STANDARD LIFE – STANDARD PENSION FRAUD

Standard Life Pensions has facilitated much of the World’s worst pension fraud in the past fifteen years. It is one of UK’s biggest pension providers and is part of the huge Phoenix Group. Standard Life should have known better than to transfer hundreds of victims’ pensions into the hands of the various pension fraudsters and scammers.

STANDARD LIFE – WORST CEDING PENSION PROVIDER

Standard Life should also have done better to compensate its victims who suffered huge losses after negligently allowing transfers to pension scams. Hopelessly negligent ceding pension providers – such as Standard Life – feed the hungry pension fraud industry. If it weren’t for the “asleep-at-the-wheel” and “lazy-box-ticking” attitude of Standard Life and the other culpable providers, there wouldn’t be any pension fraud.

In 2019 Pension Life published a blog on the failures of ceding pension providers, such as Standard Life, who had so carelessly and callously handed over precious pensions into the hands of scammers. But there have been no voluntary efforts to compensate the victims of such appalling delinquent carelessness.

The pension-transfer departments of most leading pension providers – such as Standard Life, Phoenix Life, Aviva, Aegon, Scottish Widows etc – are known as the “graveyard” for pension-administration staff. When pension-provider employees are not good enough to work in any other department, they are “archived” to the pension-transfer department because all they have to do is tick a box. They don’t need to think, question, research, use basic common sense or do anything more difficult than sharpen a pencil.

In the case of the Ark pension fraud in 2010/11 (now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees), there were dozens of personal pension providers who negligently handed over millions of pounds’ worth of precious pensions to the Ark fraudsters – including:

Aegon, Aviva, Clerical Medical, Friends Provident, L&G, Phoenix Life, Prudential, Royal Mail, Scottish Life, Scottish Widows, Standard Life, Zurich

These providers could see at a glance that the bogus occupational Ark schemes had only just been set up and that they had never traded or employed anybody. And yet they allowed hundreds of transfers (£27 million worth) without even asking any basic questions (such as “do you work for the sponsoring employer of the scheme?).

The worst and most negligent ceding provider – in the Ark scam – was Standard Life.

The “architect” of Ark, working alongside the other scammers such as Craig Tweedley, Andrew Isles and Julian Hanson, was Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions. When the Pensions Regulator placed the Ark schemes in the hands of Dalriada Trustees – Ward flew to New Zealand and set up the Evergreen QROPS pension liberation scam. Three hundred more victims were transferred to the scheme, charged a 10% fee for a 50% “loan”, and then lost everything.

The negligent ceding pension providers who handed over £10 million worth of 300 victims’ pensions to the Evergreen scam could see that the transfer administration was being done by the same fraudster who had administered the transfers to the Ark scam (Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions). And yet all the same providers allowed the pension transfers to Evergreen without asking any basic questions to establish whether this was another liberation scam (which it was).

The worst and most negligent ceding provider – in the Evergreen scam – was Standard Life.

After Evergreen got shut down, Ward went on to handle the pension transfer administration for the £10 million Capita Oak scam, run by James Hadley. And all the same negligent pension providers handed over the requested transfers without asking any basic questions as to whether this was another liberation scam (which it was). And Capital Oak ended up in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.

The worst and most negligent ceding provider – in the Capita Oak scam – was Standard Life.

In parallel with the Capita Oak scam, Stephen Ward also handled the pension transfer administration for the £8 million Henley Retirement Benefits pension scam – also run by James Hadley. And all the same providers handed over the pension transfers without asking any basic questions as to whether this was another liberation scam – which it was. (And then the Pensions Regulator placed the Henley Retirement Benefits scheme in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.)

The worst and most negligent ceding provider – in the Henley Retirement Benefits scam – was Standard Life.

After both the Capita Oak and Henley Retirement Benefits scams got shut down, Stephen Ward launched the London Quantum pension scam. And all the same ceding providers handed over the pension transfers without asking any basic questions as to whether this was yet another pension liberation scam – which it was. (And the Pensions Regulator also placed the London Quantum scheme in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.)

Of course, other personal pension providers have also performed shockingly badly during the past fifteen years. Around the same time that the Ark and Capita Oak pension scams were being operated, there was another pension scam called Salmon Enterprises (also now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees).

When the Nationwide pension scheme received a request to transfer one victim’s pension to Tudor Capital Management – the trustee of the Salmon Enterprises scam – the pension-transfer administrator handling the case wrote to HMRC expressing his concern:

An article appeared in the pensions press on 21.10.2010 which stated: “Four people connected with Tudor Capital Management, a pension scheme administration service provider, have been arrested on suspicion of fraud, cheating the public revenue and money laundering.”

HMRC replied: 

“I regret that I am unable to disclose any information regarding Tudor Capital Management due to our strict rules on confidentiality”.

Without further ado, the Nationwide £400k transfer went ahead – and the victim lost everything. (And the Pensions Regulator placed the Salmon Enterprises scheme in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.)

The two directors of Tudor Capital Management – Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley – were subsequently convicted of fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison each.

In October 2014, Pension Life communicated with Aviva’s Head of Legal – Robert Palmer. Aviva was invited to collaborate with an initiative to educate ceding pension providers and help them refuse pension transfer requests into pension scams.

But Palmer rejected the invitation saying:

“while Aviva has genuine sympathy for the victims of the scams, our resources are best utilised in trying to prevent our own customers from falling victim to similar scams. Aviva currently spends hundreds of thousands of pounds per year on preventing fraudulent transfers from taking place, carrying out investigations, and seeking to dissuade our customers from falling prey to these scams.”

Aviva then went on to make multiple negligent transfers to the GFS QROPS scam in Hong Kong. These transfers were for victims of Aktiva Wealth Management – subsequently known as Square Mile and then Planet Pensions. Convicted criminal Mark Donnelly (under investigation for a huge fraud in Australia by his firm Brite Advisors) then bought Planet Pensions and tried to purport that he was the trustee of the GFS scheme.

Dalriada Trustees is now expecting to receive compensation from the Fraud Compensation Fund for the Ark schemes. This is as a result of having established, through expensive legal proceedings, that the Ark schemes were operated fraudulently. (Although Dalriada has not seen fit to bring criminal proceedings against the perpetrators: Craig Tweedley, Andrew Isles, Stephen Ward and Julian Hanson).

In anticipation of this compensation, Dalriada has invited a leading pension provider to set up a bespoke “master trust” into which this compensation money can be deposited for the benefit of the Ark victims. And the pension provider they have chosen is:

Standard Life

So the fox is now guarding the hen house, the wolf is in charge of the sheep and the lunatics are running the lunatic asylum. After years of pension mismanagement, Standard Life is now overseeing the compensation for the very pensions they failed to protect in the first place. Imagine how betrayed and disgusted the victims will feel – having lost their original pensions due to Standard Life’s negligence – ending up back with Standard Life.