03.25.23
[Meme] Money Deducted in Payslips, But Nothing in Pensions
Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ has stolen money from staff (in secret)
Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: Time to Issue a Warrant of Arrest and Extradite the Fake ‘Founder’ of Sirius
Previously/context:
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ and the Money Missing From the Pension
- Sirius Finished
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: An Introduction
- When the Pension Vanishes
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate (Sirius Financial Crisis): Company May Have Squandered/Plundered the Pensions of Many People
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: Pension Providers That Repeatedly Lie to the Clients and Don’t Respond to Messages
- NOW: Pensions Lies to Its Customers and Protects Abusers
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: It’s Beginning to Look Like a Criminal Matter and Sirius is in Serious Trouble
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: A Long Story Merits Many Videos
- An Update on Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: It’s Looking Worse Than Ever
Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ is collapsing, but that does not mean that it can dodge accountability for crimes (e.g. money that it silently stole from its staff since at least 12 years ago)
A SCREENSHOT of the PDF from Standard Life was shared here (with sensible redaction) a few days ago. Things are belatedly progressing.
This post has taken a long time to prepare as we need to separate gossip/speculation from verified facts. Standard Life also claims to be pursuing the facts (since the 7th of March). As per their own update: “Dear Dr Schestowitz, I have attached our acknowledgement to your complaint. [...] If you’ve any questions, or problems accessing your acknowledgement, please email me at [redacted] and I’ll do all I can to help you.”
“This post has taken a long time to prepare as we need to separate gossip/speculation from verified facts.”They’ve basically been looking into how on Earth the company (Sirius) was claiming to be paying into Standard Life accounts that don’t even exist!
The simplest explanation is, Sirius engaged in embezzlement. The management was contacted several times, being kindly offered the opportunity to explain what actually happened. Each and every time the response was schtum. For reasons we detailed here before, litigation seems imminent. Class action lawsuit is also likely, though the company is in hiding. Staff that actively oversaw and participated in the embezzlement is criminally liable, even if leaving the company later. They’ve been made aware of this (fraud, theft, forgery/embezzlement among the possible charges). Failing that, or in addition to that, pension providers can be sued. We’ll explain the legal grounds some other day.
What does this have to do with Techrights? Sirius is describing itself as Britain’s most respected and best established Open Source business.
“The simplest explanation is, Sirius engaged in embezzlement. The management was contacted several times, being kindly offered the opportunity to explain what actually happened.”If this is what the “most respected and best established” boils down to, then there’s serious trouble. Sirius is a major liability and a stain. This isn’t the company I joined more than 12 years ago. “You need to lie to keep your job” or “take one for the team” or “do something unethical/illegal to keep your salary” is the hallmark or symptom of criminal management, which needs to be prosecuted, not served (except served papers). I confronted the management many times before leaving (for over a year!) and nothing improved. They kept paying the salary, but behaviour only worsened over time, so I reached out to a friend.
Suffice to say, you need not be particularly charismatic to persuade workers whom you pay to also do bad things, acting out of fear (obedience for a payment). During a pandemic and financial crises (exacerbated by invasion of Ukraine) it gets even easier for bad people to compel workers to act unethically. This is a recipe for disaster.
Internally, as noted here back in December, I had circulated communications to try to ameliorate things amicably. But regarding my letters, however, they never wrote anything back. The attitude was to simply ignore the issues and to ignore the reporter. At one point I mused that I could joke with the boss, “so how has that secret money from Bill Gates worked out for you, eh?” Does one reckon that if the CEO goes to prison, Bill Gates will go visit him in prison? It’s closer than the facility Jeffrey Epstein was in when Gates visited him. As far as we know, the CEO is in Spokane area/WA somewhere (not too far from Seattle). He is hiding there, possibly not just from workers but also former wives.
“Internally, as noted here back in December, I had circulated communications to try to ameliorate things amicably.”Anyway, E-mails to the CEO are now bouncing. It’s a company that’s not functioning, lacks the staff to actually meet SLAs, and sooner or later will receive demands from clients that a refund is issued (not that the company has any money left).
There’s only one manager left in the company, apparently living with his girlfriend or someone else somewhere in the US (we cannot verify all the pertinent details). The company can implode any day now and we might hear just days later that he has been kicked out with a suitcase (he is working double-shifts at the moment, trying to slow down the collapse, which is inevitable anyhow).
The collapse of the company can devastate many people, who “have been in touch about trying to track down [...] pensions from the original Sirius pension scheme,” to quote one former colleague. “I am in the same situation and had previously given up trying to track it down.”
“The Standard Life and NOW: Pensions plans/schemes are both registered with a company that has only one employee: the CEO.”We still wonder how many people are impacted by this — probably a lot. It’s hard to find or track down every single person whom you worked with over a decade ago.
The Standard Life and NOW: Pensions plans/schemes are both registered with a company that has only one employee: the CEO. He moved everything else to two shells, one in the UK (Ltd.) and another in the US (Inc.). Both pension providers investigate this matter now.
Two months ago we requested written assurances from NOW: Pensions that the pensions cannot be scuttled as before. For the time being, Standard Life refuses to even tell what happened (the managers there made a guess/hunch) but it seems like no money ever reached their end. Now that the company is, in effect, ‘in hiding’ (a former CEO is rushing to delete anything that ever connected him to the company) It’ll be hard to sue, but accountability is still possible. The police may soon step in. █
03.23.23
Sirius ‘Open Source’ Under Investigation for Pension Fraud, Several Pension Providers Examine the Facts
Summary: 2 pension providers are looking into Sirius ‘Open Source’, a company that defrauded its own staff; stay tuned as there’s lots more to come. Is this good representation for “Open Source”? From a company that had many high-profile clients in the public sector?
THIS is taking a much longer time than initially estimated, but it has certainly progressed. The process is moving on. It’s typically like this when dealing with authorities. YMMV.
It is a very sad thing that regulatory agencies and even police are politicised to the point where one needs high-level (personal) connections, business links, bribes etc. in order to get things moving and for criminals to be actually held accountable, even prosecuted. Very sad. It should not be like this. In a functioning democratic society there’s no room for “yes, well, they committed a crime, but it’s not our problem and investigating this is ‘expensive’ to us…”
Anyway, the good news, in this particular case, is that not one but two pension providers are on the case. 2 pension providers that know Sirius. They wrote about and opened formal investigations (this week).
We’re pleased with this progress and here is some background:
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ and the Money Missing From the Pension
- Sirius Finished
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: An Introduction
- When the Pension Vanishes
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate (Sirius Financial Crisis): Company May Have Squandered/Plundered the Pensions of Many People
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: Pension Providers That Repeatedly Lie to the Clients and Don’t Respond to Messages
- NOW: Pensions Lies to Its Customers and Protects Abusers
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: It’s Beginning to Look Like a Criminal Matter and Sirius is in Serious Trouble
- Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: A Long Story Merits Many Videos
- An Update on Sirius ‘Open Source’ Pensiongate: It’s Looking Worse Than Ever
In additional to the letter above, which arrived 2 days ago (it is redacted sufficiently), I’ve also spoken to the manager of another pension provider (probably the third manager I’ve spoken to; some of them I spoke to 3 or 4 times over the telephone). Here is what he said some days ago:
NOW Pensions – Employer Issues
Hi Roy,
Thank you for your call today, apologies for the bad communication and service you have had from us regarding you concerns with your employer Sirius Corporation.
As discussed,.
– I will arrange for a letter to be sent to you and or email with assurances that your pension money is safe with Now Pensions
– I will alert the team that deals with your employer that the CEO is wanted for embezzlement and that he effectively scammed all his employers previously
– through a pension scheme with Standard Life
– they put on hold/review any financial requests from the company
– request what due diligence they do when acquiring employers to use NOW PensionsPlease feel free to add to the above list with any further assurances that you would like and call or email me.
Have a good evening
Yours sincerely
██████████ ███████████████
I had to remind him to make some progress, so I wrote: “Can I please have an update on this? I cannot stress strongly enough that this is a matter of great urgency, implicating many people, and we have already lost 2 months due to your slow response. Your delays have given time for fraudsters to adapt and curtail prosecution. We have evidence to prove this. ”
And again this week:
NOW Pensions – Employer Issues
Morning Roy,
I have raised your concerns directly with NOW Pensions (who deal with the employers) including your previous emails, and have chased them today, once I get the response, I will send onto you.
You did mention your wife’s NOW Pension too, due to data protection I would have to receive the request from her directly to investigate her record separately.
Yours sincerely
I politely responded as he should know we still expect some letters (promised to us in vain for several months; they kept lying about it):
Hi,
Hers is covered in the call with ███████████████ made almost 2 months ago and recorded by you. Her case is more or less the same as mine.
Kind regards,
“The plot thickens,” a friend told me, and “as I suspected, looks like your ‘pension’ money was embezzled before it even got to your pension. If that’s the case you’ll see him in court.”
I was also in touch with other victims of this fraud. We’ll be covering that in the near future. █
03.21.23
Microsoft is Sacking People Every Month This Year, Even Managers (While Sponsored Media Produces Endless Chatbot Chaff)
And it’s already happening, with lots more rumoured for tomorrow:
Summary: Lots of Microsoft layoffs lately and so-called ‘journalists’ aren’t reporting these; they’re too busy running sponsored puff pieces for Microsoft, usually fluff along the “hey hi” (AI) theme
Rumours of More Microsoft Layoffs Tomorrow (Including Managers!), Probably Azure Again (Many Azure Layoffs Every Year Since 2020)
As of a fortnight ago: (with some comments since then; expect the media to not mention Microsoft’s layoffs and instead focus on Microsoft’s paid-for spam about inane chatbots and “hey hi” or AI)
Summary: Amazon is laying off AWS staff and Microsoft has been laying off Azure staff for 3 years already, including this year, so it seems like the “clown computing” bubble is finally bursting
03.20.23
Standard Life (Phoenix Group Holdings): Three Weeks to Merely Start Investigating Pension Fraud (and Only After Repeated Reminders From the Fraud’s Victims)
Video download link | md5sum 2b863a00d74ee7980569100f280fc404
Delaying and Stalling Tactics After Fraud
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: As the phonecall above hopefully shows (or further elucidates), Standard Life leaves customers in a Kafkaesque situation, bouncing them from one person to another person without actually progressing on a fraud investigation
THE above recording is of a phonecall received from a Standard Life manager after I had requested a callback. It hopefully makes it clear that Standard Life is not progressing a case of pension fraud perpetrated by my my former employer. As I explain to the manager, this isn’t in the interest of Standard Life as it may culminate in a lawsuit soon (colleagues are speaking about it already).
“Some remaining (existing) and former clients of Sirius have contacted me last week, expressing support for me.”As it turns out, as per Wikipedia at least, Standard Life has its share of controversies (see screenshot below) and even a lot of layoffs. If this is the level of service provided by the company, then why trust this financial institution with one’s money?
This case isn’t a personal case, as I’m informally speaking ‘on behalf’ of other people as well. Some remaining (existing) and former clients of Sirius have contacted me last week, expressing support for me. They’re very unhappy about what’s going on at Sirius, which dodges accountability. It runs away from the law, not just metaphorically.
“Standard Life cannot simply ignore this because it’s part of it and if it’s not actively enabling the fraud, looking the other way would be regarded as “passive corruption” (formal, legal term).”What remains unknown, based on the processes and protocols, is whether Standard Life can be held legally accountable for effectively facilitating the company’s fraud by issuing official paperwork that serves to legitimate if not validate what was going on for over 5 years. They need to keep checks and balances in case of such embezzlement, which in this case impacted a lot of people for a very long time (in secret). We were meant to assume that the pension provider’s credibility was on the line, so when Sirius refused to respond to queries about the plan we thought, “OK, well, Standard Life would not allow this to be rogue, would it?”
Standard Life cannot simply ignore this because it’s part of it and if it’s not actively enabling the fraud, looking the other way would be regarded as “passive corruption” (formal, legal term). They make money by letting companies create accounts (they had a Sirius account) by which to mislead and embezzle staff, even for more than half a decade in the case of Sirius. The reputation is exploited to pacify people who are concerned they don’t receive any statements/updates.
“They make money by letting companies create accounts (they had a Sirius account) by which to mislead and embezzle staff, even for more than half a decade in the case of Sirius.”It’s no secret that right now people increasingly (and already) lack confidence in financial institutions, even the Swiss ones. Why would anyone trust Standard Life in light of the experiences I’ve been having since January?
I am putting a lot of effort into it and I’ve been spending lots of time on the whole pension thing; from the appearance of things (thus far at least) it may turn out to be a scandal for 2 pension funds in the UK, not just one. By extension, this might be a problem/crisis of reputation for just any pension fund in the UK or — given the inter-connectivity of accounts across nations — in the world at large. They’re all connected; my recordings hopefully serve to demonstrate/show their apathy towards perfectly legitimate fraud reports. They already bounce me between departments in vain (“complaints”). Nothing gets done. There’s not even a reference/number. █
![Standard Life: In January 2006, Standard Life were accused of smearing a policy-holder, Michael Hogan, who was not happy with the way the company was being run. An e-mail sent to Standard Life executives and advisors (which was disclosed under the Data Protection Act) revealed an attempt to discredit him.[26] In January 2007, the head of Standard Life's life and pensions business, Trevor Matthews, used the racist phrase 'nigger in the woodpile' while giving a presentation at one of the company's Edinburgh offices. After issuing an apology, Mr Matthews remained in his job and no disciplinary action was taken.[27] In March 2007 the company announced it would cut 1,000 jobs in an attempt to save an additional £100 million per year in costs.[28] One month later it was highlighted in the company's annual report that three of Standard Life's top executives (Sandy Crombie, Keith Skeoch and Trevor Matthews) were awarded more than £5 million in pay.[29] A Standard Life spokesman defended the awards, citing the leadership's efforts in turning round the company's fortunes.[29] In February 2014, Standard Life announced that it may move parts of their operations outside Scotland in the event of Scottish independence, if it was necessary to do so.[30]](http://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Standard-Life.png)
Standard Life Paper Mills in Edinburgh
Summary: Standard Life is issuing official-looking financial papers for companies that then use that paperwork to embezzle staff
Pension Fraud Investigation Not a High Priority in Standard Life (Phoenix Group Holdings)
Video download link | md5sum f1eb8aa87974df65f6c70839b5e0645f
Too Busy to Investigate Fraud
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: The ‘Open Source’ company where I worked for nearly 12 years embezzled its staff; despite knowing that employees were subjected to fraud in Standard Life’s name, it doesn’t seem like Standard Life has bothered to investigate (it has been a fortnight already; no progress is reported by management at Standard Life)
Tuesday a week ago was when I last spoke to Standard Life after the prior Tuesday I had been given false promises regarding progress in a case of pension fraud perpetrated by my my former employer, a company that has ‘Open Source’ in its name and was one of the earliest sponsors of the Free Software Foundation, even of KDE.
It’s quickly becoming rather frustrating to see that pension providers in the UK (maybe elsewhere too, but I cannot verify this for myself using first-hand experience) prefer to not deal with serious fraud, instead delaying, stonewalling and tiring the complainants. Today I contacted Laura, a Standard Life manager, about 2 weeks after we first spoke. She said she would redirect this to a fraud investigation team, but today she says it has not really started and may take another week with another team — a subject that will be covered in the next video.
This morning we covered (also see my personal blog) how Standard Life had failed to respond to a fraud report, instead issuing false assurances that it would investigate. It’s an eye-opening ordeal. █
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