go ahead. In their Introducer Terms of Business Agreement, Utmost opens with a false statement:

“Following completion of due diligence we are pleased to confirm your terms of business have been authorised on the following commission basis”.

But there is no due diligence. There are no checks on how the firms are licensed, or whether any of the staff or sub agents are qualified to provide insurance or investment advice. And certainly no acknowledgement that the commissions must be openly disclosed to the victims.

The starting point for the hidden commissions is that 140% of the victims’ portfolio will form the basis for the payment. A fact which is never disclosed to the victims.

The Utmost Introducer Agreement requests details of the applicant’s experience and qualifications, in addition to membership of professional bodies or trade associations. The application form also asks for confirmation of regulatory status in the markets where the firm operates. They also ask for details and proof of professional indemnity insurance. Therefore, Utmost acknowledges that these are essential factors for a legitimate introducer. They willingly enter into terms of business with many unlicensed, unqualified scammers. These scammers have no experience, qualifications, membership of professional bodies or trade associations, and no essential regulatory status. They also have no professional indemnity insurance.

In 2014, Utmost accepted one bond application from a victim resident in Spain. Her “adviser” (introducer) had no license to provide either insurance mediation or investment advice anywhere in Europe. And yet Utmost gave this firm complete freedom to invest the victim’s funds – accepting 19 separate investment dealing instructions (mostly with forged client signatures) totalling 529,251.80 Euros. All of the investments were professional-investor-only, high-risk structured notes provided by Leonteq, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada and Nomura. Between 2014 and 2018, Utmost and the scammer between them destroyed over 75% of the victim’s fund. The destruction was caused by repeated structured note failures and the inexorable high charges by Utmost. When the victim finally took out what little was left, Utmost charged her a hefty early-exit penalty. There was no recognition of the horrific destruction Utmost had facilitated.

Criminal proceedings against this, and other associated firms, are now in progress in Spain. However, the main lead complainant – also an Utmost victim who lost most of his portfolio – has recently died. Much of his life savings and pension – which started out at three quarters of a million pounds – were destroyed by Utmost and the scammer. The causes of the losses were not only the toxic structured notes but also some unregulated, professional-investor-only funds such as the Quadris Brazilian Teak Forestry Fund. The deceased victim’s disabled widow is now facing poverty on top of bereavement.

Of course, Quilter has performed just as atrociously as Utmost over the past decade. Thousands of Quilter’s victims are facing similar poverty and suffering at the hands of the same scammers. This fraud is facilitated and rewarded by hidden commissions and the freedom to invest portfolios without the victims’ knowledge, using forged client signatures. With similar callousness, Quilter has allowed the flotsam and jetsam of the offshore cowboys to commit the exact same type of fraud as Utmost has.

One such scammer – with Quilter terms of business – boasts that his qualification to work in financial services is working as a bar manager and managing a successful sales company:

https://pennickblackwell.com/pennick-blackwell-team/

Kristoffer Taft of Pennick Blackwell

(formerly an agent of AES International and now an agent of Abbey Wealth)

If I am wrong, and the Commission has already made arrangements to freeze Utmost’s half a billion pounds, then I apologise unreservedly for doubting you. But if I am right, then the European Commission is just as bad as the death offices and the scammers.

August 17, 2021
International Adviser Awards
International Adviser Awards create buzz around Quilter’s, FPI’s and RL360’s facilitation of investment fraud and scams.

I am deeply flattered that International Adviser has invited me to enter for this year’s “Best Practice Adviser Awards”. The invitation was sitting – sparkling like a princess – in my inbox this morning. So, how could I refuse?

Pension Life is not, of course, an advisory firm. But I am sure International Adviser can think of a separate category for a firm which works towards bringing rogue “advisers” (in reality commission-hungry salesmen) and death bond providers to justice for the many scams they carry out and facilitate.

International Adviser’s awards are, apparently, “designed to recognise financial advisers within the industry that are beacons of excellence in promoting best practice”.

No doubt this also means acknowledging those which are beacons of fraud. Until the “chiringuitos” of the financial services world are shut down and jailed, best practice will always be held back.

Spain certainly leads the field internationally (which isn’t exactly difficult) when it comes to warning about the very types of scammers which have traditionally had terms of business with Quilter, FPI, RL360, SEB and Generali: the “death bond salesmen” who have destroyed millions of pounds’ worth of pensions and life savings.

International Adviser gives four reasons for entering the Best Practice Adviser Awards 2020 competition:
1. Highlight the success of teams within your business
2. Promote the key strengths that set your firm apart from the rest
3. Gain recognition within your industry for excellence in best practice
4. Use the winner’s logo
As International Adviser informs me that the total value of this “amazing” package is over £10k, I thought I would give it a go – what have I got to lose?! Here are my responses to the above four points:
1. The teams within my business have got eight scammers in court on criminal charges of fraud and forgery. These scammers were illegally selling Quilter (OMI/Skandia) insurance bonds – as well as SEB and Generali. Plus we’ve got nearly thirty more lined up ready for the criminal and civil courts in multiple jurisdictions in Europe and the UK. All these scammers were putting cautious investors into high-risk, toxic investments offered by the insurance companies.
2. Promoting strengths that set Pension Life apart from “the rest” is slightly tricky because the only other firm that I know of which does anything similar is Niall Coburn’s firm – Coburn Corporate Intelligence. As published by International Adviser on 2.6.2020, Coburn is using Daniel Spendlove of law firm Signature Litigation to sue Quilter (aka Skandia, OMI, TitsRUs) and FPI (now owned by RL360) for millions of pounds’ worth of investment losses caused to thousands of investors.
3. Gaining recognition for excellence will, of course, be very welcome – especially when a bunch of chiringuitos and overpaid executives at the death offices are behind bars.
4. I’m already experimenting with how my letterhead will look with the winner’s logo on it. I think the 30-second video will definitely feature Peter Kenny and David Kneesup in orange suits, and the daily bulletins will advertise the banning of commission-laden insurance bonds.
I assume my only competition will be the surfing, polo-playing Coburn who describes himself as “being committed to lending his critical thinking and expertise to complex regulatory, compliance and due diligence matters”.

Coburn advertises himself as being B.A. LL.B, LL.M, Dip. Bus. Admin. I assume part of the above means he can swim and drive a bus. No doubt Signature Litigation find those qualities helpful.

Even if I don’t win International Adviser’s prestigious award, I am hoping my entry will foster a warm and fuzzy friendship with International Adviser Editor Kirsten Hastings. Ideally, she and I can sit together at the trial of Quilter International/FPI/RL360. We can talk girlie stuff and I can teach her how to write shorthand during the boring bits.

Not entirely sure where the trial will be held, but it had better be a venue as big as Wembley Stadium to accommodate the inevitable large crowd which will want to attend. This will include thousands of victims of Quilter International, FPI International and RL360. Many of these victims have lost their life savings, so they will no doubt want to be present to see the likes of Peter Kenny, Steve Braudo, Paul Feeney, Steve Weston and David Kneesup brought to justice.

I predict that the death offices will try to hang the chiringuitos out to dry and blame the failed investments on their “inappropriate advice”. This is another reason why the courtroom will need to be big enough to accommodate a huge number of people: scammers from across the globe will need to be wheeled in to testify. The death offices will claim that all they did was make the bombs; it was the scammers who hurled them into the crowds of victims.

The court may want to ask the death offices why on earth they gave terms of business to so many unqualified, unlicensed spivs.

Any sober judge will struggle to understand why Quilter, FPI and RL360 accepted so many dealing instructions from barely literate con men (and women) – including a convicted murderer, several psychopaths, a long line of coke-snorting confidence tricksters/forgers, an alcoholic bar manager, several well-known serial scammers (including Stephen Ward) and a prostitute.

Even if Pension Life doesn’t win the coveted International Adviser award, I guess we’re likely to come second in our category. I wonder what the prize will be – lunch with Peter Kenny perhaps?
August 20, 2020
RL360 and FPI – ’til death (or poverty) do us part
RL360’s acquisition of Friends Provident International may be set to ruin even more investors internationally. It will certainly increase competition with Quilter (or Skandia, or Ann Summers or whatever OMI are calling themselves this season).

The biggest question – and one which International Adviser’s Kirsten Hastings forgot to ask RL360 David Kneeshaw when she interviewed him on 16.7.2020 – is:

Why on earth RL360 wanted to buy a company which is being sued for £millions after thousands of FPI victims lost their life savings in a high-risk fund mis-selling scandal?

During the International Adviser 12-minute video, Kirsten never brought the subject up once. Forgetfulness? Deliberately avoiding the issue? FPI is being sued alongside Quilter – main sponsor of International Adviser.

Kneeshaw seemed like an amiable fellow in the interview as he proudly announced that “all good things come to those who wait” (a sentiment with which thousands of death bond investors would strongly disagree). Kneesup also proclaimed that he is glad to be able to integrate the businesses and that the marriage has produced a “good, strong, stable company”.

But the question hung in the air like a fart in an elevator: what about the £100m+ worth of high-risk funds which were “entirely inappropriate for unsophisticated investors” (International Adviser’s words – not mine). And why didn’t Kirsten mention it? And why didn’t Kneesup explain what provision he has made to compensate thousands of FPI’s victims?

Kneesup confirmed that RL360 paid £259 million for FPI (£209 million in cash and £50 million in deferred cash). So has he kept back another hundred million or so to settle FPI’s liabilities to its victims who have lost their life savings?

Victims staring financial ruin in the face will want to know why RL360 didn’t just pay – say – £159 million for FPI and keep back £100 million for the victims. Or perhaps the £50 million in “deferred cash” is being put aside for that?

Or maybe, FPI should have paid RL360 to take the company away and sort out the toxic and destructive mess which has ruined thousands of policy holders.

Kneesup went on to proclaim that the future of FPI “is secure and can carry on as normal”. Well, I bloody well hope not! “Normal” has been an absolute disaster which has resulted in a catastrophe of epic proportions. FPI was giving terms of business to hordes of unlicensed, unscrupulous, unqualified “advisers” (in reality, just bond salesmen).

These “Chiringuitos” (as the Spanish regulator refers to them in their warning about financial scams) have destroyed £ millions in their relentless quest for commission.

The deeply iniquitous practices – so enthusiastically facilitated by life offices – included charging victims fees, plus an 8% commission on the (entirely unnecessary) insurance bonds, plus further commissions on the toxic investments offered by the life offices.

Another “hot” topic that Kneesup failed to mention was how the RL360/FPI “marriage” intends to compete with Quilter in the “race to the bottom” of offshore financial services. Of course, it won’t exactly be difficult since Peter Kenny – CEO of Quilter/Ann Summers – will deal with any old “advisers”. Kenny certainly isn’t fussy: the sole director of one of his leading “clients” from 2010 to 2017 was a former prostitute and porn star (whose firm destroyed much of the £100m placed in insurance bonds and invested in structured notes).

However, I really do like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Assuming that Kneesup does have at least a few honourable intentions, here are some friendly suggestions as to how the RL360/FPI marriage could help clean up this toxic “death bond” industry:
- Don’t deal with advisory firms which don’t have a license
- Don’t deal with advisory firms which don’t have an investment license
- Don’t deal with advisory firms whose “advisers” aren’t qualified
- Don’t deal with advisory firms who have a history of investing their victims’ life savings and pensions in toxic crap (high-risk, professional-investor-only funds and structured notes)
- Don’t pay commissions – if the insurance bonds are any good, and the clients genuinely need them, the products will sell themselves
- Don’t tie investors in for fixed terms – give them the flexibility to get out whenever they want or need to
- Don’t offer investments – the industry has shown it is incapable of performing asset reviews and weeding out toxic rubbish
- Keep the fees in proportion to the fund value – allow flexibility/drawdown without unnecessary “drag” on the funds
- Only allow advisers to sell insurance bonds when they are actually needed (which is hardly ever)
But the biggest friendly suggestion of all to the amiable Mr. Kneesup with the fringe on top is:

Address the elephant in the room: pay compensation to the thousands of FPI and RL360 victims who have lost their life savings and are facing financial ruin.

In his euphoria at the completion of the acquisition of FPI, Kneesup must remember that the insurance bond is the World’s biggest cause of offshore financial crime. Insurance bonds have been ruled by the Spanish Supreme Court as being invalid for the purpose of holding investments. Virtually all insurance bonds ever sold in Spain have been done so illegally – it is a criminal offence to sell insurance bonds outside the precise stipulations of the Spanish insurance regulations in Spain.

I really hope that the elephant in the room will be dealt with. David Kneeshaw has a golden opportunity to help reform the offshore financial services industry. He can emerge from the appalling news of this marriage made in hell as a hero in shining armour – or just another sordid perpetrator of scams and financial crime. He can put Quilter’s Peter Kenny to shame, or become just as bad as him. The World will be watching. Let us hope Kneeshaw chooses wisely – and becomes “Kneesup” rather than “Kneesdown”.

A number of “advisory” firms are now facing criminal proceedings for fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documentation – all of which involved the illegal sale of Quilter, RL360 or FPI insurance bonds. Kneeshaw now has a choice: help tackle this widespread crime, or keep on facilitating it.
July 21, 2020
Generali – jumping ship to avoid new regulations?

The mis-selling of life assurance policies and long-term savings plans has been a regular topic in our blogs. Many victims of pension scams see their funds mis-invested into life assurance policies. These life assurance policies do little more than drain the fund value with their expensive fees and costs.

Generali has for years been aggressively peddling these toxic products. Interestingly, they have just pulled their contractual savings plans – Vision and Choice – from the UAE market. Interesting and attractive names for profoundly ugly, expensive and destructive products.

We have to wonder if all the negative press surrounding Generali’s life assurance bonds has anything to do with it? Since 2016 there has been a huge rise in complaints surrounding the mis-selling of these products. With huge, concealed start-up costs, the funds rarely ever reach their original investment amount, let alone make a gain.

Furthermore, there has been a third push on regulations to improve how savings, investment and life insurance policies are sold. AND the Spanish insurance regulator (DGS) just confirmed that all such products sold in Spain have been done so illegally But Mr Vitiello of Generali claimed their decision to stop selling the Vision and Choice products in the Emirates was not linked to the new regulations. REALLY?!?!

Reported by The National. ae, Generali’s Marco Vitiello stated:

“We will not be accepting any new business applications for our current unit-linked saving products,” said Vitiello – General Manager of Generali’s Dubai branch. “There will be no impact at all to existing clients and contracts. They will continue to be serviced in the same manner as before.” In other words, they will just keep on losing money, being tied in for an unacceptable length of time and paying extortionate charges.

This is not the only big change Generali has made this month. The National.ae also reported that:

“Generali’s decision to stop distributing its contractual savings plans in the UAE came less than a week after the company sold its entire shareholding in its unit, Generali Worldwide Insurance, to the Guernsey-based Utmost Group”

We wrote about the proposed merger between Generali and Utmost Group back in August 2018.

The Utmost Group now has over £33bn in assets under administration and over 240,000 customers. We can only hope that customers of The Utmost Group will not become victims of mis-sold life assurance policies like the ones of Generali.

Generali was one of the culprits involved in the huge Continental Wealth Management pension scam, which saw as many as 1,000 victims, invested into high-risk, toxic, professional-investor-only structured notes.

Whilst the bulk of the victims were placed into OMI bonds, at least 25 (but probably nearer 100) of the victims were placed into Generali bonds by the scammers. The sum total of 25 pension funds invested into these toxic insurance bonds was a whopping £6,314,672. The losses on this amount are calculated to be approximately £3,604,528.

One victim invested £793,612 and has just £62,703 left! Losing a massive £730,909.

Another victim invested £142,626 and has lost £90,618! Leaving him with a fund of just £52,028.

Please note these figures are correct as at 2017/2018, so today’s value is now even lower. Despite the funds’ huge decrease in value, Generali continues to take their fees (based on the original amount deposited – not the current depleted value). Therefore, these amounts will continue to fall AND despite the massive loses be locked in for a fixed term.

It is, of course, a relief to know that they have decided to stop peddling these toxic, inappropriate bonds to victims. But we can’t help wondering why Generali have suddenly done this and really feel for those already caught up in these bogus “life” policies. Seems to us Generali are jumping ship to avoid the new regulations. With sudden revelations that maybe they should have checked all the details just a little bit more – and declined to take business from unregulated scammers.

As Generali are busy making changes and sales, we can only hope that compensating the victims of the CWM scam is on their to-do list. As they have sold their entire shareholdings, you might think that an honest firm would want to make right the wrongs they have done.

Not only did Generali allow these 25 victims to be put into wholly inappropriate funds and high-risk structured notes, but these investment instructions were also accepted from unregulated advisers. The scammers were paid high commissions by Generali and there is no sign of any remorse for the huge losses suffered by the victims.

What we do know is that victims are now preparing their complaints against Generali and CWM. The DGS has found that there is no doubt that the regulations of sale surrounding these products were breached by Generali.

Generali are not the only life office guilty of financial crimes: Old Mutual International and SEB were even worse – facilitating losses on a massive scale in the Continental Wealth Management case. OMI bought £94,000,000 worth of ultra-high-risk structured notes for retail investors – resulting in huge losses. Old Mutual was also heavily involved in more than £1,000,000,000 worth of losses in the Axiom, LM and Premier investment scams.

Seems it is no accident that “Generali” is an anagram of “Liar Gene”.

.

March 13, 2019
Time for all pension providers to wake up and stop pension scams

The recent PSIG (Pension Scams Industry Group) Scams Survey Pilot 2018 has identified seven “key” findings in their survey. As scam watchers, we are well aware of these points and are, of course, glad they have been highlighted.

PSIG’s key finding are set out below. So let us admit one key fact:

ALL PENSION SCAMS START WITH A TRANSFER BY A CEDING PENSION PROVIDER.

It is interesting that PSIG chose three particular providers to give their answers to the questionnaire sent out: XPS Pensions Group, Phoenix Life Assurance Company and Standard Life Assurance Company. I have no doubt they chose these three providers because of their extensive first-hand expertise at facilitating financial crime. In the Capita Oak and Westminster scams – distributed and administered by serial scammers XXXX and Stephen Ward – and now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office – Phoenix Life and Standard Life handed over dozens of pensions to the scammers. In Phoenix Life’s case, the total came to nearly half a million pounds’ worth, and in Standard Life’s case it was well over one million.

While there is, of course, substantial hard evidence that both the Pensions Regulator (formerly OPRA) and HMRC had been giving the industry plenty of warnings about scams long before the Scorpion Campaign was published on Valentine’s Day in 2013, it is also true that providers such as Phoenix Life, Standard Life – and other favourite financial crime facilitators such as Aegon, Friends Life, Legal & General, Prudential, Royal London, Scottish Life and Scottish Widows – carried on handing over millions to the scammers well into 2014, 2015 and beyond. And, in fact, they are still at it today.

The “Key Findings” do throw up some interesting facts:

“Information on scams is not readily available at an organisational level”.

Seriously? Don’t these organisations know how to do research? Do they really not know what to look for? They’ve had enough experience over the years – and have had enough examples of spending vast amounts of time trying to cook up reasons to deny complaints against their incompetence for handing over pensions to scammers – to write a whole encyclopedia about scams.

Organisations (such as Phoenix Life and Standard Life) could try talking to TPAS, or tPR, or the FCA, or the SFO, or Dalriada Trustees, or regulators in Malta, the IoM, Gibraltar, Dubai or Hong Kong. Or some of the thousands of victims – who have lost their pensions due to the incompetence and callousness of the ceding providers – who would readily fill in the blanks. There really is no shortage of readily-available, free information. They just need to take the time and trouble to ask for it. It really isn’t difficult. They just have to put their box-ticking pencils down for a few minutes.

“The Scams Code is seen as a good basis for due diligence”

I agree – it is really great. But it is also 78 pages long. Few people have to the time to read, understand or remember such long documents (with too many long words and not enough pictures). What would be helpful would be to get a few of the worst offenders: Aegon, Aviva, Friends Life, Legal & General, Phoenix, Prudential, Royal London, Scottish Life, Scottish Widows, Standard Life and Zurich, in a room at the same time – and bang their heads together. And threaten them that if they don’t get their acts together and stop handing over pensions to the scammers, they will be made to read and memorise the 78-page Scams Code and recite it every morning before coffee break. Twice. Then snap all their box-ticking pencils in half, and JOB DONE! It really isn’t rocket science – there are usually some hints which are as subtle as a brick, such as: the sponsoring employer doesn’t exist; or the member lives in Scunthorpe and is transferring to a scheme whose sponsoring employer is based in Cyprus. Or Hong Kong. Now, I know there was a bit of a hiccup with the Royal London v Hughes case when Justice Morgan overturned the Ombudsman’s determination. But dear old Hughes had probably had a few Babychams too many – and it had slipped his mind that the law is supposed to be about justice and common sense. And that just because a particular piece of legislation has been written by an ass, it doesn’t have to be interpreted with stupidity.

“Significant time and effort goes into protecting members from scams”

This, of course, may be true. I only get to see the cases where the negligent ceding providers do hand over the pensions to the scammers. I rarely get to see the ones that have a narrow escape. But what worries me is that I am in the process of making complaints to the ceding providers who have handed over pensions to the scammers, and not a single one of them thinks they have done anything wrong. So, if they do spend “significant time and effort” doing the protecting bit, how come so many of them still fail so badly? And then try to deny they failed. These providers spend very significant amounts of time and effort writing long, boring letters about how they did nothing wrong – letters which must have taken them at least an hour to write. And yet they won’t spent two minutes checking – and stopping – transfers to obvious scams.

“The more detailed the due diligence, the more suspicious traits are identified”

I am a bit suspicious that this indicates a touch of porky pies here. I’ve never seen any evidence of ANY due diligence by the ceding providers. A bloke at Aviva once told me that they spent thousands on research and due diligence – but I see no evidence of it. The problem is, the ceding providers don’t know what they don’t know. And, to coin one of my favourite phrases: “they don’t know the questions to ask, and even if they did then they wouldn’t understand the answers”.

Interestingly, if – instead of repeatedly spending hours denying they did anything wrong when they handed over millions of pounds’ worth of pensions to the scammers – they spent some time talking to me and the victims trying to learn what went wrong and what due diligence should have gone into preventing a dodgy transfer, they might learn how to stop failing so badly.

SIPPS (including international SIPPS) are the vehicle of choice by scammers

Agreed. But the scammers still love the good old QROPS. But whether it is a SIPPS or a QROPS – both of which are just “wrappers” at the end of the day, it is about what goes inside the wrappers. Where the scammers make their money is in the kickbacks: 8% on the pointless, expensive insurance bond from OMI, SEB, Generali, RL360, Friends Provident etc., and then more fat commissions on the expensive funds or structured notes.

“Quality of adviser tops the list of practitioner concerns, with member awareness a close second”

And hereby lies one of the main problems: ceding providers don’t know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. And that is because they don’t ask. And they don’t learn from their mistakes when they get it wrong. And they don’t care when they hand the pensions over to the bad guys and their former member is now financially ruined and contemplating suicide. Instead of trying to use their appalling mistakes to improve their performance and understand what “quality” actually means, and how to tell the difference between good and bad quality, they only care about avoiding responsibility for their own failings.

The problem about “member awareness” is that most people assume their ceding provider will do some sort of due diligence. They think that words like “Phoenix Life”, “Prudential” and “Standard Life” convey some sort of professionalism or duty of care. Most members are simply unaware of the appalling track record of these providers – and the extraordinary and exhaustive lengths to which they will go to avoid being brought to justice for their negligence and laziness.

“Sharing of intelligence would help avoid duplication of effort”

Oh, how heartily I agree! I remember a year or so ago, I shared some intelligence and a few beers with a nice chap from Scottish Widows. We met at one of Andy Agathangelou’s symposiums in London – the subject of which was pension scams. The Pensions Regulator was there, Dalriada Trustees were there, Pension Bee were there, lots of interested parties were there (including an American insurer from Singapore), and a couple of victims. I gave a joint presentation with one of the victims who described how he had been scammed and how his provider had handed over his pension so easily – well after the Scorpion watershed. The nice chap from Scottish Widows asked the victim why he hadn’t called the Police. The victim replied: “I am the Police”.

It was very telling that the room wasn’t full of delegates from Aviva, Phoenix Life, Prudential, Standard Life etc. None of them were interested.

Not a single provider has ever phoned me up to ask for advice, or to arrange to speak to some victims to learn something about how they were scammed and how and why their ceding providers had failed them so badly. There are so many victims all over the UK and the rest of the world. And what they all share is a passion to try to prevent other people from being scammed by the bad guys and failed by the bad pension providers. So this invaluable intelligence is freely available.

Until and unless the providers develop a conscience, they are going to continue to fuel the pension scam industry – and nothing will change. And the 79-page code might just as well be consigned to the bathrooms of Aegon, Aviva, Friends Life, Legal & General, Phoenix, Prudential, Royal London, Scottish Life, Scottish Widows, Standard Life and Zurich.

February 28, 2019

Fee Level	Number of Occurrences

Less than 6%	9
6% – 8%	4
8% – 12%	21
12% – 16%	26
16% – 20%	14
20% – 24%	12
24% – 28%	6
28% or more	8
	100

Tag: RL360

Gary Robinson, also MD of Money Map Media, pictured above promoting Nigel Green of DeVere, claims:

Five years later, the 2025 IA awards not only target the death offices but also the rogue jurisdictions which act as enthusiastic incubators for so much international financial crime. IA Nominations for International Financial Centre of the Year include:

These Malta-based pension providers open the gateway to the death offices in the Isle of Man – who host the high-risk investments and facilitate the illegal commissions. The Asset Review Team at Quilter International had reported concerns about this a decade ago:

“Commerzbank and Leonteq structured products appear to be risky and not good value due to relatively high commissions.”

The Asset Review Team also described the undisclosed commission arrangement operated by Nigel Green’s DeVere:

WHICH IS WORSE? THE POST OFFICE SCANDAL OR THE LIFE OFFICE SCANDAL?

And let us be clear, undisclosed commission does constitute fraud – irrespective of whether it is committed by the scammers, Leonteq or Utmost International.

These are just some of the things they’ve been up to:

So who are the three worst offenders:

All of the worst three life/death offices are still doing a roaring trade. Business has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Europe is their biggest market – with many of their victims based in Spain, Italy, Germany and other expat countries.

Julius Baer has created a new team which includes Claudio Beretta and Claudia Linares. So just to give them a few friendly, helpful tips, here’s my message to them – which I hope they will accept in the spirit in which it is given.

Of course, the scammer, didn’t point out that once out of the UK, John’s pension would have no protection. Complete control of the money would be squandered will now lie in the hands of the unqualified, unlicensed scammers.

But sadly he’s played right into the scammer’s hands. His precious pension will be transferred into a QROPS and then into an insurance death bond:

The whole point of this scam is for the scammer to make money out of the victim by a whole series of hidden commissions.

But John and his dire poverty will be long forgotten by the slick, silver-tongued scammer. He’ll be busy rubbing his hands with glee at his next batch of victims. Because there’s plenty of them and this form of pension fraud is showing no sign of slowing down any time soon.

Share to help prevent pension scams!

With the recent merging of RL360 and FPI, as well as Utmost and Quilter, this trend is set to increase.

Here we recreate a typical exchange between a potential victim and a salesman posing as an adviser. Watch and learn; read and weep. This is what has already happened to thousands of expats. Don’t be the next victim conned by a fraudster and a death office.

DING DING!! Malta was a prolific harbour for pension scams for a decade. It was a grey area, making it easy for scammers to make as much money as possible. The Malta regulator has tried to tighten up the regulations to prevent further scams, but the scammers always find a new loophole.

DING DING DING!!! Oh how he makes it sound so simple! The fees that these advisors take are hefty. And they are not the only charges that will contribute to the destruction of the pension – because of the hidden commissions.

DING DING DING DING!!!!You can look up any company or person’s license to verify if they’re actually registered or not. But most consumers don’t know how to do this.

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!! And this is the most dangerous part. Quilter will almost certainly be the death of your pension. A bond is not suitable for a pension. It is way too expensive and inflexible. And provides no tax advantages within a pension for someone living offshore.

This will complete the first stage in the pension scam process. It is a condensed version, as it can take weeks or months of email/phone exchanges. But the result is usually the same: Loss and destruction of the pension.

Share to help prevent pension scams!

Utmost (formerly Generali) is proposing buying Quilter (formerly Old Mutual). The deal is due to be completed by December 2021. The agreed price is nearly half a billion pounds. It is reported that Margrethe Vestager, Vice President of the European Commission, has “approved” this acquisition.

But growing an industry based on fraud should neither be countenanced by the European Commission – nor the European Markets and Securities Authority.

Utmost Fraud approved by EU Commission

The Commission’s approval of this iniquitous acquisition is a grave insult to Utmost’s and Quilter’s existing victims. It also puts thousands of British expats across Europe at risk of becoming future victims of the fraudsters to whom the death offices give terms of business.

There are three clear strands to the fraud with which both Utmost and Quilter are undeniably complicit:

This toxic “triptych” has resulted in horrific losses for thousands of victims over the past ten years. And if this iniquitous acquisition goes ahead, there will be just as many – if not more – casualties in the next ten years. The EU Commission – along with ESMA – will be complicit.

Utmost Fraud approved by EU Commission

“Following completion of due diligence we are pleased to confirm your terms of business have been authorised on the following commission basis”.

The starting point for the hidden commissions is that 140% of the victims’ portfolio will form the basis for the payment. A fact which is never disclosed to the victims.

If I am wrong, and the Commission has already made arrangements to freeze Utmost’s half a billion pounds, then I apologise unreservedly for doubting you. But if I am right, then the European Commission is just as bad as the death offices and the scammers.

International Adviser Awards create buzz around Quilter’s, FPI’s and RL360’s facilitation of investment fraud and scams.

No doubt this also means acknowledging those which are beacons of fraud. Until the “chiringuitos” of the financial services world are shut down and jailed, best practice will always be held back.

International Adviser gives four reasons for entering the Best Practice Adviser Awards 2020 competition:

Coburn advertises himself as being B.A. LL.B, LL.M, Dip. Bus. Admin. I assume part of the above means he can swim and drive a bus. No doubt Signature Litigation find those qualities helpful.

The court may want to ask the death offices why on earth they gave terms of business to so many unqualified, unlicensed spivs.

Why on earth RL360 wanted to buy a company which is being sued for £millions after thousands of FPI victims lost their life savings in a high-risk fund mis-selling scandal?

Or maybe, FPI should have paid RL360 to take the company away and sort out the toxic and destructive mess which has ruined thousands of policy holders.

These “Chiringuitos” (as the Spanish regulator refers to them in their warning about financial scams) have destroyed £ millions in their relentless quest for commission.

Address the elephant in the room: pay compensation to the thousands of FPI and RL360 victims who have lost their life savings and are facing financial ruin.

One victim invested £793,612 and has just £62,703 left! Losing a massive £730,909.

Another victim invested £142,626 and has lost £90,618! Leaving him with a fund of just £52,028.

Seems it is no accident that “Generali” is an anagram of “Liar Gene”.

ALL PENSION SCAMS START WITH A TRANSFER BY A CEDING PENSION PROVIDER.

“Information on scams is not readily available at an organisational level”.

“The Scams Code is seen as a good basis for due diligence”

“Significant time and effort goes into protecting members from scams”

“The more detailed the due diligence, the more suspicious traits are identified”

SIPPS (including international SIPPS) are the vehicle of choice by scammers

“Quality of adviser tops the list of practitioner concerns, with member awareness a close second”

“Sharing of intelligence would help avoid duplication of effort”