Insurance bonds and QROPS continue to flourish with thousands of victims being defrauded into these arrangements every year. The Leonteq structured note fraud has now settled out of court and there is some limited compensation payable to victims of Utmost International’s investment scams.
Utmost Leonteq Fraud Read More »
High Court Rules in Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund Case against James Hadley and associates. In a recent High Court judgment, Judge Mr. Nicholas Thompsell found that the Cayman-Islands based Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund (TMAF) was involved in an illegal conspiracy to “extract commissions from the investments.” The defendants, who were also behind the 2013 Store
Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund Judgement Read More »
For over a decade, life offices (more accurately known as “death” offices) have been the centre of millions of pounds’ worth of destroyed pensions. So here we are going to name the top 3 worst life offices… These are just some of the things they’ve been up to: Collaborating with scammers: unregulated, rogue firms posing
TOP 3 WORST LIFE OFFICES Read More »
Spain is, sadly, the World’s capital of wealth scamming. For more than a decade, wealth planning has been perverted and converted into a commission-laden fraud. This financial crime has relieved thousands of victims of their pensions and life savings. Originally a private Swiss bank, Julius Baer now wants to diversify into the Spanish wealth market.
Fraud in Spain – Julius Baer Read More »
Our last blog in this series recreated the offshore pension scam process. We covered the set up and hard sell. The slick salesman prepared the unwitting victim and convinced him his pension would be better off out of the UK. The silver-tongued spiv, Darren, posing as an adviser, conned his new client with no problem
Pension Scams Explained – Stage 2 Read More »
I don’t often disagree with highly-regarded pensions expert Henry Tapper. Too much respect and awe. But his recent blog: “The Balls of Old Bailey” (about Andrew Bailey) merits a polite argument. It has made me cross – not cross with Henry, per se. But cross with the failure of Britain’s culture, government, regulation and legal
THE BOLLOCKS OF OLD BAILEY Read More »
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
The Web of Pension Scams Read More »
Every offshore pension scam starts with a “financial advisor”. Or, at least, a slick salesman posing as a financial adviser. This person can also call himself a “wealth consultant” or “senior associate”. After the scammer pretending to be an adviser, the next player is the life office. More accurately described as a “death” office, this
Pension Scams Explained Read More »
At the end of January 2022, Boris Johnson claimed he had reduced crime by 14%. Boris shocked a lot of people with this figure. But, apparently, he wasn’t talking about fraud. He’d forgotten that even some of his own constituents had been defrauded into the Ark pension scam (and that he had promised to “sort
Boris on Crime (I see no fraud!) Read More »
2021 was a tough year for everybody in the world. But for Pension Life it was especially frustrating because courts and law firms were severely held up as they got to grips with the challenges of Covid, travel restrictions and working remotely. Attending hearings and meetings by video conference was a hit-or-miss affair. The success
2021/22 Roundup for Pension Life Read More »
The world of pension and investment scams is dominated and driven by commissions on investments (usually unregulated). The scammers’ strategy is always identical: get the pensions away from the safety of a reputable pension provider and into the hands of a SIPP, a SSAS or a QROPS. One purported benefit of these types of schemes
Pension Scam Investments Read More »
haps “the end” will be just the beginning. A new dawn for an offshore financial services industry which sells proper financial advice – and not just commission-laden products.
CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST UNLICENSED FINANCIAL ADVISERS Read More »
