Tag: Square Mile International Financial Services

  • PLANET PENSIONS S.R.O. – HELL ON EARTH FOR PENSION SCAM VICTIMS

    PLANET PENSIONS S.R.O. – HELL ON EARTH FOR PENSION SCAM VICTIMS

    Since 2013, thousands of clients of Planet Pensions – previously known as Aktiva Wealth Management and Square Mile International Financial Services – have been scammed out of their pensions.

    John Ferguson and David Vilka of Planet Pensions (Square Mile/Aktiva) advised UK residents to transfer their pensions into QROPS including:

    • GFS SCHEME 2 SUPERANNUATION SCHEME 2 (HONG KONG)
    • QUARTERMAINE (HONG KONG)
    • EFPG (GIBRALTAR)
    • OPTIMUS (MALTA)
    • KRESTON (ISLE OF MAN)
    • HARBOUR PENSIONS (MALTA)
    • PANTHEON (GIBRALTAR)
    • CORINTHIAN (GIBRALTAR)

    The clients were conned into these transfers on the basis that it would be in the interests of making their pensions perform better. It was also claimed that the clients would pay less tax. None of the promises, assurances and advice was true:

    LIES TOLD TO VICTIMS BY PLANET PENSIONSTHE TRUTH
    “A QROPS falls outside the Lifetime Allowance rules for UK pension schemes.  If your pension grows to above 1.25m you will suffer a 55 percent extra tax charge”

    		Most of Planet Pensions’ victims had pensions which were below £50k in value and were never likely to reach anywhere near £1.25m in value – so this would never apply.
    “At age 55 you will be able to access a cash lump sum”Had the victims left their pensions in the UK, they’d have accessed the 25% tax-free lump at age 55
    “The QROPS is of course approved by HMRC”HMRC never “approves” any QROPS schemes. They register them – there is no approval.
    “Your pension will be invested in funds which are not traditionally available in the UK, giving you access to a broad range of asset classes”There is a good reason why risky, unregulated assets are not available in the UK – it is illegal to promote them to retail investors. Victims would be likely to lose their pensions (which is exactly what happened)
    “With a wide range of high growth asset classes utilised, the high performance funds chosen by our investment team are ideally suited to your pension investment”None of the high-risk/high-commission assets were suitable for pension investments – and they all failed (destroying thousands of victims’ pensions)
    “The investment enables you to invest in investment funds which will contain a carefully managed risk assessed portfolio”There was nothing to “manage” – once the pension money was invested in the assets, the money was trapped and would inevitably be lost
    “A QROPS allows a wider choice of investments, which gives you the potential to grow the fund further than your current scheme”This is true! Many QROPS allow fraudulent investments such as those chosen specifically for the high commissions paid to the scammers

    Of course, none of this – either the transfer (by a UK resident) to a Hong Kong QROPS – or the subsequent high-risk investments, was in the interests of the victims. This was only in the interests of the scammers who earned commissions from the unregulated investments. These included:

    • Blackmore Global PCC Ltd
    • Swan Holding PCC Ltd
    • Christianson Property Capital Ltd
    • SN Granite Investments Global
    • Drake Incubator PCC – GRRE
    • EcoVista PLC
    • Curzon Alternative

    In the GFS QROPS scheme in Hong Kong, Planet Pensions worked with a variety of unregulated “introducers” to help recruit victims. These included Scott Campbell of 3V Financial, Andrew Blackburn of St James International, and Aled Williams of Nicholas Street Tax.

    The QROPS application forms, which showed which adviser each victim had appointed, were forged to show the name of the introducer rather than the name of the adviser. This was done by removing the adviser declaration page, and inserting a new page showing the introducer as the adviser – rather than Aktiva Wealth Management (one of Planet Pensions’ former names).

    Planet Pensions also often claimed that Aktiva Wealth Management was acting under the regulation of Paul Brown’s Worldwide Broker – using the Dutch AFM as the regulator. Paul Brown has strenuously denied that he ever allowed Aktiva (Planet Pensions) to act as an Appointed Representative of Worldwide Broker.

    John Ferguson and David Vilka of Planet Pensions (aka Aktiva, aka Square Mile) have clearly worked closely with Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh of Blackmore Bond and Blackmore Global infamy. Both Blackmores are being wound up – causing hundreds of victims to lose over £90 million of pensions and life savings. It is clear both investments were run fraudulently by Nunn and McCreesh (both of whom have now been bankrupted).

    Ferguson and Vilka also worked closely with Manish Gambhir of MG Finance and Christianson Property Capital (yet another failed mini bond). Another associate of Ferguson and Vilka was Tom Fraser of EFPG in Gibraltar, as well as Mark Donnelly of Brite Advisors in Australia, South Africa and the USA.

    Ali Hussain of The Sunday Times covered the Mark Donnelly and Brite Advisors story in 2024:

    “Missing expat pensions: Some 10,000 people put their money into a financial firm run by advisers who investigators say have transferred millions to their own accounts. Bosses at Brite – led by Mark Donnelly – transferred millions of pounds to their personal accounts or other companies.”

    Ali Hussain – Saturday April 27 2024, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times – wrote that:

    “The savers are victims of a network of financial advisers working for a firm called Brite Advisory Group, which is run by Mark Donnelly, a convicted fraudster who stole football merchandise relating to David Beckham. Donnelly’s right-hand man was a financial adviser who fled UK after duping a 91-year-old dementia sufferer out of £170,00. Investigators claim that instead of investing savers’ money in pensions, bosses at Brite took millions of pounds and transferred it to their personal accounts or other companies they ran around the world. Some of it is alleged to have been used to buy rival businesses; some was used for personal loans to directors and their wives. About £250,000 was allegedly used to buy two Porsches.”

    And one of the rival businesses Donnelly bought was Planet Pensions (aka Aktiva Wealth Management and Square Mile International Financial Services. Donnelly paid £650,000 – using Brite Advisors’ clients’ money.

  • Fighting pension scams – Qualifications

    Fighting pension scams – Qualifications

    Fighting pension scams needs to be done logically and methodically.  Decent advisers need to use high standards to help fight scams.  If these standards become the norm, the scammers won’t survive and flourish so easily.

    Fighting pension scams – Qualifications

    Most qualified advisers want nothing to do with pension scams.  Many offshore firms employ advisers who have not passed the required exams.  Even if an adviser has qualified, he or she must still be registered.  We recently surveyed a number of offshore advisory firms:

    Belgravia Wealth     Square Mile      Robusto   Spectrum     Blevins Franks     Seagate Wealth     Woodbrook Group     Globaleye

    Lots of offshore advisers consider they don’t need to be qualified.  Let’s have a look at an example:

    The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) is the largest and most widely respected professional body for those who work in the securities. The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is a professional body dedicated to building trust in the insurance and financial planning profession.

    All financial advisory firms should list their advisers, provide clear details of each adviser’s qualifications and a link to the institute’s register showing evidence of the qualifications.

    Here is a useful guide to qualifications: Qualified Adviser for QROPS

     “Qualifications are not the be all/end all.  A certificate does not prove professional competence in the field , ethics or experience. But the public have to start their due diligence somewhere.”

    Sadly, there are a few well qualified advisers who are the exception to the rule.  Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions ran numerous scams:

    Ark     Evergreen     Capita Oak     Westminster     Southlands     Headforte

    Randwick Estates     Bollington Wood     Hammerley     Halkin     Feldspar

    and many others such as Westminster and London Quantum – ruining thousands of lives.  Several of his schemes are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.  He also provided the transfer advice in the Continental Wealth scam.

    Any decent adviser will want to be fully qualified.  And registered.  The rest should go back to selling snake oil.  But consumers must remember there are exceptions.  Some regulated firms get it wrong.  Qualified advisers can get it wrong.

    The trick is to know all the questions to ask.  Here’s where the ten standards come in handy:

    1. Firm must be fully regulated – with licenses for insurance and investment advice
    2. Advisers must be qualified to the right standard pension-life.com/ten-essential-standards-for-pension-advice
    3. Firm must have Professional Indemnity Insurance
    4. Clients must have comprehensive fact finds and risk profiles
    5. Firm must operate adequate compliance procedures
    6. Advisers must not abuse insurance bonds
    7. Clients must understand the investment policy
    8. All fees, charges and commissions must be disclosed
    9. Investors must know how their investments are performing
    10. Firm must keep a log of all customer complaints

    Fighting pension scams – why qualifications are so essential

    If clients used only firms that tick all ten Standards boxes, it would be harder for the scammers to get business.  Decent firms who care about their reputation should make sure there are clear links to all advisers’ qualifications.  Make it easy for the consumer to understand how to check that the stated qualifications are genuine.  And help educate people to understand what qualifications are required.

    All too often, advisers claim to have qualifications that don’t exist – or that aren’t appropriate for investment advice.  For example, some advisers who are assuring clients they can advise on pensions and investments, only have qualifications suitable for mortgages.  Or worse still, no qualifications at all.  Whatever the adviser says his qualifications are, the client must be able to double check.

    You wouldn’t go to an unqualified solicitor would you?  So don’t use an unqualified financial adviser.  Being qualified goes hand in hand with being regulated.

  • Transferring pensions to scammers – the ABC of shame

    Transferring pensions to scammers – the ABC of shame

    HOW DO PENSION SCAMS WORK?

    Every pension scam starts with a negligent transfer.  Ceding providers hand over millions of pounds to pension scammers every year.  Firms – from Aviva to Zurich – ignore warnings by regulators and HMRC.  The providers tick their boxes; the scammers make their millions; the victims are ruined.

    The ceding providers have something significant in common with the scammers.  When we expose some of the scammers, their lawyers swing into action.  I once had letters from Carter Ruck, Mishcon de Reya and DWF land on my desk all in one day.  The scammers’ lawyers bleat loudly about their “poor” clients’ reputations.

    Every pension scam starts with a negligent transfer

    But the ceding providers are just as bad: their lawyers think it is fine to facilitate financial crime.  Here’s an extract from recent letter from one of them:

    “You state you have “hard evidence” that our customers “have suffered serious loss because of our negligence”.  You
    have not provided any such evidence. Please therefore produce such ‘hard evidence’ by return.”

    This lawyer went on to request evidence that the provider ought to have known that the receiving scheme in
    question was a scam.  She went on to state that my allegations were “wholly unfounded” and to demand that I take down this blog:

    PENSION OMBUDSMAN COMPLAINTS AGAINST NEGLIGENT CEDING TRUSTEES

    But this pension provider has given me no reason to take the blog down – and no justification for the claim that the firm is “innocent” of handing over victims’ pensions to obvious scammers.  Back in 2010, the Pensions Regulator warned providers about transferring pension funds to scams:

    “Any administrator who simply ticks a box and allows a transfer post July 2010 is failing in their duty as a trustee and as such are liable to compensate the beneficiary.”

    But the providers have studiously ignored the regulator’s warning for nine years.  And thousands have lost their pensions as a result of this sickening negligence.

    Transferring pensions to scammers

    Here is an “A to Z” of the pensions industry’s negligence in handing over thousands of pensions in defiance of numerous warnings since 2010.  Note: to my knowledge not a single administrator has voluntarily compensated their victims – and all have emphatically denied they did anything wrong.

    Transferring pensions to scammers – the ABC of shame

    Aviva: Second only to Aegon in our list of shame, Aviva transferred numerous pensions from October 2013 onwards.  This was well after the Pensions Regulator’s “Scorpion” warning.  The largest of these was £258,684.05 at the request of well-known scammer Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions.  Ward had been behind the £27 million Ark liberation scam in 2010.  On 21st January 2015, Aviva’s Robert Palmer told me they needed no help or advice with avoiding negligent transfers to obvious scams.  One month later, Aviva handed over £23,500 to the GFS scam.

    British Steel: Long before the much-publicised handing over of multiple members to scammers in 2018, British Steel was handing over pensions to the Hong Kong GFS QROPS scam in 2014 .  Mainly advised by serial scammer David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial Services in the Czech Republic, the GFS scam invested hundreds of victims’ funds in UCIS funds such as Blackmore Global.

    Clerical Medical: Another disgraceful firm with a long history of handing over pensions to Ark, Capita Oak, Westminster and GFS in 2014.

    This A to Z of shame goes on and on – and includes all the big names (who should have known better):

     

     

  • Time for all pension providers to wake up and stop pension scams

    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.

     

     

  • International Adviser – Have I Got News For You!

    International Adviser – Have I Got News For You!

    International Adviser really can’t make up its mind whether it is organising a piss-up in a brewery, a news roundup carefully slewed in favour sponsors Old Mutual International, or a marketing machine.  I read with interest the recent  IA Industry Most Influential Top 100 described by IA thus: “we at International Adviser decided to shine a light on the movers and shakers that have helped this industry get to where it is today”.

    But where exactly is the industry today?  And have the so-called top 100 moved and shaken the industry in a helpful way or a detrimental way?  To find out, why don’t we have a look at a few of the “influencers”.  To get the measure of them, let’s put them into a game of “Have I Got News For You”:

    Bob Pain in the chair as quiz master.  A bloke who ran Cayman Islands-based Investors Trust until recently appointed chair of the Association of International Life Offices, the trade body for international life offices. During his 35 years of experience in financial services, he facilitated the scam run by Phillip Nunn of Blackmore Global and David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial Services.  Investors Trust accepted over 1,000 investments into illegal UCIS funds for UK-based victims scammed into QROPS with Integrated Capabilities and Harbour (now STM).

     

    As Captain of the Navel Team, let’s have dashing Tim Searle – Chairman of Dubai-based Globaleye.  With his eight-year Naval history, he should make an ideal leader and would come in particularly useful in the event of icebergs, torpedos or sharks.

     

     

    Captain of the Army Team I nominate as Sam Instone of AES International.  His experience as an Army officer should give him the leadership skills to oppose the Navel Team.  Sam’s track record as the “enemy of traditional financial services” should give him the basis for a sound battle plan.

     

     

     

    On the Army  Team, we’ll have international wealth and regulatory specialist, Phil Billingham.  Phil must be utterly disgusted with the likes of Stephen Ward (another fully-qualified adviser) messing up the reputation of the profession by running a long series of pension scams and ruining thousands of lives.

     

     

    And the final member of the Army team will be Paul Stanfield, CEO of FEIFA (Federation of European Independent Financial Advisers).  Another real gentleman – and handsome to boot – and one who understands the importance of outlawing scammers.  Several years ago he excommunicated Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions from FEIFA to loud cheers from victims and industry professionals alike.  (My only gripe with him would be that he still hasn’t kicked out Square Mile Financial Services run by scammers John Ferguson and David Vilka).

     

    On the Navel Team we’ll have Geraint Davies of Montfort International – an expert IFA specialising in international financial services, and Roger Berry of Concept Group Trustees in Guernsey.  These two chaps also have, between them, extensive experience of Stephen Ward in their own ways and will, no doubt, have much to talk about.

    The contest will be to spot the “odd one out”: Michael Doherty of Woodbrook Group, Conor McCarthy of SEB, Peter Kenny of OMI and Winnie-the-Pooh.

    Tim Searle: “They’re all Irish, except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s English?”

    Geraint Davies: “They all hate Angie except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s never heard of her?”

    Roger Berry: “They all love Angie except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s never heard of her?”

    Sam Instone: “They’ve all got names that end in Y except Winnie-the-Pooh?”

    Phil Billingham: “They’re all involved in money except Winnie-the-Pooh who’s involved in honey?”

    Paul Stanfield: “None of them have applied to be members of FEIFA except Winnie-the-Pooh?”

    Bob Pain: “No, you’re all wrong.  The answer is Peter Kenny of OMI.  The other three have been doing “nothing”: Michael Doherty was employing ex CWM scammers Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway (known as Dog Kill and Hadaway) but claimed he was paying them nothing; Conor McCarthy of SEB has been asked numerous times for his comments on why SEB allowed the scammers at CWM to invest most of their victims’ funds in toxic structured notes, but McCarthy is saying nothing and won’t reply; and Winnie-the-Pool is doing nothing all the time.

    The odd one out is Peter Kenny who is doing “something” and is suing Leonteq for the £94 million worth of fraudulent structured notes they sold to OMI.

  • AZURE PENSIONS – a reputation built on lack of trust

    AZURE PENSIONS – a reputation built on lack of trust

    pension life blog - -AZURE PENSIONS - a reputation built on lack of trust

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • FCA launches new ScamSmart campaign

    FCA launches new ScamSmart campaign

    Pension Life Blog - ScamSmart campaign - scamsmartHere at Pension Life, we are constantly trying to raise awareness about pension scams. The Financial Conduct Authority – FCA – has also been busy. Pairing up with the Pensions Regulator – tPR – they have published the ScamSmart campaign with the slogan – Be ScamSmart with your pension.

    With the ScamSmart campaign, they have also made a video and published it on YouTube. Here is the video for you to watch:

    Whilst I think it is great that they are publishing videos as part of the ScamSmart campaign, I can´t help but feel that they spent a large chunk of their budget on some bloke whizzing around on a jet ski.

    The video does highlight what people need to look out for to be ScamSmart, but the repeated flashes back to the jet skier whooping loudly are, in my opinion, very distracting. I feel they deviate from the message they are trying to get across.

    Pension Life Blog - ScamSmart campaign - scamsmartI would like to highlight that the rider of the jet ski does bear a remarkable resemblance to Phillip Nunn, cold caller and “fund manager” of the Blackmore Global investment scam. Blackmore Global was promoted by David Vilka of Square Mile International – David Vilka´s firm is not regulated to provide pensions and investment advice. However, he has never been prosecuted by the FCA for his involvement in this scam.

    Phillip Nunn´s lawyers, Slater and Gordon, threatened Angie with defamation proceedings for exposing Nunn’s scamtivities. The video made by Pension Life in response to this reveals three serial scammers, two of which are still free to scam, while the other one: Peter Moat of Fast Pensions  (who has had legal proceeding filed against him) is nowhere to be seen.

    However, the FCA has done nothing to stop these scammers, nor other well-known ones and no prosecutions have been made. Whilst we are fully in support of educating the masses worldwide to ensure consumers can avoid falling victim to pension scams, this does beg the question:

    Pension Life Blog - Pension Life Blog - ScamSmart campaign - scamsmart

    WHY ARE THE FCA DOING NOTHING ABOUT THE KNOWN SCAMMERS?!?

    If the industry was to put a stop to the masterminds, (like Stephen Ward), then surely that would be a giant leap in the right direction for deterring new-comers. As it stands, however, the “award-winning” scammers just seem to set a precedent. If you are good at what you do, your scams can be pushed under the carpet and you can live a life of luxury on the hard-earned cash of the scam victims, escaping punishment.

  • Serious Violation of Investors’ Trust – by Investors Trust (life office)

    Serious Violation of Investors’ Trust – by Investors Trust (life office)

    Pension Life Blog - Serious Violation of Investors' TrustInvestors’ trust is what gets violated in so many cases by irresponsible and negligent insurance companies such as Old Mutual International, SEB, Generali, RL360, Friends Provident International – and, of course, the firm in the Cayman Islands: Investors Trust.  These companies – also known as “life offices” (although we prefer to call them “death offices” because they help destroy victims’ life savings – and sometimes cause the death of their distraught victims) – have a number of lethal practices which result in financial ruin for thousands of policyholders:

    • The life offices take business from any old known scammers – firms without proper licenses and with a known history of defrauding the public
    • The life offices will offer toxic, illiquid, risky funds – including UCIS funds – such as LM and Mansion on their platform (without doing any proper due diligence as to how quickly these funds can eradicate the life offices’ victims’ life savings)
    • The life offices will accept investment instructions from unqualified scammers who work for firms with no investment license – and, in some cases, with no insurance license either
    • The life offices will accept dealing instructions – often with fraudulently-copied or forged signatures – on dealing instructions for toxic assets such as professional-investor-only structured notes

    Pension Life Blog - Serious Violation of Investors' TrustA prime example of these vile practices was in the case of Mr. S – a driving instructor from Milton Keynes.  His final salary pension scheme was transferred to a QROPS in Malta despite the fact that he was a UK resident and had no need for his pension to be transferred offshore.  His “adviser” was David Vilka from a firm called Square Mile International Financial Services.  This firm had an insurance license but no investment license.  Therefore, Square Mile could legally sell insurance products such as dog insurance – but could certainly not provide investment advice.

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

    Pension Life Blog - Serious Violation of Investors' Trust

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

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

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

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

    Pension Life Blog - Serious Violation of Investors' Trust

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

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

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

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

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

    Thank you,

    Lindsay Paris, Media and Communications Manager, Investors Trust Administration

    lparis@investors-trust.com”

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

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

  • DAVID VILKA’S VILE US ATTORNEY

    DAVID VILKA’S VILE US ATTORNEY

    David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial Services has exactly the sort of lawyer one would expect: a scammer’s lawyer.  Unsurprisingly, this dope can’t even spell Vilka’s victim’s name and has referred to him as “Mr Sexton” as opposed to “Mr Sefton”.  But, again, this is no surprise.

    What I must challenge, however, is the fact that Mr. Sefton has referred to this clown as a “two-bit lawyer”.  I really don’t think this is true – as he is a one-bit lawyer at best.  He has a couple of glowing client testimonials going back to 2016 and 2015 on his amateurish website, and displays no evidence of experience or expertise in the arena of British pensions (and why would he? – he’s purportedly practising US law in the US).

    One might forgive Mr. Davies for not understanding anything about UK pensions in general and pension scammers like David Vilka in particular, but to immediately jump into a firm conclusion that there has been defamation against his client shows that he hasn’t even made a one-bit attempt to understand what his client has been up to – or how many lives (like Mr Sefton’s) Vilka has ruined.

    I must admit I am used to dealing with a much better class of scammers’ lawyer.  Take DWF, for example: this large firm carelessly lost a team of 20 lawyers to rival Trowers and Hamlins a couple of years ago.  This wasn’t long after they were caught representing both sides in a case: the Insolvency Service in the winding up of Capita Oak, and Stephen Ward who handled the transfer administration in the same scheme.  But at least they dealt with the embarrassment of acting for both the poacher and the gamekeeper with a degree of dignity and elegance – a class act indeed.  DWF comes into the same league as my other legal chums – including Carter Ruck and Mishcon de Reya.  So, you can see I am more used to dealing with professional firms rather than twerps like this Mr Davies.

    Mr. Davies is referring to the UCIS investment scam, Blackmore Global, which was illegally promoted to retail investors – and which is a fraud from start to finish.

    Anyway, I have answered his absurd email below with my usual comments in bold.

    ————————————————————————————————-

    LOWELL DAVIES LLP

    July 14, 2018

    Ms. Angela Brooks,  Director of Pension Life

    Re: Defamation of Mr. David Vilka and Square Mile International

    Dear Ms. Brooks:

    I am an attorney You may well be, but you are clearly a US attorney – and that does not qualify you to deal with a matter which involves UK pensions

    and represent Mr. David Vilka Bad luck

    with respect to the defamatory article I never write defamatory articles – I only write the truth

    published on your on-line site. Specifically, this complaint relates to the misstatements and misrepresentations made on

    the following site:

    BLACKMORE GLOBAL FUND – ASSET OR BLACK HOLE?

    If I might sum up, each and every defamatory allegation with regard to Mr. Vilka and Square Mile International you assert are sourced to one disgruntled individual, Stephen Sexton, none of which allegations are supported by any evidence whatsoever.  Wrong.  Mr. Sefton is one of a number of victims of Vilka’s scams – many of which were invested in the same toxic, illegal UCIS fund as Mr. Sefton – Blackmore Global – and others were invested in other similar investment scams.  Blackmore Global is run by another scammer, Phillip Nunn, who – along with his partner in crime Patrick McCreesh – ran the cold calling and lead generation services for the Capita Oak and Henley pension scams, now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

    Mr. Sexton was an unsolicited client of Mr. Vilka and Square Mile who had a substantial pension and for personal reasons of his own wanted to switch his pension and draw down sums for his personal use.  When he says “unsolicited” he means not cold called, as was usually the case with Vilka.  Vilka lied about being regulated to provide pension and investment advice, and the rest is history: Mr Sefton’s life savings were invested in two UCIS funds which were habitually promoted by Vilka: Blackmore Global and Symphony.

    The switch in pension plans resulted in what Mr. Sexton felt were unreasonable fees (None of which went to Mr. Vilka or Square Mile). I wonder if this idiot would like to explain why Mr Sefton was put into a QROPS when he was a UK resident?

    And despite the fact that Mr. Vilka was able to personally intervene and get Mr. Sexton’s monies returned less a nominal fee, Mr. Sexton continued to complain and when Square Mile attempted to make up even this nominal fee on its own part, Mr. Sexton continued to complain because he refused to sign a boilerplate settlement agreement containing a standard confidentiality agreement.  It is true that Mr Sefton did, eventually, get around 85% of his original investment back – but only after a dogged fight which was backed up by the pension trustees Integrated Capabilities.  There was no intervention by Vilka.

    In your post on the Blackmore Fund you have the temerity to cast defamatory aspersions on Mr. Vilka and Square Mile based on your “strong suspicion” and you go on to assert they must have a “strong vested interest in promoting this black hole of a fund.”  Why else would scammers such as Vilka promote such a fund?  It is a UCIS, with no independent audit to verify whether the purported assets even exist.  

    Really? What proof of that would you have?  Vilka must have had a very strong reason to promote the Blackmore Global investment fraud – why else would he have invested a further 64 victims’ pensions in this UCIS?  This was a bunch of people he scammed into transferring their pensions to a Hong Kong QROPS.

    And since you have none, we demand you remove this article and/or any reference to Mr. Vilka or Square Mile.  I have plenty of evidence thank you.  

    Let me advise you that Mr. Vilka and Square Mile, contrary to your specious aspersions, are heavily regulated as is the industry.  “Heavily”?  What you actually mean is that neither Vilka nor Square Mile is regulated for pension or investment advice – only insurance mediation.

    The Sexton matter was thoroughly investigated at the time by the appropriate regulators who found no irregularities.  You don’t know that.

    Mr. Sexton is not nor was he a perplexed victim of Mr. Vilka or Square Mile. He most certainly was – as Vilka and his accomplice John Ferguson know full well.

    His pension is worth well over half a million pounds. No it isn’t.  Did you do maths at school?

    He read and signed multiple acknowledgements before he switched pensions showing very clearly that he knew what he was investing in and the inherent risks involved.  No he didn’t.  It was never disclosed that the scammers were going to invest his pension in a UCIS fund which is illegal to be promoted to retail UK investors.

    And again, significantly, he was not cold-called. He sought out Mr. Vilka and Square Mile. Nor did Mr. Vilka or Square Mile receive any payment from the Blackmore fund or its partner firms regarding Mr. Sexton’s transaction as confirmed by the Czech National Bank which has direct access to Square Mile’s company bank accounts via an electronic data box.  Are you talking about the accounts which haven’t been updated since 2014?

    In sum, there is no bases whatsoever for the specious and actionable statements you make in your referenced post with regard to Mr. Vilka and Square Mile International.  I think you mean basis – and yes, there is a solid basis for all the statements I made in my post and not a single one of them is “specious” (although I am amazed you have even heard of the word).

    Your comments have caused Mr. Vilka and Square Mile reputational damage, among others, and you are hereby instructed to delete the post immediately.  I sincerely hope that the impact of my blog has caused Vilka and his accomplice Ferguson to turn over a new leaf and arrange to pay compensation for Mr. Sefton and all their other victims who have lost part or all of their pensions to the Square Mile scams.

    Your failure to do so will result in further damages to Mr. Vilka and Square Mile International, the accrual of further legal fees and costs, and the likelihood of litigation, all of which damages and costs we will recover from you.  Good luck with that.

    If you have any questions or concerns or require further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at (206) 319-3533. I look forward to confirmation of the removal of the identified defamatory materials. Thank you in advance for resolving this matter expeditiously.  I have no questions, other than to enquire as to when your client intends to pay redress for the losses caused by his fraud.

    Best regards,

    LOWELL DAVIES LLP

    Douglas Davies Attorney at Law

    8497 Hemlock Drive

    Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

    Direct Line: (206) 319-3533

    doug@lowelldavies.com