Isle of Man or Isle of Scam? After publishing the recent Pension Life blog about fraud operated and facilitated in Malta – it became clear there was an urgent need to shut down the rogue Maltese QROPS trustees. These firms act as the intermediary between the fraudulent secret commissions paid by the Isle of Man insurance bond providers and those received by the crooked brokers.
Since the blog was shared with victims, the press, various interested parties on social media and numerous Malta QROPS victims have written to Jesmond Gatt – chairman of the MFSA – urging them to terminate the QROPS providers’ licenses. He has ignored them.
FRAUD IN THE ISLE OF MAN
The majority of the bond providers – also known as “life offices” and “insurers” – are the primary accomplices of the rogue Malta QROPS providers. And these life offices (known more accurately as “death offices”) are mostly based on the Isle of Man. So let’s turn our attention to the massive Worldwide fraud committed there for the past 15 years.
The main “players” in the Isle of Man death office cartel are:
- Utmost International – which used to be Generali and now owns Quilter International which used to be Old Mutual and before that Skandia.
- RL360 – which owns Friends Provident International
- Hansard Global/International
These death offices work together to keep their commissions secret and identical. They are all members of the Association of International Life Offices run by Bob Pain who also runs Investors Trust (another death office) in the Cayman Islands.
Isle of Man or Isle of Scam! But whether these companies are based in the Isle of Man, Ireland or the Cayman Islands, they all have one thing in common: they work with unregulated fraudsters; pay undisclosed commissions to them and offer them toxic, high-risk/high-commission investments to help them earn even more undisclosed commissions.
CAN THE ISLE OF MAN DEATH OFFICES REALLY GET AWAY WITH FACILITATING AND REWARDING SO MUCH FRAUD?
In the Isle of Man, there are currently two sets of civil litigation against two leading “insurance giants” – Friends Provident International and Quilter International.
The first civil action is by a group of victims with failed investments in half a dozen high-risk investments which collapsed – including Premier New Earth, the Axiom legal financing fund and the LM Australian fund. Claiming for losses of over £100 million, the group is represented in London by Daniel Spendlove of Signature Litigation and by Jeremy Callin and Jonathan Wild of Callin Wild in the Isle of Man. The defendants are represented by Cains Advocates in the Isle of Man.
The Signature claim’s strategy is to sue Friends Provident and Quilter for misrepresenting the safety and security of these bonds. This action uses a litigation strategy based on a legal opinion provided by Graham Chapman KC of 4 New Square.
The defendants – Friends Provident and Quilter – have, of course, vigorously denied the charges. And – just like the fraudsters at Post Office Limited and Fujitsu – they have spent huge amounts of money obfuscating and delaying the proceedings. The case has been going on for about five years, and recently the lead claimant in this group action sadly passed away
The second civil action is by a much larger group of victims with a wider selection of failed investments. The claim is for losses of over £300 million, and is represented in London by Benedict Walton of Forsters and by Rachel Berry of Keystone Law in the Isle of Man. This action uses a litigation strategy based on a legal opinion provided by Ed Cumming KC of XXIV Old Buildings.
WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE LEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST FRIENDS PROVIDENT AND QUILTER?
After nearly five years of very expensive litigation – with more than £11 million spent on the case by the Forsters team alone – the Isle of Man judges have finally reached a decision on the Signature case. However, this is a closely guarded secret and the judgement is not being released for several weeks – if not months. This reinforces the question as to whether this toxic island should be called Isle of Man or Isle of Scam!
The problem for the Isle of Man is that no matter how obvious the culpability of the death offices, the Manx establishment will inevitably close ranks and protect their own. The economy of this island is mainly financial services, insurance and gambling – not unlike Malta. The defendants are great pals with the judiciary and the flaccid regulator. Peter Kenny himself, former Managing Director of Quilter International, used to be an Isle of Man regulator.
So with the Isle of Man defendants, judges, regulator, ombudsman and government all sipping at the same exclusive golf and sailing clubs, and dipping their wicks at the same brothels, is there really any chance of real justice with either of these cases? Maybe we’ll find out later in 2025 for the Signature case and sometime in either 2026 or 2027 for the Forsters case.
While the Isle of Man kangaroo court continues to delay justice, it is worth asking the question: how did so many victims come to lose such a huge amount of money – nearly half a billion pounds? We’re talking about thousands of people whose lives have been ruined and whose lifetimes of saving for a comfortable retirement have been destroyed.
We must remember that the claimants in these two cases are just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands more victims out there who are not included in either the Signature or the Forsters cases.
The Isle of Man death offices have built up a multi-billion pound industry based purely on the Worldwide armies of spivs who prey on vulnerable and naive investors. Referred to by the death offices as “intermediaries”, the predatory introducers and brokers – posing as “advisers” – do not sell advice, rather they sell products. For secret commissions.
One particular “product” which the death offices have for years offered is the structured note. This is a complex derivitative which is only suitable for professional investors. Structured notes were a special favourite of Nigel Green of deVere. Between 2012 and 2017, thousands of structured notes from issuers Leonteq, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada and Nomura were used by unregulated Continental Wealth Management through Generali and Old Mutual/Quilter.
These structured notes caused millions of pounds’ worth of damage to hundreds of victims’ pensions and life savings. Beloved by fraudsters such as Continental Wealth, these notes pay undisclosed commissions of up to 20% – although more commonly around 6 or 8%. Most structured notes’ terms sheets (which the victims never saw) had a bold heads up:
FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY. NOT FOR RETAIL DISTRIBUTION. WARNING: DANGER OF LOSS OF PART OR ALL OF YOUR CAPITAL.
As a result of these fraudulent undisclosed commissions to unscrupulous brokers, thousands of victims have had their pensions and life savings put into insurance bonds they didn’t need (and couldn’t afford). And then the money was invested in high-risk, high-commission assets which were illiquid, speculative, toxic and only suitable for professional investors. Meanwhile, hundreds of dishonest and dodgy brokers have become rich, and the Malta QROPS providers have flourished.
So, what will the verdict be? Will there be justice and proper redress for these thousands of victims? The answer is, sadly, that real justice is unlikely. Even if the death offices do have to shell out some limited compensation, they’ll just write it off with a shrug and a smirk as “the cost of doing business”.
If Friends Provident International (RL360) and Quilter International (Utmost) had any ethics or conscience, they would have spared the victims the agony of a prolonged trial – which has already cost the life of one lead claimant – and, inevitably, many more victims.
A FINAL NOTE……
Peter Kenny – on behalf of Old Mutual/Quilter International – did accept liability on 24th May 2018 for the losses of one small group of Continental Wealth Management victims. He agreed to pay them out in full. But this was on condition that Pension Life would take down a blog which could have compromised the planned IPO (initial public offering – i.e. “going public”).
Pension Life did take the blog down – but then put it back up when Peter Kenny and Old Mutual reneged on the deal to compensate the victims.
