STM Group 
has announced the following trading updates for the first half of this year.
STM state that the first half of the year has progressed in line with management´s expectations. They refer to this with particular emphasis on their SIPPS program. For those readers who are unfamiliar with STM’s past investment scams, here is a little bit of background information:
STM Fidecs scammed hundreds of victims out of their pensions. STM Fidecs took business from unlicensed scammer XXXX XXXX of Global Partners Limited (only had an insurance license with Marcus Groombridge’s firm Joseph Oliver) and then invested 100% of the victims’ funds into an illegal UCIS fund – run by XXXX XXXX. This fund was called the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund.
One of the updates is that STM Group have appointed a Group Internal Auditor. I wonder if this is going to make their trading any more honest. One can only hope that their future auditing will be considerably better than their past.
STM Group accepted hundreds of transfers from UK residents in whose interests it was NOT to swap their British pension arrangements for an expensive QROPS. STM Group then allowed these victims to have funds invested in XXXX XXXX’s own fund – Trafalgar Multi-Asset (a UCIS which is illegal to promote to UK residents). There didn´t seem to be much in-house auditing going on then.
What makes this more hard to swallow is that:
Neither STM Fidecs nor the Gibraltar FSC has said a word about redress for the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund victims.
Instead, in March of this year, STM Group’s Alan Kentish, was delighted to deliver reports of record profits for 2017. This was after he was arrested in October 2017. Unfortunately (for the Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund victims), he was released without charge and was fully backed by the STM Group board.
This may be a stupid question but what exactly is an “in-house audit” or a “Group Internal Auditor”? This sounds very incestuous and about as far from “independent” auditing as you can get.
That’s like asking xxxx to audit TMAF? What would that be worth?
Is this a joke?
I am most surprised that xxxx xxxx and his firms are allowed to wander free and continue to spin their yarns.
STM Fidec’s suggest he is now trading under Tourbillon’s brand name. Perhaps their trading name was miss-spelt and was intended to be Your Billion given the amounts lost to unregulated QROP’s on the island.
The FOS have Tourbillon down as EEA authorised. I believe a class action against the regulatory body GFSC, STM Fidec’s and Mr xxxx and his partners is the only way to make the establishment get their act together and seek redress for the consumers they are obligated to protect.
Channel 4 recently broadcast a highly damning documentary about the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK and its many shortcomings in terms of favouring Banks over consumers etc. Perhaps any TV producers out there may wish to pick up the mantle and broadcast a documentary on the apparent incompetency, complacency and weak consumer protection offered by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission who appear similarly incompetent and unwilling to stop these criminals.
If I recall scamming and poor regulation is nothing new to the Island, remember the BCCI scandal ? It would seem Gibraltar will soon become infamous for its “Cowboy” inhabitants along with its Monkeys !
is there any sort of guestimate of what victims could hope to recoup after this has all been sorted out?
Well we are into 2019 and the Gibraltar Regulator is still keeping their investigations secret. Its a tragedy really when the regulator is in place to protect the fraudsters and ensure that victims are prevented from seeing the results which ensures that STM can continue their dishonest ways.
The investigation into the TMAF and STM has allegedly been running for over 2 years now with no sign of a conclusion or any revelations of wrong doing. My belief is that the Regulator was well aware of the problems with the TMAF long before it failed. They cannot reveal their findings without showing their own incompetence and negligence. Therefore expect this ‘investigation’ if you can call it that to drag on through this year and into 2020.
Gibraltar is a small place and needs firms such as STM to remain economically viable. They just care about themselves and nothing else.
The only thing that will teach them a lesson is a high profile legal case to maximise public awareness of the criminality that pervades Gibraltar financial services and its Regulation.
xxxx xxxx signed the terms of business agreement between STM and GPL. He was not an authorised signatory. STM knew this from the start. Make people aware of this.