Bonum Certa Men Certa

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]



Recent Techrights' Posts

Adrian & Diana von Bidder-Senn, Debian: detailed history of a death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Rust Keeps Breaking Ubuntu in All Sorts of Extraordinary Ways (and All Distros Based on Ubuntu Will Break Also)
The FSF's stance on this is unclear
With Net Income of One Billion Dollars Tesla Claims It Can Pay a Fake Founder (Who Paid for This Lie) 1,000 Billions
What does this tell us about Wall Street?
The 'Politics' of Operating Systems (or Exclusion for Inclusion's Sake)
This whole 'wrongthink' policing is getting out of hand
The Internet is Becoming Dead or a Zombie
The Internet is becoming like a giant botfarm
Gemini Links 10/11/2025: Homelabs and KeePassRX Manual Now Available
Links for the day
 
Links 11/11/2025: Slop Ruins Music, Facebook "to Discontinue Like and Comment Buttons on Third-Party Websites"
Links for the day
The Voice of Microsoft
Marketing disguised as a science
"MIT Technology Review Insights" is the Selling of Ponzi Schemes for Sponsors (MIT Lacks Integrity)
Just like IBM, they're chaining buzzwords now
Boot-locking Laptops and Desktops After Falsely Marketing That As 'Security' and Not Obligatory
If anyone can confirm this to us
GNU/Linux Cannot Buy Fake Journalism and It Won't Bribe Large Publishers
Free software developers don't purchase "sponsored" placements and that will never change
Static Site Generators (SSGs) Save You Lots of Money and Problems
We've basically reduced the environmental/carbon footprint of the site by a factor of ~100 (2 orders of magnitude)
IBM Does Not Care About Families, Communities, and Even Its Own Workers
Red Hat isn't a family and to believe that it is would be the makeup of cults
Too Much of Today's Web is Fake, Not Just Fake News
We'll continue to advocate for adoption of Gemini Protocol
Simulating a Downtime Tomorrow Night
It is expected that network redundancy will make this maintenance invisible to us, but IRC hangups or general slowness are still a possibility
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 10, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, November 10, 2025
Links 11/11/2025: Conflicts and Politics From National Broadcasters
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/11/2025: Poetry and Electronics Studies
Links for the day
Apple's Debt Grew by About 16 Billion Dollars This Past Year, "Disappointing iPhone Sales" Reported
People who buy Apple's goods based on some false notion that Apple is "cool" or ethical or "underdog" (late 90s) aren't just living in the past; they're fools
Turning Down Proprietary Software is About Making Society Better
We should not be tempted to shame people for merely trying to keep programmers honest and human rights-respecting
Debian GNU/Linux Became the Most Popular (Most Distros Are Based on It) Owing to Richard Stallman
New presentation
A Day for Poppies
This site will run as usual today. We continue our fight for Software Freedom.
"Modern" Doesn't Mean Better, It Typically Just Means Newer
RMS demonised as someone who rejects "modern society" ("rejecting modern society") by a site that uses slop extensively
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part IV: European Patent Office to Come Under Media and Political Scrutiny
We'll persist until we get some answers
63-Page Response to the EPO's Effort to Decrease the Salaries of Workers While EPO Management Snorts Cocaine for 20,000 Euros a Month
"Read more in these written comments we sent to the members of the GCC"
Response to Another New Hit Piece About Richard Stallman (RMS)
We see similar smears floating about and tackling them can help not only RMS but anyone who thinks similarly about computers
Shrinking and Cheapening the Workforce: the Future of Red Hat and IBM
Does Red Hat cheapen the workforce?
Links 10/11/2025: BBC Turmoil and Iranian Drought Crisis
Links for the day
The Register MS Still Occasionally Uses Slop
some articles don't use real images
Links 10/11/2025: "Scam Altman Gets Served Subpoena" and "China will Rule Renewable Energy"
Links for the day
ubuntupit.com Has Paused the LLM Slop (for Now)
No slopfarm ever offered any real value
More Media Coverage From Austria Regarding Cocaine Use by EPO Management
The ultimate goal is full accountability
Ponzi Economics and the Media's Role in Defending Ponzi Economics
We occasionally notice weak or almost-non-existent coverage regarding the economy
Links 10/11/2025: Very High Windows TCO and XBox Continues to Languish
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 09, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, November 09, 2025
Governments That Financially Benefit (Profit) From the EPO Have a Long History of Covering Up Fraud and Corruption at the EPO
Many people are aware of it, even some of the biggest EPO stakeholders
Our Time in London
10 Days Ago We Were Down in London
Giving Red Hat a Second Life and Second Chance: Drop the LLM Slop, Stop Publishing Promotion of LLMs or Text Made by LLMs
For Red Hat to earn more trust it needs to quit participating in the biggest "pump and dump" pyramid scheme since the 1990s
Gemini Links 09/11/2025: Garden Room Complete, FreeBSD 15.0 on the ThinkPad T480, and Known Gemini Caspules Sorted by Number of URLs
Links for the day
Links 09/11/2025: Fung-wong Strikes Maharlika, "Open" "AI" Wants Taxpayers to Give It Bailout Money
Links for the day
Links 09/11/2025: "Avoid MSI Graphics Like the Plague", Harms of Social Control Media More Widely Recognised
Links for the day
Rocky Linux's Embrace of Mindless Cargo Cults Will Harm Rocky Linux in the Long Run
focus on technology, not marketing that defrauds many people and plagiarises many producers
Many of Red Hat's Official Blog Posts Seem to be Fake, Written at Least Partly by Bots (LLM Slop)
Can one trust Red Hat on technical things if it cannot even write words?
Suggestions Regarding Techrights Search
In some cases, Daily Links also serve to obscure our original articles
"Open" "AI" is Going Bankrupt, Appealing for Government Bailout
The writings have been on the wall for years
Reaffirming Rumours of More Microsoft Layoffs, Halo Impacted, XBox Business Winding Down
XBox has a huge target painted on its bum
"Secure Boot": Stop Trying to Boot Into GNU/Linux, Use Vista 11 Instead
It's all about reducing the user's cybersecurity under the false guise of improving it
This is What We Always Wanted to Spend Our Time on
2026 will probably be our most productive ever
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 08, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, November 08, 2025
LowEndBox Resorts to Ableism to Smear Software Freedom
Not some "low-level" pundit but an administrator
IBM is Destroying Red Hat (by Extension, It Also Harms GNU/Linux)
IBM is where things come to die, more so in the past decade or so
Austrian Media Coverage of Luis Berenguer's (Top EPO Official) Getting Busted for Cocaine
This wasn't some rich tourist caught by cops, it was a local official whom they busted
This Coming Thursday EPO Staff Meets Online to Discuss the Salaries Going Down While Stoned Managers Increase Their Own
compensation going down relative to inflation and other factors
Misinformation of IBM Spread via LLM Slop
Since a lot of sites now rely on LLMs we can expect the corporations' lies to be perpetuated by bots. That includes the myths of IBM Red Hat.
Gemini Links 09/11/2025: File Managers and DPC Commissioner
Links for the day