On the web of pension scams It seems as though criminal convictions against pension scammers might be getting popular. More than a decade has gone by with virtually none of the usual suspects getting jailed – despite a few criminal investigations (that, so far, have not resulted in convictions). Is the system really that hopeless or do these criminals just know how to work it? Probably, both. But is it getting any better?
Almost all scammers and scams are, in some way, related or connected. If the earliest scammers (circa 2010) had been prosecuted and put behind bars, much of today’s damage could have been prevented.
Now that there is an intricate web of them passing around their tricks of the trade, it’s no wonder they’ve all been able to bypass the laws and regulations.
Two scammers have, however, recently been brought to justice:
Much of the £13m ended up in the hands of well-known scammer David Austin – who committed suicide after being caught in another pension scam (using his daughter Camilla as the “front man”).
Susan Dalton & Alan Barratt
The Barratt and Dalton scheme, was also promoted by Julian Hanson – one of the main promoters of the £27m Ark pension scam in 2010/11. Hanson’s vigorous promotion efforts resulted in £5.5m worth of Ark victims (100 in total). One of Hanson’s co-scammers was the notorious Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions who was the “architect” behind the Ark scheme – along with Andrew Isles of Isles and Storer Accountants. Hanson, Ward and Isles were never prosecuted and so went on to operate and promote millions of pounds’ worth of further pension scams – ruining many thousands more lives.
Ryan Playford
Sue Dalton, after moving on from the Barratt and Dalton scheme, went to work at Continental Wealth Management in Spain – reporting to head scammer Darren Kirby and his partner Jody Smart (who was the sole director of the company). Dalton’s extensive experience in pension scamming made her a hit at CWM. Ironically, Hanson has not been jailed along with Barratt and Dalton.
Playford got 15 years for supplying cocaine and canabis. Clearly a wrong-un, and someone who has no respect for the law or for the wellbeing of people’s lives who would inevitably be ruined by drug abuse.
But what does Playford’s drug conviction have to do with pension scams – you may ask? We have to go back a decade to discover the answer:
In 2008, Playford and an associate – Natasha Beesley – registered a drug company inCyprus:R. P. Med Plant. Presumably, the authorities were convinced that by “drugs”, this meant legitimate drugs for medicinal purposes.
Stephen Ward
In 2012, however, the pension scammers pounced on this Cyprus company as being the ideal sponsoring employer for another one of Stephen Ward’s pension scams: Capita Oak. Ward and his pension-lawyer friend Alan Fowler, used R. P. Med Plant Limited (Cyprus) as the so-called employer for an occupational scheme – registered by HMRC and the Pensions Regulator.
Ward and Fowler forged signatures on a trust deed for their new pension scam, and slightly changed the name of the employer to R. P. Medplant Limited (so that nobody could find it easily on the Cyprus Companies House register). It seems likely that Ward and Fowler must have known Ryan Playford somehow, in order to be able to get their hands on his drug company.
Patrick McCreesh
Capita Oak then became the vehicle for the scamming of 300 victims into investing their entire pensions in Store First store pods. Ward took charge of all the victims’ pension transfers, while another group of scammers took care of the cold calling of thousands of potential victims and signing up of the actual 300 victims.
Capita Oak’s 300 members were not the only victims invested in Store First store pods. There were thousands more in the Henley Retirement Benefits Scheme and various SIPPS including Carey (now Options and owned by STM), as well as Berkeley Burke and Rowanmoor. There have so far been no convictions – other than Playford’s for drug dealing.
This interconnected web of lies and deceit will keep on spreading unless these criminals actually fear the consequences of their actions. Let’s keep the convictions coming and not just save them for drug lords.
The FCA seems to have woken up. It only took eleven years. Eleven years of laziness, torpor, disinterest and deliberately ignoring the problem. But, completely out of the blue, the FCA has suddenly got bored with crapping on bathroom floors and has decided to do a spot of rather belated regulating.
The object of this sudden fit of uncharacteristic activity, is the Ark pension scam. This was operated between 2010 and 2011 by a team of scammers. This team included so-called financial advisers, introducers, a pensions lawyer and an accountant. The principal architect of the six Ark schemes, however, was Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions in Spain. His Spanish firm specialised in (pretty much what it said on the tin) pensions. In particular pension transfers.
Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions
From August 2010, Ward’s company Premier Pension Solutions (PPS) was run as an agent of AES Financial Services – which was regulated by the FSA (now the FCA). Before this, Ward’s company was in the Inter-Alliance network in Cyprus. Coincidentally, the “sister” firm Continental Wealth Management (CWM) was also a member of the Inter-Alliance network. PPS and CWM worked together in close collaboration. CWM often did the cold calling and warm up act for Ward’s various pension scams – including the New Zealand Evergreen liberation scam.
An agency agreement was in place between Ward’s firm PPS and Sam Instone’s firm AES. But the agreement specifically excluded pension transfers. Which was pretty odd, bearing in mind pension transfers were PPS’ main activity. This resulted in Ward’s firm giving victims the false impression that the pension advice he provided was regulated. Which, of course, it wasn’t. The exclusion in the agency agreement between PPS and AES was, naturally, hidden from clients and victims.
Complaints directed at Ward about the various pension scams he had been operating over the years were always firmly rebutted. Ward always claimed that his own activities were the responsibility of AES as the regulated party – and that it was up to Instone to decide what PPS could and couldn’t do.
Kirsten Hastings from International Adviser has published some excerpts from the FCA’s questionnaire about Ark, PPS and AES:
A questionnaire has been sent by the FCA to customers of AES Financial Services (which also traded as International Pension Transfer Specialists (IPTS), Premier Pension Solutions (PPS) and Premier Pension Transfers (PPT).
These clients invested or transferred pensions into schemes managed by Ark Business Consulting and/or the Ark pension schemes.
The questionnaire was sent to consumers to gather more information about their dealings with these firms.
They have until 17 October to respond.
Director of AES Sam Instone told IA: “We are absolutely certain AES Financial Services Ltd has never provided any advice at all in relation to Ark schemes, so it seems like a strange questionnaire.”
Sam Instone seems to have forgotten that AES Spain was run by rogue “adviser” Paul Clarke for some years – after leaving unlicensed firm CWM in 2010. Clarke advised several victims to transfer into Ark. And good old Sam himself advised his own Dad to transfer into Ark. I guess three destroyed pensions – with accompanying tax penalties – can be easy to forget?
Kirsten Hastings goes on to talk about the history of Stephen Ward’s Ark scam:
TPR took action following concerns that the Ark schemes were being used for pension liberation.
According to Dalriada, such schemes generally have high charges and invest money in risky and esoteric vehicles.
They also put members at risk of having to pay large sums of tax.
The latest Dalriada update to members states it is “not able to place a value on any members’ benefits at the time and are therefore unable to make payments to members”.
Kirsten also mentions some further points in the FCA questionnaire:
Kirsten Hastings editor at International Adviser
Did the client (Ark victim) approach the firm or vice versa?
Where was the client based when these services were provided?
Would clients be willing to sign a witness statement?
What regulatory protections was the client told there were?
All Ark victims would certainly be more than happy to sign a witness statement to evidence what Stephen Ward, PPS and AES did, wrote, promised, assured and persuaded.
The regulatory protection, of course, for anyone advised by Stephen Ward’s Premier Pension Solutions (which was most of them) in the Ark scam, was Sam Instone’s AES Financial Services – according to all the documentation.
Ward promoted the Ark £27 million scam during 2010 and 2011 – cases being documented on PPS headed paper announcing that the firm was a “Partner” of AES and regulated through AES. Ward would have earned at least £1 million through the Ark scam – all of which would have been paid through AES.
When Ark went tits up, Ward launched his next pension liberation scam: Evergreen Retirement Benefits QROPS in New Zealand – with his accompanying 50% Marazion “loans”. Again, all advice was given on PPS headed paper announcing that the firm was an AES partner and regulated through AES. This meant another 300 victims lost more than £10 million worth of pensions. It also meant that PPS and AES between them earned at least £1 million from the scam (10% of transfer values). These fees were paid direct to AES.
When Evergreen collapsed (as all PPS pension scams eventually did) in 2012, Ward set up the Capita Oak scam. Another 300 people lost over £10 million – all invested in Store First store pods. Again, all pension transfers were done by Ward. Alongside Capita Oak, Ward carried out all the transfers for Henley (another 250 victims losing £8 million in Store First) and Westminster (another 79 victims losing £3.3 million in other toxic, high-commission investments). All these schemes are currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
Throughout this era – during which all business done by PPS went through AES – Ward ran multiple, multi-£million pension scams – mostly involving liberation fraud:
Bollington Wood
Capita Oak
Dorrixo Alliance
Endeavour QROPS
Evergreen QROPS
Feldspar
Halkin
Hammerley
Headforte
Henley Retirement Benefits
London Quantum
Southlands
Randwick
Randwick Estates
Southern Star QROPS
Superlife QROPS
The above list comprises QROPS which were used abusively, and bogus occupational schemes.
All these PPS scams resulted in many hundreds more victims losing millions of pounds’ worth of pensions. Many of these unfortunate people were also persuaded by Ward to liberate their pensions, and so they would have faced crippling tax penalties as well.
Ward’s final triumph in his long-running pension scam campaign was London Quantum. He proudly announced this scheme saying that “Ark is history” and that he was now going straight. Still trading as an AES partner and agent, Ward conned 100 victims into the London Quantum scheme. This was invested in the usual high-risk, high-commission and entirely inappropriate assets (including Dolphin Trust loans and car parking spaces at Park First Glasgow). London Quantum ended up being classified by Dalriada Trustees as being “probably worthless”.
In the Ark Pensions scam, it is clear why so many victims thought PPS was a properly-regulated firm – AS AN AGENT AND “PARTNER” OF AES:
“Premier Pension Solutions SL …..is an authorised agent of AES Financial Services Ltd authorised to conduct investment and insurance business. AN AES INTERNATIONAL PARTNER.“
In the subsequent £100 million Continental Wealth Management pension and investment scam, Ward continued to “advise” hundreds of victims to transfer their precious pensions into the hands of known scammers – in the full knowledge that their pensions would be invested in high-risk, high-commission rubbish funds and structured notes:
But Stephen Ward was a bit more than just an “agent” and “partner” of AES. He was also an integral part of the AES management team – and boasted that he was Director of International Pensions. When all the pension scams finally collapsed, leaving thousands destitute and desperate – as well as hounded by HMRC – Ward and Instone set up IPTS: International Pension Transfer Specialists. This new venture was run from Ward’s office in Moraira – although they tried to hide this by using a PO Box at nearby LettersRUs. And so the misery continued…..
Stephen Ward in the front row of the AES team of “experienced experts”.
The Spanish criminal trial of so-called “financial advisers” in Denia has exposed the widespread fraud routinely committed in offshore financial services for over a decade.
This particular stage of this particular trial may be directed at just eight members of Continental Wealth Management and Premier Pension Solutions. For now. But the case – brought by Pension Life – needs to be extended to all parties who have committed similar offences in offshore financial services.
Spain is the second-largest expat jurisdiction in the world – after Australia. More than three quarters of a million British expats have settled in the Spanish sunshine. That’s over half the total in the whole of Australia. And these Spanish-resident expats are sitting targets for pension scammers.
It is not unusual for Brits to be suspicious of foreigners in any country. Expats typically veer towards their own countrymen. They are notorious for being suspicious of foreign food and customs. Hence, the depressing fact that it is British scammers who relieve British victims of their pensions and life savings.
And this is why so many British expats – especially in Spain – fall prey to bogus “financial advisers” flogging bogus life assurance policies provided by bogus insurance companies – like Quilter International headed up by Peter Kenny.
The facts of this criminal case are indisputable. One thousand victims were scammed by Continental Wealth Management. Between 2009 and 2017, these victims lost many millions of pounds’ worth of pensions and life savings. And much of this was facilitated by Quilter International (formerly Old Mutual International).
So how were these losses caused? What on earth went wrong? Financial services – in any country – should be a safe industry which investors can rely on. Depend on. Why have so many expats – not just the Continental Wealth Management victims – lost so much money?
Who and what is to blame for the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds?
The short version of the answer is: “COMMISSIONS”. Offshore advisers get rich by selling products for commissions. What they don’t sell is independent financial advice. Proper independent advice (provided by a correctly and properly qualified and licensed adviser) is about recommending an appropriate investment strategy which is in the best interests of the client. And, of course, charging a reasonable and commercially-viable fee for such advice.
But that rarely – if ever – happens in offshore, expat jurisdictions. What is cleverly presented as “advice” is generally just a dishonest ploy to sell a client unsuitable products which they don’t need and that will make the salesman the most commission.
The orchestrators, facilitators and architects of all this fraud are the “life offices”. In practice and in reality, these companies are more about death than life. Their business is about destroying life savings and pensions – while enriching the pockets of fraudsters.
There are various ways to combat this widespread fraud facilitated by the life offices:
Bring criminal proceedings against ALL those who have defrauded their clients – from bogus, unlicensed advisory firms to the life offices themselves
Ensure all so-called advisory firms (sometimes calling themselves “wealth managers”) are correctly licensed in the jurisdiction where they provide advice
Make it mandatory for all advisers to be properly qualified to provide financial advice
Ban all firms without an investment license from providing investment advice
Educate consumers to only use advisory firms which openly disclose their professional indemnity insurance on their website
The bald truth is that if the life offices – such as Quilter International, Friends Provident International and RL360 – were closed down, this widespread fraud would stop.
The only way this fraud keeps going so vigorously and relentlessly, is the terms of business given by the life offices to the scammers. And, of course, the fat commissions the life offices pay to them. As well as the toxic, risky, high-commission-paying investments the life offices put on their “platforms” for the scammers to use (and abuse).
You only have to look at Continental Wealth Management to see how quickly a scamming firm will collapse once life offices withdraw terms of business. The life offices are the life blood of scams and scammers.
Without the facilitation of the “death” offices (Quilter International, Generali, SEB etc.) frauds such as Continental Wealth Management could not have taken place. The blood of all those who have died wretched, lonely deaths – and those who are suicidal – is squarely on the hands of Peter Kenny and his various cronies.
The bank statements of Continental Wealth Management show the repeated amounts of fat commissions paid by Quilter International, Generali and SEB. And these amounts were paid willingly and cheerfully in the full knowledge that every payment meant more lives damaged; more funds destroyed; more miserable deaths.
Quilter and their associates had reported on the victims’ losses for a decade; produced valuations and transaction histories evidencing the repeated, relentless fraud. And yet Quilter (and the other death offices) did nothing – just kept on and on facilitating the same fraud: repeat, repeat, repeat.
While the “advisers” from Continental Wealth Management and Premier Pension Solutions stand trial – the hundreds of victims have to listen to the defendants’ offensive denials and excuses. But, worst of all, the distressed and impoverished victims know that the life (death) offices should also be on trial – standing shoulder to shoulder with the scammers themselves.
The cause of the investment losses in the Continental Wealth Management case was almost exclusively toxic, high-risk (and high-commission) structured notes. These are complex investment instruments called “derivatives” and should only ever be used for professional or sophisticated investors. They are certainly completely unsuitable for ordinary people (who are classed as retail investors) or for pension schemes.
High-risk structured notes are big business for the death offices. Quilter International (formerly Old Mutual International) has historically onboarded over 100 new structured products per month. In the case of the Continental Wealth Management fraud, it was the structured notes – from Leonteq, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada and Nomura – which caused the terrible investment losses. These toxic, high-commission investment products – so beloved by the scammers because of the high commissions – were responsible for the destruction of millions of pounds’ worth of pensions and life savings.
Quilter International knew perfectly well that these toxic products – totally unsuitable for retail investors – paid 8% commission to the scammers and a further 8% to 10% to the “arrangers”. They knew perfectly well – and admitted internally to their “asset review committee” – that these products were risky and “not good value”. But they still allowed the scammers (to whom they gave terms of business) to keep selling them.
Quilter has also admitted that they had 2,047 structured products in total, and that the average holding per product was £243,654.03; that the smallest holding was £67.54 and the largest holding was £5,350,833.60. Quilter was concerned that there was a reputational risk to Quilter for allowing these structured products to be held within their offshore bonds. They also acknowledged that these products carried excessive commissions and were causing “suboptimal customer outcomes”. However, their concern for their own “reputational risk” did not extend to concern for their victims.
Quilter has tried to wriggle out of culpability for the victims’ losses by claiming that investment product “suitability” is the responsibility of advisers. And that these so-called advisers are participating in a “race to the bottom”.
However, the advisers are mostly scammers to whom Quilter has cheerfully given terms of business. And they are winning the race to the bottom by several lengths. If Quilter withdrew terms of business from all the scammers, the race wouldn’t even take place at all. In fact, all Quilter would have to do would be to ensure that all advisers are qualified and licensed – and that investors’ risk profiles are correctly respected – and the fraud would stop instantly.
But until Quilter and all the other death offices are put on trial for fraud themselves, this crime is going to continue. And victims are going to keep losing their pensions and life savings – and dying in abject poverty.
As an interesting post script, Quilter have posted a warning about scams on the internet. Their disingenuous claim that “Your security is our priority, so we have reacted quickly to help you and the financial advisers we work with to spot fraudsters” is ironic and cynical. Quilter themselves routinely work with fraudsters who pose as financial advisers – and who have no license or qualifications to provide financial advice.
January 28/29 2021 saw the cross examination of Stephen Ward in Pension Life’s criminal case in the Denia court. Ward gave the judge an elaborate explanation as to how and why none of the Continental Wealth Management pension and investment scams were his fault.
Ward provided the pension transfer “advice” to hundreds of Continental Wealth Management victims – facilitating the handing over of millions of pounds’ worth of personal and occupational pensions into the hands of well-known, firmly-established scammers. Once out of the relative safety of the UK, and into the offshore abyss, the scammers made millions out of undisclosed commissions on the victims’ life savings. The investments were, of course, largely worthless. Victims lost somewhere between a small percentage and a large percentage – with a few losing 100%. And a few more even going overdrawn on their pension accounts.
Ward’s Spanish firm Premier Pension Solutions, worked as “sister company” to Darren Kirby’s and Jody Smart’s Continental Wealth Management. After Ark in 2011, Ward moved straight onto the Evergreen New Zealand QROPS liberation scam. And CWM did the cold calling to sign up 300 victims to the toxic £10 million pension scam and so-called “loans” from Ward’s own finance company – Marazion.
Ark (and indeed Evergreen) victims may well want an answer to the question: why hasn’t Ward been prosecuted before now? The lack of any previous criminal proceedings against him, for the many other scams he was involved in, is – indeed – astonishing.
Capita Oak, Westminster, Southlands, Headforte, London Quantum et al – could all have been prevented had Ward been behind bars. Victims of all of those scams might still have their pensions had it not been for Ward.
Part of the answer may lie with Dalriada Trustees. The firm was appointed by the Pensions Regulator to the Ark schemes as independent trustee on 31st May 2011. Over £27 million worth of pensions had been transferred from safe, professionally-run pension schemes into the six Ark schemes. Nearly 500 people are affected – many of whom had received reciprocal “loans” on the advice of Stephen Ward and his very convincing associates. Ward had assured all the victims that the loans would be “tax free”. But, of course, HMRC does not share that view – and the tax trial is starting in March 2021.
HMRC is looking to tax all those who did get “loans” and also all those who didn’t. HMRC’s argument is firstly that even if members didn’t get a loan, they had made the transfer with the intention of getting a loan, and secondly that they “made” a loan.
One of the first questions I ever asked Dalriada back in 2013 (appointed by the Pensions Regulator – who registered the Ark schemes in the first place) was:
“Why didn’t you bring criminal proceedings against Stephen Ward and all the other scammers who set up and ran Ark?”
Dalriada’s answer was:
“We didn’t think it was within our remit”.
So what is (or was) Dalriada’s remit? And has it fulfilled that remit? And how much has it cost?
DALRIADA’S REMIT:
To suspend the Ark schemes so that no further “loans” could be made; no further victims lost their pensions; no further toxic investments could be made
To investigate the schemes to find out how they had been run and where the money had gone
To recover the toxic investments and return the money to the schemes
To liaise with the members and keep them informed
To liaise with HMRC on the unauthorised payment tax liabilities
The above points are all guesses on my part. Certainly, Dalriada has admitted that they didn’t really know where to start at the beginning. They had no idea what they would find, once they started investigating, and no clue as to how much work was going to be involved.
Dalriada has, indeed, recovered some of the toxic investments in the Ark schemes. But communications with the members have been limp at best. Dalriada has spent a lot of time, effort and money on taking proceedings against the victims themselves to recover the “loans”, but seems to have spent zero time, effort or money on pursuing the scammers.
Most important of all, Dalriada has not invested any of the money left in the Ark schemes – so members (victims) have missed out on the longest investment bull run in history. Bottom line: there’s been no growth in the value of the Ark funds – only shrinkage. Had the funds been invested in something as simple as a low-cost tracker fund, they could have grown by some 330% at least.
Of the original £27 million in the Ark schemes, Dalriada has spent more than £7.4 million on trustees’ and lawyers’ fees between 31st May 2011 and 31st May 2020. But isn’t it reasonable to ask: “Why couldn’t Dalriada have spent some of that money on criminal proceedings against Stephen Ward and some (or all) of the other scammers?”
Dalriada Trustees have been appointed to more than 100 pension scams in the past ten years (by the Pensions Regulator). But there is no evidence that any of the scammers – especially the prolific Stephen Ward – have ever had any CRIMINAL action taken against them by Dalriada in an effort to prevent further scams.
Kelly reports that “Pension scam victims have lost millions of pounds more to the government-appointed trustees hired to get their money back.” and that “Victims say Dalriada Trustees ‘inexplicably’ held their recovered retirement savings for years and then only paid a fraction of their money back.”
Kelly has been to meet me in Spain several times. He attended the Denia court for the first set of cross examinations in 2020, and reports that “tens of thousands of savers had lost up to £10 billion in rogue schemes that looked safe because they were registered by HMRC and overseen by the Pensions Regulator”.
Kelly goes on to cite the case of one victim who waited seven years to have his £157,000 pension pot returned to him by Dalriada. But they deducted £90,000 in charges before handing it back to him. And this was after Dalriada had rescued the fund in full, before the scammers had managed to invest the money in toxic, commission-paying assets.
With 5,400 pension scam victims having Dalriada as their trustees, it is perhaps time to ask whether this is a tenable solution. Scammers could, realistically, be forgiven for thinking that once Dalriada takes charge, this is merely a license for the next scam, and the next one, and the next one…… Because, Dalriada is never going to report the scammers for fraud. So they are free to keep on scamming people out of their pensions repeatedly.
Today, 7th April 2020, was supposed to have been the second part of the Continental Wealth Management criminal trial. Obviously, due to Coronavirus, the hearing has been postponed. For now. As soon as the pandemic is under control and life in the courts (and elsewhere) gets back to “normal”, the hearings will be rescheduled. This is obviously a disappointment to the victims who are waiting anxiously to see the outcome of the trial – but it is only a relatively minor setback in the grand scheme of things. We will get these defendants into court, and the judge will give directions as to how to deal with the crimes committed.
The crimes involved are:
Fraud
Disloyal administration
Falsification of commercial documentation
The second batch of defendants comprises:
Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions and Premier Pension Transfers, IPTS (International Pension Transfer Specialists), AES International, Dorrixo Alliance and Marazion
Paul Clarke of Continental Wealth Management, AES International and Roebuck Wealth
Jody Smart (alias Jody Bell) of Continental Wealth Trust, Jody Bell Fashion, Grant A Wish charity and Mercurio Conpro
Darren Kirby (partner of Jody Bell) of Continental Wealth Management and Continental Wealth Trust
The first batch of defendants were cross examined in the week of 24th February 2020 and comprised:
Patrick Kirby (brother of Darren Kirby)
Anthony Downs
Dean Stogsdill
Neil Hathaway (all of Continental Wealth Management)
When we first set out this case, we weren’t entirely sure the court would accept the charge of fraud – because it is difficult to prove as a complainant needs to establish intent. However, the court had no hesitation in accepting this charge, as well as the additional charges of disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documentation.
The evidence in the case is very clear and incontrovertible: seventeen lead complainants (out of more than 600) who all exhibit the exact same “symptoms”:
Low to medium risk investors placed in inappropriate, high-risk investments
Insurance bonds sold illegally
Investments churned repeatedly
No license to provide insurance or investment advice
No qualifications to provide financial advice
No adjustment to financial strategy when serious losses began to appear
It is tempting to think that perhaps Continental Wealth Management (which later became Continental Wealth Trust but still kept the original name) was an isolated case. But, sadly, that is not so. I have seen many examples (in Spain and other jurisdictions) of clients being placed into inappropriate investments, by other so-called advisers, which paid large, hidden commissions over the past six years. Stephen Ward was routinely flogging the EEA Life Settlements fund – putting some investors’ entire portfolios into this risky fund which paid up to 19% in commission. He was also flogging other high-risk funds such as Traded Life Policies, Axiom, Blackrock Gold and Aria – as well as selling bonds such as Skandia (OMI) illegally. And, naturally, Ward’s clients suffered crippling losses.
The above method, show-cased by Stephen Ward, has – of course – been rife in offshore financial services for years. It has made the advisers rich and the investors poor. In short, this is disloyalty at its worst: the adviser putting his own interests above those of his clients.
And that, in Spain and other European countries, is a criminal offence.
But Ward wasn’t alone: Paul Clarke did the same even after he left Continental Wealth Management and became an agent of AES International – exploiting the financial advisory market on the Costa Blanca as he decimated clients’ savings with more illegally-sold insurance bonds, structured notes and expensive, high-commission funds. Clarke regularly featured in whole-page spreads in Euro Weekly – spouting “expertise” and masquerading as a qualified, experienced financial adviser.
There are few firms in Spain – or indeed the rest of Europe and beyond – which do not rely heavily on the notorious insurance bond. The offshore market is dominated by the usual suspects: OMI (previously Skandia and now Quilter); Generali, SEB, RL360 and Investors Trust. And all these insurance companies encourage unregulated, unqualified advisors to sell these bonds illegally. There are few, if any, benefits to the consumer – and no insurance bond should ever be used inside a QROPS (unless there’s no lock-in and no commission).
I just Googled: “wealth management and financial advice Spain”. The top results came up as: Blacktower; Blevins Franks; Abbey Wealth; Masttro (a firm I’d never heard of before); Finance Spain (another firm I’d never heard of); Spectrum IFA Group; and Alexander Peter. I am not saying whether any of these firms are either good or bad – but I think it is safe to assume they are all selling insurance bonds illegally.
Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with an insurance bond. It is, after all, just a wrapper – or container for funds and investments. There are, arguably, some tax advantages in some jurisdictions – although they should never be used inside a QROPS.
The problem with an insurance bond – whether from OMI, SEB, Generali or RL360 – is that an investor is going to get one whether he wants or needs one or can afford one or not. The investor will get locked in for up to ten years and he won’t be aware that the adviser will get paid an 8% commission for selling the bond. This commission will get clawed back by the life office over the term of the bond.
Many investors are conned into believing that the bond provides some sort of protection. It doesn’t. Many investors are also conned into to thinking that the investments offered by the bond providers are “safe”. They aren’t necessarily – there may be some decent investments but there are also an awful lot of rubbish, expensive ones. But the biggest con of all is that the investor isn’t told that the annual bond charges (taken quarterly) will stay the same even if the portfolio value decreases. So, if the investor needs to withdraw some money from the bond, the charges will start to do some serious damage to the remaining fund. And if the investments fail – as many structured notes invariably do – and the portfolio value starts to decrease alarmingly – the bond charges will then erode what’s left very rapidly.
Some victims of serious mis-selling actually end up having the entire fund destroyed by irresponsible, fraudulent or disloyal investment advice by rogue advisers – and can still be paying the bond charges even after the entire portfolio has been destroyed.
The other half of the disloyalty and fraud by Continental Wealth Management (as well as some of the other well-known names in “wealth management”) is the practice of “churning”. This means that the same chunk of money is invested repeatedly to generate as much commission as possible – in as short a space of time as possible. This is easy to spot when looking at the bond statements (whether OMI/Quilter or RL360 or whatever):
“Buy £100k worth of rubbish (earn 6% commission); sell £100k worth of rubbish; buy another £100k worth of rubbish (earn another 6% commission); sell £100k worth of rubbish; buy”….and so on. This exercise can be repeated over and over again in any period – say one year – to mince two or three lots of commission out of the same sum of money. The investor may not notice – as long as his fund value isn’t falling too much – and, because the commissions are concealed, he may not realise he is being defrauded and that his adviser is committing a criminal offence by being “disloyal”.
The Continental Wealth Management case – being heard in the criminal court in Denia, Alicante – may not cure the ills of the offshore financial services industry overnight. But it will certainly send out a clear message to all financial advice firms that Spain, at least, will not tolerate such conduct. While British regulators, courts and police authorities are happy to leave fraudsters and scammers free to keep on operating and promoting financial scams, Spain is in the process of sending out a very clear message:
As we reach the halfway point in the criminal trial of the Continental Wealth Management and Premier Pension Solutions companies, I regret I am unable to give a detailed update on the case at this point. The first half of the eight defendants have been cross examined by the judge’s lawyer, and the second batch of four further defendants are due to be cross examined on 7th April 2020 (in the Denia Court of First Instruction).
This, of course, assumes there is no disruption to the proceedings caused by the Corona virus lockdown.
Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway of CWM leaving the Denia Criminal Court on 25th February 2020 after being cross examined on charges of fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documents.
The first “batch” consisted of Patrick Kirby – Darren Kirby’s brother – who ran the CWM cold calling operation which sent so many hundreds of victims to their doom; Anthony Downs; Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway who had various different titles at different times – ranging from Managing Director to Operations Director to Investment Director.
I can’t comment on the transcripts of the questions and answers on 24th and 25th February, and won’t be able to publish the full details of all cross examinations until all the defendants have appeared before the judge. The defendants on 7th April will be:
JodySmart – sole director and shareholder who paid herself over 1 million Euros in the last two years of the life of CWM – the money being paid into her two other businesses: property company Mercurio and fashion design company Jody Bell. In addition, she also paid money into her Grant A Wish “charity” and drew a hefty salary.
Paul Clarke – founder of the original CWM company in partnership with Darren Kirby; Clarke left a year later to run AES International Spain, where he scammed more victims out of their life savings with expensive, unnecessary, illegally-sold insurance bonds, and high-risk structured notes – all sold for the fat commissions (despite the even fatter losses suffered by the victims). He also advised two victims to go into Stephen Ward’s Ark scam. Clarke now runs a firm called Roebuck Wealth and has scrubbed the internet of all trace of his history.
Darren Kirby – founder along with Clarke and ultimate controller of the whole CWM operation throughout. Kirby made every attempt to divest himself of all legal responsibility for CWM. He gave away his shares in the company to his business/civil partner Jody Smart, and some of his employees. However, all the defendants (as well as victims) are bound to confirm Darren Kirby was the ultimate boss and controlling mind of the company.
Stephen Ward – owner of Premier Pension Solutions SL. He was the person who signed off all the CWM clients’ pension transfers (for a fat fee). He knowingly condemned all pension holders whose transfers he signed off to inevitable partial or total loss. He was fully aware of CWM’s modus operandi as he himself used a similar investment model to that of CWM (and had taught them how to do it). Ward was routinely investing his own clients’ funds in a toxic, disloyal and irresponsible manner which was as bad – and sometimes even worse – than in the CWM cases.
As soon as I can publish the cross examination transcripts and further directions, I will do so.
This landmark Continental Wealth Management criminal case will inevitably shine a much-needed spotlight on the issue of offshore financial services generally. CWM was just one example (albeit an extreme one) of an international financial services culture which generally disadvantages and/or defrauds consumers. The cause of this culture is a combination of the obsession with the insurance bond cartel: OMI, SEB, Generali, RL360 et al; the total reliance on (hidden) commission; the practice of churning (investing the same sum of money as often as possible to generate as much commission as possible) and the view that the client’s money and interests are secondary to the adviser’s.
CWM victims outside the Denia Criminal Court on 25.2.2020 waiting for Dean Stogsdill and Neil Hathaway to finish being questioned on charges of fraud, disloyal administration and falsification of commercial documents.
Most victims – whether parties to the criminal proceedings or not – are aware of the demise of CWM in September 2017. The company was slowly dying because of the number of victims the CWM scammers had ruined: the word was getting out (which was bad for business) so the victims who shouted loudest were getting paid off. This was having a seriously detrimental effect on CWM’s cashflow.
The financial strain on the business was, however, made even worse by the fact that every last bit of spare cash in the CWM bank account was being used to keep Jody Smart in houses, frilly frocks, shoes and champagne. In 2017, the CWM bank statements show 158,614 EUR was transferred into her Mercurio property company bank account, and 123,400 EUR into her Jody Bell fashion design company bank account. But this was significantly down on the previous year: 386,921 EUR to Mercurio and 164,000 EUR to Jody Bell. The year before, 2015, 124,500 EUR into Mercurio and 39,000.00 into Jody Bell fashion. That’s almost 1 million EUR in two years pocketed by Jody – not counting the money paid into her Grant A Wish “charity” and her generous “salary”.
During the same period, however, the revenue was at least 3,391,876.28 EUR in commissions from insurance bonds and structured notes. On top of this was a substantial amount of extra secret commission from the ultra-high-risk Leonteq structured notes, plus whatever Darren Kirby could con out of victims such as Mark Davison (who subsequently died penniless) and the other claimants pursuing Kirby and CWM through the criminal court in Denia in separate proceedings which pre-date our Pension Life proceedings.
Looking back to the dying days of CWM when cashflow was slowly grinding to a halt as the company was paying out compensation to some of the worst-affected victims (and any remaining cash was being spent by Jody Smart on first-class flights to New York and champagne in five-star hotels – despite her claim to be working 24/7 on her Grant A Wish charity), there was a plan to “reinvent” and re-launch CWM. It eventually dawned on the CWM scammers that they couldn’t scam enough new victims quickly enough to pay out all the existing victims – so the answer was to start afresh with a brand new approach. The new approach was essentially the same as the old approach – except they aimed to sell more “products” and ruin more victims.
The rest is history and CWM collapsed at the end of September 2017 – when all related parties withdrew terms of business. It is worth taking a careful look at the business plan which CWM had been intending to use to re-launch the business. This plan makes it clear that this was an unlicensed, insurance bond sales outfit which intended to continue to operate in contravention of the Spanish insurance regulations. If you read the plan carefully, you will see that CWM operating model was always based on a high-pressure sales target which ignored the interests of the clients (victims).
CWM’s promotion had always been centered around the iniquitous cold call – but in addition the business plan reveals that Jody Smart’s Grant A Wish “charity” events had been used to “harvest” potential victims at scamming sales parties posing as bona fide fundraising efforts.
Read the below CWM “Relaunch Business Plan” carefully and you will see how the scam works. If a victim transfers a £100,000 pension, it will fall in value in the hands of CWM to £91,976,000 by the end of year 1. This means the first year fees would have totalled £4,000 set up fee plus £1,000 annual management fee to CWM; £1,490 QROPS fee; £1,534 to fee OMI. It is interesting that Stogsdill has made the assumption in the plan that all clients will be put into an OMI bond – long before they’ve even met the client and found out if they actually need an insurance bond (which they never do as they are too expensive and lock investors in for up to ten years).
The CWM “plan” shows how a victim’s fund could recover back up to £97,495 if it grows by 6%. But this doesn’t take into account the investment costs of between 5% and 8% – so that was never going to happen. So Dean Stogsdill of CWM – despite all the lessons which should have been learned from years of destroying victims’ funds, still fully intended to keep on doing the same to as many new victims as possible.
Continental Wealth Management Business Plan 2017 (by Dean Stogsdill)
Continental Wealth Management is an independent financial advice firm specialising in wealth management advice to English speaking expatriates throughout Europe – this statement is the key to CWM’s future success.
CWM must focus on expanding our circle of influence and create new business through strategic placement of data gatherers. We must take on the business of “hard targets”, created to allow the best we have to flourish, whilst removing the weaker members of the team by natural selection. This is not a system for solely the sales force, but for all aspects of the team including call centre operators, administration and directors.
CWM will have clear defined roles within the sales force with the addition of achievable, measurable targets on top of generous salaries which is the cornerstone of our payroll ethos. The business will flow from our Partners meaning the business can be closed efficiently and serviced by an experienced adviser who is well trained, knowledgeable and most importantly a “hungry individual”.
There is a simple calculation on £100,000.00:
£100,000 invested over 6 years in capital protected products will provide £6,250.00 in gross revenue.
£100,000 invested over 6 years in a fund yielding 3% per annum growth will provide £10,690 in gross revenue.
BACKGROUND
CWM is a financial services company founded in 2007 on the Costa Blanca. It is a company specialising in pension transfers, portfolio bonds, offshore investments and single premium investments. It is a non-regulated company which is owned and operated by the directors / shareholders and founder Darren Kirby. Recent investors are Timothy Benjamin, and Mark Davison with share capital having been distributed amongst these investors.
Directors
/ Shareholders
Founder
/ Majority Shareholder – Darren Kirby
Chairman
– Neil Hathaway
CEO –
Dean Stogsdill
COO –
Anthony Downs
Key
Personnel
Darren
Kirby – He brings a wealth of experience in
financial services with a keen head for figures and sales techniques.
He has a strong view on the business and how it should be perceived
by the clients, while strengthening our position through strategic
investment decisions along with powerful leadership skills.
Neil
Hathaway – Decades of experience in
insurance and wealth management, he brings a strong personality and
great sales skills with the qualifications to match. He is a
knowledgeable asset to the management of the sales force and uses his
skills to bring through the less experienced members of the team.
Dean Stogsdill – Strong sales record and up to date qualifications – he can sell at the most technical level and has a strong grasp of the investment market, regulation and products. Strong views on company direction.
Anthony Downs – Organised, driven and a sales record to match. He drives through the issuing business and captures all revenues and commissions in the most efficient manner. Anthony is key to the efficient stream of payments required for this business model.
Directors:
Re-structure 2017
Darren
Kirby
The final decision maker as majority shareholder means critical decisions will fall to him. A mandate to find new investors and revenue streams for CWM. An ambassadorial role and a creative thinker for the company, bringing fresh ideas on many aspects of the business both operational and non-operational.
Neil
Hathaway
Key point of contact for the sales force. A remit to push the sales force to meet targets and close business. He will be in control of sales, possible bond lists as well as monitoring the business / LOA levels for each adviser. He will also have a key role in writing new business. This will be a target driven management position. All advisers will report directly to him.
Dean
Stogsdill
Complete oversight of the business operationally with a close working relationship with the Chairman and COO. I will manage the company direction and overall development planning, strategies and high level management with department heads reporting directly to me. I will chair board meetings and deal with technical and regulatory planning. I will also be heavily involved in the efficient management of the investment book.
Anthony
Downs
Full control of new business. A remit to drive through the revenues from written business to maximize the cashflow of the company. Target driven with targets based on company income needs, outstanding requirements and business written.
With the current admin levels and management restructure we should be able to easily handle up to 7 bonds per week, plus client after care, outstanding requirements, investment and re-investment. We do not hire any more administration in 2017. Although this will be adjusted if business levels exceed 7 bonds per week.
We are now a company where you perform, meet your
target or you are replaced.
Of the 9 bond writers, we have 1 in France, 1 in Turkey, 1 in Portugal and the other 6 are in Spain. I believe that we need to build up the business levels so that 9 bond writers can meet a target of 30 bonds per man for the year or an average of 3 a month, based on a 10 month / 40-week year. This would mean a company wide total of 270 bonds, at our target average of €10,000 commission per bond that would mean turnover of 2.7 million plus trail of €300,000 meaning a total of €3,000,000 for 2017.
Call Centres – Cold calling with appointments made and revenue generated through call centres and call centres paid for on performance only.
Market
history:
Historically we have concentrated on cold calling, Grant A Wish (“charity”) events, web videos, website and referrals from existing clients. The cold calling aspect is becoming more and more difficult and time consuming and other areas of marketing ourselves and our products must be found.
The protagonists behind collapsed Spanish advisory firm CWM – Continental Wealth Management – will be on trial week commencing 24th February in the Denia Criminal Court of First Instruction.
This criminal matter will have enormous ramifications for similarly-affected victims, and for any advisory firms which have engaged in any of the same practices used by CWM. These illegal practices include the gratuitous selling of insurance bonds from bond providers such as OMI, SEB, RL360, Friends Provident and Generali; putting low-risk investors into commission-laden, high-risk investments; churning and concealment of backhanders; forged or copied client signatures on investment dealing instructions.
The routine “sale” of insurance bonds (whether the clients need them or not – which 99% of the time they don’t) is illegal in Spain. Undoubtedly this will be similar or identical in other jurisdictions. The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that insurance bonds are invalid for the purpose of holding investments. But still the scammers continue to flog them indiscriminately – purely for the fat commissions.
Insurance bond salesmanship has become one of the biggest, most widespread and toxic crimes across all expat territories – and now it must be outlawed by the ethical sector of the financial services market. And there is an ethical sector which abhors the toxic and dishonest practices which will be the subject of the CWM trial. There is also a “semi-ethical” sector which is genuinely ashamed that it too has carried out such practices, but which is determined to clean up it’s act and “go straight” from now on.
Make no mistake – the Denia Criminal Court is determined to clean up this stretch of the Costa Blanca in particular and Spain in general – as well as make an example out of the CWM scammers. Some of the CWM victims, as well as Ark and Capita Oak victims – and those financially ruined by both Stephen Ward and Paul Clarke – will be at the court hearings the week of 24th February. There will be local and international press coverage to highlight the importance of this significant event.
The
defendants in the CWM case were served in early January. They are now
compelled to come to court to be cross-examined by our lawyer. Each defendant
will have his or her own legal representative and also a court-appointed
translator. The cross examinations will take place privately in front of
the judge, but a transcript of each one will be published subsequently. I will
translate these transcripts and make them publicly available on the Pension
Life website as soon as they are made available by the court.
The dates
of the now compulsory court hearings are:
Monday 24th February from 10
a.m.: Darren Kirby; Patrick Kirby and Anthony Downs
Tuesday 25th February from
10 a.m.: Jody Smart, Neil Hathaway and Dean Stogsdill
Friday 28th February from 10
a.m.: Stephen Ward and Paul Clarke
Darren
Kirby did not show up for the last criminal trial – when he was accused of
defrauding three victims out of their life savings in order to give him money
to prop up the rapidly failing CWM and to pay money to his partner – Jody Smart
– to invest in her fashion business: Jody Bell. One of the complainants in this
previous case has since died.
Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions has fled to Florida where he owns a portfolio of at least ten mortgage-free properties near Disneyland. However, he will not succeed in avoiding prosecution.
Sole director and shareholder of CWM, Jody Smart did turn up for the last criminal trial, so it is expected that she will probably attend this one. Smart will be keen to deflect blame from herself and claim that she was only a “nominee” director. However, in the last two years of operation, she paid herself 991,035.86 Eur (on top of her already more than generous director’s salary) – 670,035 Eur into her property company Mercurio Conpro and 321,000 Eur into her Jody Bell fashion business.
The remaining CWM defendants: Anthony Downs, Neil Hathaway, Dean Stogsdill and Paul Clarke are likely to turn up since they are all based in Spain and have families, property and businesses here.
CWM earned 3,391,876 Eur in commissions on sales of insurance bonds and structured notes in the last two years of operation. Scammers like CWM generally made at least 16% commission out of victims’ pensions and investments. This would mean that in this period, CWM scammed victims out of approximately 17,000,000 Eur. On top of his, the firm earned many hundreds of thousands from victims they cleaned out promising them shares in the company (which Darren Kirby had claimed was worth 10 million), properties and cars. But when the firm closed, the CWM bank account was virtually empty. This video will illustrate some of the appalling misery the CWM victims endured – and the extent to which Jody Smart benefited from the money stolen from the victims: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYlxu8YOaAM&t=3s
The
following related entities have been asked to provide documentary evidence to
support the complainants cases:
Inter Alliance, Globalnet, Trafalgar, Old Mutual International, SEB and Generali
This
evidence will include copies of risk profiles and investment dealing
instructions – bearing the forged investor signatures.
This
criminal case has been brought by using 17 “lead” cases – victims of
the CWM scam who have all lost considerable amounts of their life savings.
These victims are now the lead complainants who also represent the interests of
the further hundreds of victims who have suffered similar fates. The lead
complainants have put an enormous amount of time, work and self-sacrifice
towards this matter. Each complainant has had to re-live the horror of their
suffering at the hands of CWM – telling their painful stories to our lawyer
Antonio Bertomeu. Most of the lead complainants are based in the vicinity of
Denia – where CWM committed the majority of the crimes. However, one
complainant came all the way from Portugal.
I will be
with Antonio Bertomeu the week before the trial as we prepare for the cross
examination of the defendants in court during the week of 24th February.
This is a crucial point in the proceedings as there has been a substantial
amount of further evidence which has emerged since this complaint was
originally filed in court in June 2019. There are also further defendants
who will now need to be included in the proceedings.
The Denia
court has stressed that this is an issue which is of great importance as it
involves three serious criminal offences which are likely to involve
substantial financial penalties and custodial sentences:
Falsification of commercial documents
Disloyal administration
Continuous fraud
The outcome of this case will inevitably have far-reaching consequences for the industry globally – especially since the practices which are the subject of these criminal proceedings have been widely practised for a number of years. These crimes have not been exclusive to Continental Wealth Management and their associates. There are many victims beyond the clients of CWM who have suffered similar crippling investment losses. The scope of these criminal proceedings will now inevitably reach into other firms and jurisdictions.
Meghan and Harry – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – are having a tough time (and are running away from home). Their sadness and confusion is because they have no purpose or passion in life. So I am offering them an interesting and satisfying challenge: taking on and championing the cause of pension scam victims. Harry’s Mum knew a thing or too about adopting worthy causes and had no problem jumping on a plane to far away, war-torn places full of the most appalling human suffering and landmines. Meghan and Harry don’t even have to travel as far as the airport to find victims whose cause desperately needs championing.
Poor Duke and Duchess of Sussex – what an awful time they’re having: posh clothes; flash cars; sumptuous “cottage” in Windsor Park. They needn’t be bored and aimless any longer. They can become patrons of the plight of the thousands of British citizens who have lost £ billions to pension and investment scams.
Just as the Late Princess Diana confronted the horrific dangers of land mines, Meghan and Harry can confront the huge tide of appalling human misery caused by scammers Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions; Paul Clarke of Roebuck Wealth; Dennis Radford of Spectrum IFA Group; Darren Kirby of CWM; Gus Ferguson and David Vilka of Square Mile; XXXX XXXX of Nationwide Benefit Consultants; Phill Pennick of Pennick Blackwell; Peter and Sara Moat of Fast Pensions; Paul Baxendale-Walker; Patrick McCreesh and Phillip Nunn of Blackmore Group; Paul Careless of Surge Group.
This is now becoming a very high-profile topic – especially in the light of the multiple, dismal failings of the FCA and a recent series of hard-hitting articles published by Tom Kelly of the Daily Mail. Kelly, an engaging and open-minded young man (who I am sure the Sussexes will like) has written about a wide array of pension and investment disasters which have befallen thousands of victims since 2010. I would urge Meghan and Harry to contact him: Tom’s email address is: Tom.Kelly@dailymail.co.uk and his editor’s address is: Geordie.greg@dailymail.co.uk
As the disillusioned Royals are bound to ask whether pension scam victims have anything to do with them (or whether they should even care about people who have lost their life savings or pensions), they might like to consider the following:
If Frogmore Cottage catches fire, Meghan and Harry will have to call the Fire Brigade. The sumptuous property cost £2.4 million to refurbish to the highest possible standard, but even the best sparks do sometimes make the odd mistake. The Royals’ home – and even their lives – will be in the hands of the firemen. These brave firefighters will risk their own lives running into the burning building; then will rescue the people and (hopefully) save the building.
If Meghan and Harry’s baby son Archie is unwell after inhaling smoke, they will rush him to hospital – where he will be tended to by nurses and doctors.
If a therapeutic trip to Canada is required (to get over the upset of their home being damaged by fire), the plane will be flown by two pilots.
Pension and investment scammers target people from all works of life – including firemen, doctors, nurses and airline pilots. Next time the Sussexes place their hands into the lives of any of these professionals, they might like to consider whether these people are victims of scams and are worried sick about their financial losses.
Scammers don’t care what their victims do for a living: sparks, chippies, builders, gardeners, taxi and bus drivers, soldiers, care workers, architects, scientists, accountants, artists, police officers…the list is endless – and includes airline pilots.
Meghan and Harry need not think that going to Canada will get them far away from the world of pension and investment scams. These criminals have long arms and can easily reach as far as North America – and well beyond. The long list of highly-organised scams includes schemes in the UK and all expat jurisdictions across the globe – including Canada.
Coming from a privileged background where Harry’s Mum gets paid more than £8 million a year (and Meghan and Harry are reportedly worth around £30 million), it is going to be hard to get their heads round the poverty thousands of victims are facing. Perhaps cutting the purse and apron strings will teach Meghan and Harry just how hard it is to earn a crust – and save for a retirement that isn’t handed to them on a plate.
While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex fly backwards and forwards between the UK and Canada, perhaps they might like to ponder a few things:
How to keep the plight of pension and investment scam victims in the headlines
How to encourage the government to make financial regulation effective
How to provide a law-enforcement system that ensures all scammers are jailed
How to get the law changed to ensure HMRC pursues the perps rather than the victims
Whether the pilot of their plane has lost his pension and hasn’t got his mind entirely on the job
If Meghan and Harry do accept this challenge, they will have to accept that it won’t be easy. The scammers are determined, hard-nosed and hard-hearted criminals; the regulators are lazy and mostly asleep at the wheel; the police are over-stretched and under-resourced; the government hasn’t got a Scooby – and anyway can’t think beyond Brexit. This is evidenced by the fact that the moronic Chancellor Sajid Javid appointed arch FCA failure Andrew Bailey to govern the Bank of England. Boris Johnson was just as bonkers to endorse this ridiculous decision. When he told the Queen of the appointment, she should have given him a good slap round the earhole. (Mind you – she was probably a bit preoccupied about the company Uncle Andrew was keeping at the time, and she probably thought “oh well, at least Bailey isn’t a paedophile”).
The biggest challenge in fighting pension and investment scams is how to help prevent further victims. The best way to do this is to keep the topic firmly in the public eye – and that means encouraging the press to keep the subject in the headlines (and not let it get shoved out of sight by trivia). The other important role that Meghan and Harry could play would be to ensure that politicians keep their promises. A couple of years ago Boris Johnson promised a group of his constituents that he would tackle pension scams. But nothing happened and now he is ignoring them. We all know he’s been a little busy recently, but leaving his own constituents hanging after promising he would help them is not acceptable.
I remember being with two Ark victims at least five years ago and begging journalists at The Sunday Times and The Sun to run an article on the Ark scam. They all said it wasn’t “sexy enough”. Mark Atherton of The Times wrote a very good piece in The Times in 2014, but he was severely threatened and never wrote about pension scams again. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pension-scam-leaves-victims-in-debt-k33rlcs25wc
Just think how many victims could have been prevented had the media done their duty and fully exposed the parties who caused and facilitated these scams since 2010. Then think how many suicides and stress-related deaths could have been prevented. Consider how much money could have been saved from destruction – and how many people could have been looking forward to a well-earned and comfortable retirement rather than abject poverty and misery.
In October 2019, The Mail’s Tom Kelly came to my office in Spain and spent several days with me. I went through the whole history of Stephen Ward and Ark (followed by Capita Oak and more than a dozen others), as well as James Lau and Salmon Enterprises, Paul Baxendale-Walker, Peter Moat and Darren Kirby’s Continental Wealth Management. I explained to Tom in detail how the flow of money works from the ceding pension providers: Aviva, Standard Life, Prudential, NHS, Police and Local Authorities etc., to the receiving schemes; what the difference between personal and DB pensions is and how the whole bogus occupational scheme fraud worked. Most important, we went through how hidden commissions and high-risk, toxic investments often destroy victims’ funds – as well as the life bonds such as OMI, SEB, Generali, Friends Provident, RL360 which lock investors in to entirely unnecessary, inflexible and expensive offshore bonds – AND PAY FAT COMMISSIONS TO THE UNQUALIFIED, UNREGULATED SCAMMERS.
In case Meghan and Harry are still unsure whether patronage of an initiative to outlaw pension and investment scams is their cup of tea, I will share, yet again, the video which features the death of CWM victim Mark Davison:
Laura Shannon of The Mail On Sunday attended Mark’s memorial service and interviewed dozens of further CWM victims in September 2019. While five months pregnant, Laura made the journey to Denia, Alicante, in fierce heat – putting all other so-called investigative journalists who write about financial services (or not, as the case may be) to shame. Not even stopping to recover from an arduous bus journey from the airport, she got stuck straight in and wrote an excellent piece: https://pension-life.com/continental-wealth-management-plunder-in-paradise/
Responsibility for reforming financial services and bringing culpable parties to justice may lie with governments, regulators, police and HMRC. But Royals could do their part too. Meghan and Harry: get stuck in to a worthy cause. Find out what the real world is really like for ordinary, decent, hard-working victims of pension and investment scams.
Finally, I am enormously grateful to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell for calling out our idiot Chancellor Sajid Javid over the appalling appointment of Andrew Bailey as Governor of the Bank of England. Anyone who fancies dropping him a line can reach him here: mcdonnellj@parliament.uk or here: lowderh@parliament.uk
Despite the 2017 demise of Continental Wealth Management – run by Darren Kirby and his partner Jody Smart (Bell/Kirby) – former CWM scammers have continued to ply their evil trade. Pension scammers don’t just go away – they join or set up other firms and continue their profitable, illegal work. Just as leopards don’t change their spots, scammers don’t change their modus operandi. They use the same old same old dirty tricks as used by CWM for nearly ten years since the firm was set up by Darren Kirby and Paul Clarke: essentially an illegal insurance bond sales operation – followed up by toxic, high-risk investments paying the highest possible commissions to the scammers. They don’t bother with regulations or qualifications and routinely forge signatures on investment dealing instructions.
The CWM pension scam in Spain must be a lesson to all; phoenixes run by former CWM scammers must be exposed and closed down; firms with only an insurance license must not give illegal investment advice; insurance bonds must no longer be sold illegally in Spain and elsewhere; commissions must not be fraudulently concealed; advisers must be qualified; illegally-run offshore “networks” must be outlawed and disbanded.
Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions S.L., Premier Pension Transfers Ltd., Dorrixo Alliance and Marazion, seems to have given up his scamming operation and is now re-developing his former office in Moraira into a luxury villa with pool. Having ruined thousands of victims with his various pension scams: Ark, Evergreen, Capita Oak, Westminster, London Quantum etc., he then went on to “advise” thousands more victims on the transfer of their DB pensions into the hands of more offshore sharks and scammers. All these victims will have been transferred into QROPS and then put in unnecessary, expensive insurance bonds such as OMI, and then invested in high-risk, high-commission rubbish which will have destroyed substantial amounts of money.
Stephen Ward had his own portfolio of clients as well. He ruined most of these by investing their life savings in high-risk, high-commission funds such as EEA Life Settlements, Axiom Legal Funding, Mansion Student Accommodation, Aria and Blackrock Gold.
Stephen Ward had been issuing all the transfer advice reports for the CWM victims, but then in or around 2015 he was replaced by CWM scammer Martyn Ryan of FCA-registered Global Financial Options who took over from Ward in facilitating the CWM scam which ruined up to 1,000 victims. Ryan now runs Infinity Claims – a claims management company which, ironically, purports to help victims of unsuitable pension transfers (you couldn’t make it up!). Best (or worst) of all, Ryan’s new firm is also FCA regulated. You can quite see how victims get scammed when regulators give the scammers the very tools they need to trick their victims into handing over their life savings.
Another prolific CWM scammer was Phill Pennick. He, like all his colleagues at the unregulated Continental Wealth Management firm on the Costa Blanca, conned hundreds of victims into having their pensions and life savings placed into illegally-sold insurance bonds by OMI, SEB and Generali, and then invested in toxic structured notes provided by Royal Bank of Canada, Commerzbank, Nomura and Leonteq. Victims lost up to 100% of their funds while Pennick and the rest of Kirby’s team of scammers earned fat, concealed commissions from the insurance bonds and structured notes.
Pennick went on to set up his own “IFA” practice – Pennick Blackwell – at two office addresses on the Costa Blanca: Albir and La Nucia. Former mortgage broker Pennick – and his associate Kristoffer Taft (former barman with no qualifications) proceeded to scam more victims and openly commit criminal offences by selling insurance bonds illegally in contravention of the Spanish insurance regulations. In the past few days, the Albir Pennick Blackwell office has closed down and been emptied of all furniture and light bulbs. It is not known whether Pennick (who had also been running an estate agency and a mis-sold mortgage claims management company) is now on the run or whether he has simply done a “phoenix” somewhere else. Certainly, the public should be wary and report any sightings of this serial scammer.
Another phoenix from an ex-CWM scammer is Roebuck Wealth run by Paul Clarke. Clarke was one of the original founders of Continental Wealth Management, along with head scammer Darren Kirby. The pair parted acrimoniously and Clarke went on to promote Stephen Ward’s Ark scam and to build a successful business as an insurance bond and structured note salesmen – committing criminal offences by flogging both sets of products throughout Spain. Earning huge commissions from both bonds and toxic investments with illegally-concealed commissions, Clarke sought out some of his new victims on Facebook – using the name “Bella and Alfie” to hide his real identity.
Openly committing a series of criminal offences by putting clients into bonds and investments which were entirely unsuitable and risky, Clarke concealed his commissions and routinely destroyed his clients’ funds. Interestingly, Clarke seems to have scrubbed the internet of all trace of his firm – Roebuck Wealth – and of himself. Openly prowling the Costa Blanca for more victims in his Aston Martin, Clarke now works closely with the local Masons which provides him with a large stock of further victims to keep him in his champagne lifestyle.
Some of the former CWM scammers managed to get jobs with other financial advisory firms when Continental Wealth Management collapsed in September 2017. Ethical firms who had inadvertently employed these scammers, without realising the extent of their crimes, immediately sacked them when they discovered the truth. One exception to this is the Spectrum IFA Group. This outfit – which purports to be a financial advisory firm – currently employs former CWM scammer Dennis Radford.
However, when warned that they were operating illegally by providing investment advice in Spain and other countries – as well as selling insurance bonds illegally in Spain – Spectrum’s Michael Lodhi refused to sack Radford. Lodhi then went on to attempt to justify the firm’s illegal activities and to defend Radford. Radford had acted as “Senior Partner” at CWM and had been heavily involved in the scamming activities of the firm for some years. The email exchange between Lodhi and me is reported below. This exchange reveals the extent of Spectrum’s illegal activities – in which Radford now plays a key role.
Pension Scammers in Spain – CWM must be a lesson to all.
The Continental Wealth Management scam must be a lesson to all. The public must be made aware of the crimes which have already been committed by the former CWM scammers and must avoid them at all costs in the future. Quite a few of these vile predators are now in the process of being prosecuted and will hopefully serve long jail sentences. But in the meantime, while the Spanish justice process plays out, it is essential that the public should remain vigilant. The scammers are very much alive and active – especially on the Costa Blanca along the eastern coast of Spain (where there is a large concentration of British expats).
RESPONSE BY ANGIE BROOKS OF PENSION LIFE TO LETTER FROM MICHAEL LODHI OF SPECTRUM IFA GROUP
LODHI: We have examined your website and posts and would like to correct some details about our firm that you may have misunderstood.
ME: There is nothing I have misunderstood.
LODHI: Spectrum IFA Group is not a company. It is our brand, a pan-European registered trademark. This is clearly stated on our website and our literature: For Spain “The Spectrum IFA Group” is a registered trademark, exclusive rights to use in Spain granted to: Baskerville Advisers S.L. | CIF B-63/137.020 | Correduría de Seguros; No de registro RDGS J2306.
ME: And this does not authorise Baskerville Advisers S.L. to provide investment advice. Therefore, you are breaking the law by doing so.
LODHI: We provide financial planning services and advice using Insurance based Investment Products (IBIPs) which are both Spanish compliant and tax efficient in Spain.
ME: Your firm is authorised for insurance mediation and this does not cover investment advice. The products to which you are referring are insurance bonds (e.g. OMI, SEB, Generali etc) which are mostly sold illegally in Spain. These companies have facilitated widespread financial crime – including fraud – for many years. This has involved giving terms of business to unregulated firms such as CWM and allowing many millions of pounds’ worth of life savings to be destroyed (by the use of high-risk, high-commission investments).
LODHI: Regulation of these products is covered in the Insurance Distribution Directive. More information is available here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/insurance-distribution-directive-2016-97-eu_en Article 2 – Definitions point (17) of DIRECTIVE (EU) 2016/97 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution (recast) page 30 states: ‘insurance-based investment product’ means an insurance product which offers a maturity or surrender value and where that maturity or surrender value is wholly or partially exposed, directly or indirectly, to market fluctuations The appropriate regulator in Spain for such IBIPs is the DGSFP.
ME: The DGS does not regulate the products themselves – it regulates the way the products are sold (mediated). And most advisory firms in Spain do this illegally (in contravention of the DGS regulations). Also, the Spanish Supreme Court has deemed life assurance policies (such as OMI bonds) to be invalid for the purposes of holding investments.
LODHI: For your information another of our group companies is a licensed investment advisory firm (Mifid) however this licence is not required for our current activity in Spain.
ME: Which company? You are clearly giving investment advice, so how is your organisation authorised to do this – particularly in Spain?
LODHI: Our consultants are trained in accordance with Spanish rules laid down by our regulator, the DGSFP.
ME: I think you have to be clear what your “consultants” do. Are they advisers or just bond salesmen? If the Spanish rules say that consultants (or salesmen or advisers) don’t have to be qualified, then you are right. Most of your salesmen have no qualifications (although some of them do lie about being qualified). The only ones with verifiable qualifications are Robin Beven, John Hayward, Chris Burke and Jonathan Goodman (as far as I can see). Perhaps you can update me on this so I can republish this blog with the latest information: https://pension-life.com/spectrum-ifa-group-qualified-and-registered/
LODHI: All of our financial planning advice is produced and signed off centrally via our technical and compliance department.
AB: That’s a funny sort of “compliance” department if it signs off investment advice which is not licensed. Perhaps you ought to sack all your compliance people since they clearly don’t understand that a firm cannot give investment advice (which many of your salesmen clearly claim to do on your own website) without being licensed to do so.
LODHI: In addition, our pension transfer advice (TVAS reports) are also provided centrally by a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute who holds all the up to date UK pensions qualifications.
ME: Which one of your staff is this?
LODHI: Where appropriate, further pensions transfer advice is provided by an FCA authorised pension transfer specialist who holds all current UK pension advice permissions.
AB: Who? (as in – who is the allegedly FCA-authorised pension transfer specialist providing transfer advice to Spectrum?)
LODHI: It is not a requirement in Spain that our consultants hold UK financial planning qualifications, however many do hold these. For example John Hayward holds the following UK qualifications: Chartered Insurance Institute Financial Planning Certificate (3 parts 1. Financial Services and their regulation 2. Protection, savings and investment products 3. Identifying and satisfying client needs.) Chartered Insurance Institute G60 Pensions Institute of Financial Services Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice
AB: And hereby lies the problem, of course. Offshore firms such as yours concentrate on the expat market – which involves UK pensions. So of course a genuinely ethical and professional firm would ensure that advisers hold the relevant UK qualifications. This is one of the reasons why so many British firms offshore cause victims’ losses – because the advisers are not qualified and only know how to be salesmen targeting maximum commissions rather than giving proper independent financial advice.
LODHI: Dennis (Radford) approached us whilst working with Continental Wealth Management (CWM) part of the Trafalgar International Gmbh network. He was neither an owner nor a Director of that firm.
AB: Radford was a “Senior Partner” (of Continental Wealth Management) – although neither a shareholder nor a director. His title must have told you that he had held a senior position within the firm. This should have given you a clue that he was an integral part of this scam.
LODHI: Having worked with CWM for some time he realised that the products sold inside life assurance policies were not in his client’s best interests.
AB: It would be interesting to know how many minutes he took to realise this. He could easily have checked to see how insurance products are supposed to be sold – and had he done this he would have realised immediately that ALL the life bonds (OMI, SEB and Generali) were being sold illegally by CWM. With the structured notes, all the term sheets clearly bore the words: “for professional investors only” and “risk of loss of part or all of your capital”. So he should have stopped immediately. But as you have confirmed, Radford continued selling these products “for some time”. Perhaps you would be kind enough to disclose exactly how many people Radford scammed out of their life savings during the time he was “Senior Partner” at CWM?
LODHI: After investigating our working methods and procedures Dennis applied to join our firm.
AB: It was at this point that you should have told Radford in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances would you take on a bond salesman who had been working for a firm of scammers. But clearly you welcomed him with open arms.
LODHI: His main request was that we assist him with his existing clients by moving them (where possible) into funds from Spectrum’s approved fund list – EU compliant, daily traded, from household name fund managers, without initial fees, initial commissions or exit penalties.
AB: But that would have involved giving investment advice – and Spectrum was not licensed to give investment advice.
LODHI: Dennis continues to assist his clients transferred to Spectrum from CWM along with other clients from other IFA firms with similar issues around QROPS and Fund selection inside IBIPs.
AB: Again, this involves investment advice. Radford is not qualified to do this, and Spectrum (or Baskerville) is not authorised to do this.
LODHI: We understand you are trying to help expatriates in Spain who may have been subject to mis- selling by IFAs.
AB: Correct. We are taking criminal action against the directors and shareholders of CWM for the fraud and disloyal administration (a criminal offence in Spain) committed by the director and shareholders of the company. Now that it has become clear that Radford held a senior position of responsibility and authority in the company, I will be taking legal advice as to whether he should be added to the list of defendants.
LODHI: It is important for your business’ credibility that your posts are factually correct.
AB: My posts are factually correct. But this isn’t about my business; it is about your business – and your credibility. And you are employing unqualified “advisers” and are giving unauthorised investment advice – along with employing Radford – a known ex-CWM scammer. Most decent, ethical firms immediately sack scammers when they realise their provenance and it is disappointing that you have not taken such proactive action and are still harbouring him.
LODHI: Several posts on your site imply that our firm is carrying out an activity that is illegal.
AB: Correct. You are giving investment advice without being authorised to do so. Further, the way your firm is selling insurance bonds is illegal. I don’t know what the Spanish regulations say about employing ex scammers – perhaps you could enlighten me?
LODHI: This is clearly not the case.
AB: It is, indeed, clearly the case.
LODHI: We ask that you remove these posts immediately in order that we avoid having to take action.
AB: Hopefully, the action you will take will be to sack Dennis Radford without further prevarication.I will be happy to update the qualifications on the post about your staff if you provide me with links to evidence on each one.
LODHI: Like you, we have tried to assist people who have been subject to bad advice in Spain and we continue to do so.
AB: If this is true, it is such a shame that you have employed one of the very people who was giving “bad” advice and who had been a “Senior Partner” at CWM – the very firm which scammed 1,000 victims out of their life savings.
LODHI: We understand that financial services regulation within the EU is complex.
AB: It is not complex at all. In Spain you have to comply with Spanish regulations – irrespective of where or how you are regulated.
LODHI: We are ready to assist you in understanding the facts and procedures should this be of use to you.
AB: If I ever find myself in a position where I feel I require assistance from a firm which is employing a known scammer and is providing investment advice without being authorised to do so, you will be the first to know.(However, I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you).
LODHI: Brexit. Be aware that in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal or with Mr Johnson’s current deal, then, as it stands, IFAs licensed and regulated in the UK or Gibraltar will be unable to advise or service clients from the date of leaving. A Spanish licensed brokerage like ours will have no such issues.
AB: Brexit or no Brexit, your firm is not licensed to provide investment advice. Further, it is obliged to conform to Spanish regulations. That will not change.
LODHI: We look forward to hearing that your erroneous posts have been removed.
AB: There are no erroneous posts – unless you would care to help me update the qualifications on last year’s post?
Clearly, Lodhi is happy to continue to employ one of the CWM pension scammers. He has no intention of learning any lessons and the public must be extremely wary of Spectrum IFA Group as it is breaking the law in Spain.
Victims of the Continental Wealth Management scam met Mail on Sunday’s Laura Shannon
Mail on Sunday’s Laura Shannon met a group of victims of the Continental Wealth Management scam in Denia in July 2019.
Here is a link to her excellent article Continental Wealth Management – “Plunder in paradise”: MAIL ON SUNDAY ARTICLE
All power to her, this young lady put all other would-be investigative journalists to shame. Laura jumped on a plane on 24th July 2019 when she and her editor heard about the Continental Wealth Management scandal. After a long, hot bus journey from Alicante airport, she got straight down to business. She spent all afternoon interviewing a large group of distressed investors. She then attended the memorial service for one victim who had been killed by the stress he suffered when he lost his pension – thanks to Continental Wealth Management’s Darren Kirby.
Laura Shannon – putting all other “investigative” journalists to shame
No other British journalist has bothered to do this. No other national newspaper has taken such an interest in this important story – about how British people have been scammed by British advisers in Europe’s leading expat destination.
Clearly shaken by the extent of the Continental Wealth Management scam, and the plight of the victims, Laura was deeply moved by the memorial service for victim Mark Davison who had died two weeks earlier. After a very long and tiring day, Laura retired to her hotel to write up her notes – ahead of another full day of meeting more victims.
So where had all the other so-called newspapers been all this time? Where were The Sun, The Times, The Telegraph, The Mirror, The Guardian, The Express? Too lazy – and clearly not concerned with this very British problem. These newspapers do indeed have some very fine journalists – but this widespread financial crime was too low on their priority list.
On the second day of her visit, Laura Shannon met another group of Continental Wealth’s victims and also spoke to a couple in France by Skype. Her final interview with an elderly lady (who had tried to commit suicide when she lost most of her life savings to the Continental Wealth Management scammers) left her in tears.
At lunch time, Laura headed back to Alicante airport. Four and a half months pregnant, this energetic and passionate young woman returned to her office in Birmingham to write and file her story. She left little out and covered most of the basic points. Her article left the reader in no doubt: financial crime has flourished in Spain for years.
There are both criminal and civil actions ongoing now – on the Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol. The days of unqualified “chiringuitos” and unlicensed firms are hopefully over. While Britain’s feeble excuse for a regulator – the FCA run by lazy loser Andrew Bailey – fails to take any meaningful action, the Spanish regulator has at least ruled that failing to comply with Spanish regulations is a criminal offence.
The Malta regulator has tightened up rules to help stop firms operating similar scams from abusing QROPS, and deploying inappropriate investment policies. Multiple class actions in various jurisdictions are taking legal action against rogue insurance companies – such as Old Mutual International – who have encouraged and profited from widespread financial crime.
Ward’s luxury development at 64 Calle Haya, Moraira, Alicante
And this is the problem: crime pays. Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions in Moraira is now adding to his ten mortgage-free luxury villa property portfolio in Florida by building a huge luxury villa next to his former office in Calle Haya in Moraira.
Paul Clarke – Darren Kirby’s former business partner (when Continental Wealth Management was first set up) has for years been seen zooming around the Costa Blanca in his Aston Martin. And Jody Smart (or Bell or Kirby) – Darren Kirby’s former girlfriend has boasted of the £13 million she earned as director of Continental Wealth Management.
Sipping champagne while publicising her fashion empire on Youtube
Jody now runs a swish ocean-front restaurant in Calpe with fiance Franco Pearson – seemingly untroubled by the appalling trail of devastation left behind her in the wake of the Continental Wealth Management tragedy.
But the millions made by the scammers at Continental Wealth Management pale into insignificance when compared to the fortunes made by life offices Old Mutual International, SEB and Generali.
Not a hint of regret for OMI’s actions – or shame at his broken promises.
Peter Kenny did promise to pay compensation to OMI’s victims. But this was just a ruse to get me to take down my blogs about OMI so that the IPO would earn him and his accomplices more £ millions.
The Spanish regulator has made it clear it is a criminal offence to sell insurance “bonds”.
No firm with a conscience or any professional ethics should ever use OMI, SEB or Generali. Anyone caught mis-selling such insurance bonds in Spain is committing a criminal offence and can face jail. As most advisory firms in Spain are still doing so vigorously and unashamedly (with the same old lame excuse that such bonds are “tax efficient”), the Spanish jails are likely to get pretty crowded in the not-too-distant future.
But how do people avoid getting scammed from now on?
Part of the problem is knowing what questions to ask – and then being able to understand the answers. Unfortunately, Stephen Ward was the exception to the rule – since he was highly qualified and his firm – Premier Pension Solutions – was authorised to provide investment advice.
1. Check that the firm is authorised (regulated; licensed). If investment advice is given, make sure the firm has an investment license: don’t be fooled into believing that an insurance license is enough. It isn’t.
2. Check that the adviser is qualified to give financial advice. He or she must provide evidence of any qualifications claimed. If the relevant institute does not show the qualification, then the adviser is not qualified – no matter what exams may have been passed previously.
3. Don’t get talked into an insurance bond (aka “life bond” or portfolio bond). They are expensive and unnecessary – and only serve to pay the adviser a fat commission.
4. Don’t let an adviser invest your funds into expensive, risky assets which are only there to pay fat, undisclosed commissions FROM YOUR MONEY.
Lastly, make sure you get everything – all costs, fees, charges and commissions – in writing. DON’T GET SCAMMED LIKE THE CONTINENTAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT VICTIMS. They will all give you exactly the same advice.
Hey BJ – just a quick note to wish you luck in the PM contest. If you win, please make it your priority to sort out pension fraud.
Treating head lice – like fighting pension scammers – is a matter of the utmost urgency. Everyone knows that if you don’t kill the lice, they keep breeding and before you know it there’s a serious infestation. Same thing happens with pension scammers.
The British government must now sort this urgent problem out – scammers must be treated like head lice.
The problem is that for the past ten years, the British government – as well as HMRC, the Pensions Regulator, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Insolvency Service, the Police, the FCA and Dalriada Trustees – have left pension scammers free to breed. Like head lice.
Just to remind you Boris, you have pension scam victims in your own constituency and you represent their rights. And every single person in the UK exists to do one thing: RETIRE. So, the pension scammers defraud these people (thousands of them) out of what they have worked hard for all their lives.
I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but let me explain to you how pension scams work:
HMRC registers the occupational pension schemes
The Pensions Regulator registers the occupational pension schemes
The FCA lets unregulated “advisers” carry out regulated “advice” without sanction
HMRC and the Pensions Regulator allow scams to continue unhindered and fail to warn either the public or the industry
The Pensions Regulator places schemes into the hands of Dalriada Trustees
Nobody (except the victims) reports the scammers to the crime enforcement agencies
The scammers are left free to scam over and over again
HMRC taxes the victims and not the scammers
The police won’t even prosecute the scammers who scam police officers
One appalling example is the Salmon Enterprises case. Two former Inland Revenue officers – Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley – set up a pension trustee company called Tudor Capital Management and registered a bogus occupational pension scheme called Salmon Enterprises. HMRC and the Pensions Regulator accepted the registration without question.
In 2010, HMRC, the Pensions Regulator and the Crown Prosecution Service started to investigate Meeson and Bradley for tax fraud and money laundering offences. (After three years of “investigation”, Meeson and Bradley were jailed for eight years apiece).
But, neither HMRC nor the Pensions Regulator warned the public or the industry. While one hundred victims were scammed out of their pensions, HMRC continued to confirm to ceding providers that Salmon Enterprises was an HMRC-registered pension scheme. And the Pensions Regulator deliberately concealed the fact that the trustees were under criminal investigation for fraud.
So now HMRC stands to collect £millions in tax from the victims who have lost their pensions.
At the same time as HMRC and the Pensions Regulator were facilitating the Salmon Enterprises pension scam, they were also facilitating the Ark scam.
The main promoter of Ark was Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions SL and Premier Pension Transfers Ltd. HMRC met with Stephen Ward in February 2011 – after six months of communicating with him and expressing concern about the reciprocal “loans” he was facilitating. But still neither HMRC nor the Pensions Regulator shut the Ark schemes down. And 486 people got scammed out of their pensions and are now fighting off tax demands by HMRC.
HMRC and the Pensions Regulator went on to register dozens more bogus occupational pension schemes by Stephen Ward. And so, after Ark, thousands more victims lost their pensions and got huge tax bills from HMRC. Many people reckon – understandably – that HMRC is even worse than the scammers.
The Pensions Regulator appointed Dalriada as independent trustee to ARK. But Dalriada said it was “not within their remit” to report Stephen Ward and the rest of the scammers who promoted and ran ARK.
The Pensions Regulator appointed Dalriada as independent trustee to CAPITA OAK. But Dalriada said it was “not within their remit” to report Stephen Ward and the rest of the scammers who promoted and ran CAPITA OAK.
The Pensions Regulator appointed Dalriada as independent trustee to WESTMINSTER. But Dalriada said it was “not within their remit” to report Stephen Ward and the rest of the scammers who promoted and ran WESTMINSTER .
And so it went on and on and on….and the head lice continued to breed. XXXX XXXX entered the arena and after running the Capita Oak scam (300 victims who lost £10 million between them), he went on to run the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund scam along with STM Fidecs – and another 400 victims lost over £20 million worth pension funds.
Stephen Ward also went on unchallenged, and scammed more victims out of millions in the London Quantum pension scam. (Also in the hands of Dalriada Trustees).
So what next BJ? Are you going to make this a priority? You need to get all these scammers put where they belong – behind bars. You need decent regulation and law enforcement to put things right and stop this from happening again. You must make Britain a safe place for decent citizens to work hard and save for a pension without getting defrauded by scammers and losing the lot.
Most of all, you need a tax amnesty to stop HMRC from destroying the victims of fraud. If you don’t do this, you might as well bring in a law to prosecute victims of rape.
You also need to understand that pension fraud has moved on. Many of the scammers now use offshore pension schemes to get pensions out of the UK and into high-risk, toxic investments and insurance bonds that pay huge commissions and destroy the pension funds.
Billions of pounds’ worth of life savings have been lost. Millions of pounds’ worth of tax liabilities have been demanded by HMRC unjustly – from the very victims who are now at their wits’ end through losing their pensions. The honour of Britain as a safe, well-regulated jurisdiction is trashed. The reputation of British financial advisers is compromised. The industry is riddled with non-compliant and fraudulent practices in all British expat countries.
Boris, you need to promise you will sort this appalling mess out if you become PM.
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:
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.
“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.”
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.
Clients must have comprehensive fact finds and risk profiles
Firm must operate adequate compliance procedures
Advisers must not abuse insurance bonds
Clients must understand the investment policy
All fees, charges and commissions must be disclosed
Investors must know how their investments are performing
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.
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.
Lots of offshore advisers 
and many others such as 
Fighting pension scams – why qualifications are so essential
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.