Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ scandals have opened a can of worms; why isn’t a government contractor being held accountable for crimes committed against its staff?

THE company that once upon a time sponsored the Free Software Foundation (FSF and KDE among other things) might cease to exist any day now. In the previous part (with video) of this mini-series we argued that, based on the hard evidence, Sirius loses staff and clients rapidly. There’s almost nobody to actually run what’s left of the company. If the company tries to recruit people, they lack the interest. We have evidence of this too.

Tomorrow morning we’ll release a video to explain how British police is failing to respond not only to reports of a crime but also messages from British MPs. This will lead to further escalations that generally embarrass the system and there’s room for suspicion that the “Establishment” (government) is using one hand to wash the other and in turn wash the face.

This series will hopefully coincide with breakthrough in the progress sense. As noted above, it’s relevant to Free software advocacy because what we have here is a former FSF sponsor basically robbing (defrauding) Free software advocates, who were exploited and subjected to “value extraction” for many years, grossly underpaid and moreover embezzled behind their backs with a pension that never existed.

We’ll hopefully be able to illuminate what’s happening behind the scenes by disclosure of some redacted communications.

Video download link | md5sum deb923a8340805a0040d08074d87dd02
Sirius Cannot Retain Anything
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ aside, it seems like the company has no chance of surviving; its 25^th anniversary is later this year, but it’s understaffed and running out of clients

THE company that once upon a time sponsored the Free Software Foundation and KDE resorted to defrauding its own staff in 2011 if not even earlier. Former staff is finding out and coming to grips with it.

The company has meanwhile lost several more clients (the ones it openly admits losing; usually it lies about that loss or keeps it secret for a long time… for the sake of ‘morale’). Many people, including managers, are mortified to discover what went on. Some leave and some are preparing to sue (albeit the company is in hiding, so it’s not easy).

Perhaps none of this should be particularly shocking. I know and I’ve seen attrition crises in the company over the years (dating back to 2011). But this one is different. This one the company cannot recover from and the fake ‘founder’ might even up in a jail cell. This is the first part of a series that we hope can become daily in the installments sense. There are things we cannot publicly state at this moment, but sooner or later it will be safe to blurt them out.

Like CIA people, who run over British people in the UK and then run away to the US (to be protected by their regime)

The man above ran away to the US, where he runs the company Sirius ‘Open Source’ Inc. (a shell created for the first client, a secret client, Gates Foundation) from a hideout in Washington State, escaping liability for his crimes against past staff and obligations to 2 past wives and 4 daughters

Summary: The tax crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were reported to HMRC two weeks ago; HMRC did not bother getting back to the reporters (victims of the crime) and it’s worth noting that the reporters worked on UK government systems for many years, so maybe there’s a hidden incentive to bury this under the rug

Video download link | md5sum 3658fca2df7acb84de0dde460f814926
HMRC Useless UI, No Reference
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were reported 7 days ago to HMRC (equivalent to the IRS in the US, more or less); but there has been no visible progress and no tracking reference is given to identify the report

THE system of accountability (“checks and balances” is the motto) isn’t working. The matter is now being escalated to a political level.

The video above deals with HMRC. I don’t have much to say about the progress; I have received no reference code/number, they did not get in touch (phone, E-mail, post), and it’s not clear if they’re doing anything at all to hold Sirius accountable. As noted earlier, HMRC inaction would say a lot about the system and reinforce the widespread belief that enforcement is done only/mostly against foes of “the system”. Irrespective of severity, scale, and strength of evidence.

Setting up a UI in a Web page is only the first step; does HMRC do anything with what’s collected in this UI? it’s certainly not designed for anonymous reporting.

It’s like writing to zombie agencies that exist only on paper or selectively enforce (based on special interests)

Summary: One week ago we reported tax abuses of Sirius ‘Open Source’ to HMRC; we still wait for any actual signs that HMRC is doing anything at all about the matter (Sirius has British government clients, so maybe they’d rather not look into that, in which case HMRC might be reported to the Ombudsman for malpractice)

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ are being ignored by the police, but that does not mean that holding Sirius accountable is not possible

MERELY two weeks from now it’ll be half a year since I left Sirius ‘Open Source’. I’ve since then demonstrated that crimes were committed and I received official letters (several from pension providers) to prove it. The police — as I dare say I expected all along — did nothing about it, but there are 4 more avenues we’ll turn to. There will be big scandals ahead, that’s for sure, assuming we can hold people accountable before they and the company vanish completely. Not only myself but others (former colleagues) suspected something was amiss. Proving it, however, was a big endeavour, owing partly to how pension fund managers operate in the UK (immensely arrogant; not even responding to mail!).

“It looks like the pension scheme failed to alert you and failed to alert the regulator,” one person told me recently. “If the employer becomes insolvent, will the incompetence at Standard Life make them liable to cover the loss?”

“They try to claim not to know us,” I responded. “This may be a sign that they know they could be liable,” I was told by this person (whose identity and role we prefer to keep private). “Do they have record of any of the employees at all?”

He kept on asking crucial questions: “Is there even one employee who has ever received correspondence direct from Standard Life in the past, either by email or by post?”

Standard Life and the IFA were in cahoots, and we have official papers to prove it. We shared some of these before.

“If you can get evidence that they knew of even one employee then that might be sufficient for all of you to launch a class action together against Standard Life,” the person noted. The pension fraud of Sirius would not have been possible without ‘outside help’…

There are several steps ahead of us now, “but the stronger the proof against them,” the person argued, “the harder it is for them to make excuses and the more serious their sentences / director bans.”

“This is useful too, especially if they owe you expenses or salary.”

The company owed me money, aside from the money stolen for over 5 years (stolen from colleagues too). To quote the British government: “Anyone who’s owed money (the ‘creditor’) can make a statutory demand. You do not need a lawyer.”

Before that, however, we have 3 more escalation points to explore if not exhaust. This can take several more months. Setting the record straight is very important.

“There have been some cases where the courts looked beyond the company and seized personal assets of the directors,” the person said, citing this case. There are some caveats however. To quote the person:

You would need to get legal advice and probably have some evidence along these lines:

- who was the director at the time you started employment? They should have enrolled you in the pension

- any other directors since then

- assets of each director (house, shares, 2nd homes, cars, etc) – if they really have no assets then it may not be worth your time.

- evidence of criminal acts / decisions / gross negligence leading to the current problem. E.g. did they ever actively send you emails referring to the promised pension? Do you have records of discussing the pension during the hiring process? Same for all the other employees you are in contact with.

If the director is also the owner of the company then their share of the company is an asset and in the event that this person faces personal bankruptcy, you could ask to take the company from the liquidator.

You need to remember that the purpose of limited companies is to shield director and shareholder’s assets in the case of mistakes and accidents.

If you are going to challenge that principle then you really need to have convincing evidence that they knew they were doing something wrong.

As a reminder, there are documented cases of the company employing people without an actual work contract (likely illegal) and failing to pay contractors for their work. Sirius is registered as a “limited” company (“SIRIUS CORPORATION LIMITED” and “SIRIUS OPEN SOURCE LTD”). They probably foresaw this mess.

Either way, this saga is far from over. We’re only warming up.

Video download link | md5sum 48e9263394120bccc9b1a1adaaa76670
Action Fraud Bots
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ stole money from its own staff and British police isn’t doing anything on the matter (despite all the evidence being complete and unambiguous), so one is left with the impression that British businesses can basically get away with serious crimes, even against their own workers

TODAY I opened my E-mail client and I was greeted by a message or presented with a rather familiar message, which at first I thought was sent in error — or perhaps wrongly dated — because it closely resembled something that I had already received a month ago. As it turns out, Action Fraud operates a bit like a “bot”; instead of treating crime reports like reports of a crime (fraud) they seem to be treating them a bit like statistics and nothing suggests they’ve even looked into the report. They just waited a month before issuing a template response, basically telling something that cannot be true, as the video above explains. The troubling thing is, this signals to anyone in the UK (employers in particular) that pension fraud or embezzlement is OK because law enforcement agencies won’t even bother looking into complaints, even when the multiple UK victims and multiple UK perpetrator are all in the UK (no need to cooperate or work with entities outside the country).

I was going to phone Monday (after the Friday call fell on deaf ears^*) but sent on the weekend — both outside working days and outside working hours — was a seemingly automated message. Despite all evidence provided, there’s nothing to suggest anyone even looked into it and the message was almost identical to the first, hence akin to an automated reply, timed for 28 days after the report got filed. This is quite likely a very common modus operandi, basically programmed and wired into the system. This sort of gaslighting will shatter faith in the system of justice and accountability nationwide.

Reporting this or referring this to the ombudsman might not be practical, but at least we have real proof (as actual victims of a crime) that the police is failing taxpayers who pay cops’ salaries while protecting the abusers, who are cheating on their taxes (there’s a separate complaint already with HMRC).

This is the message sent to me a month ago, as not merely a complainant but one victim among several:

RE: [redacted]

Dear Mr schestowitz,

I am sorry to hear you have been a victim of crime. Thank you for taking the time to report to Action Fraud. Your report has been sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for review.

Experts at the NFIB will examine the information you provide. Where possible, the information is also matched against other available data in order to enrich and corroborate the details of the fraud. An assessment will be made as to whether there are viable lines of enquiry that would enable a law enforcement body, such as the police service, to investigate. The NFIB aim to provide you with an update on your report within 28 days.

Please be assured that by contacting us you are giving the police vital information they need to protect you and others. The information you have provided may be used to disrupt criminal activity and inform prevention advice and campaigns.

You should keep safe any evidence which you feel may be important. We continuously assess the content of individual and linked crime reports, if you set up an online account, you can use this to add additional information.

If you have any queries regarding this letter please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/FAQ. If you would like more information on how to protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime, please see the guidance at www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you.

We value your feedback, please visit this link and complete the survey:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CSATREP

Yours sincerely,

Head of Action Fraud

For real-time alerts and prevention advice follow Action Fraud https://www.facebook.com/actionfraud/”actionfraud” or https://twitter.com/actionfrauduk “actionfrauduk”

Compare this text to what they sent hours ago (weekend outside working hours; probably 100% automated):

RE: [redacted]

Dear Mr schestowitz,

I am sorry to hear you have been a victim of crime. Thank you for taking the time to report to Action Fraud. Your report has been sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) for review.

Experts at the NFIB examine the information you provide. Where possible, the information is also matched against other available data in order to enrich and corroborate the details of the fraud. The NFIB assess whether there are viable lines of enquiry that would enable a law enforcement body, such as the police service, to investigate.

On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue.

Registered users of our service have the opportunity to update their report, so if you have additional information about your crime which you believe could change the assessment, please log in to your account and submit that information. We continuously assess the content of individual and linked crime reports; in the event that a line of enquiry is identified we will provide you with an update.

Please be assured that by contacting us you are giving the police vital information that they need to protect you and others. The information you have provided may be used to disrupt criminal activity and inform prevention advice and campaigns.

If you have any queries regarding this letter please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/FAQ. If you would like more information on how to protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime, please see the guidance at www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you.

Thank you for taking the time to report and helping us to make the UK a safer place.

We value your feedback, please visit this link and complete the survey:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CSAT28D

Yours sincerely,

Head of NFIB

Notice how many of the paragraphs are identical (the first and second messages are similar). Is this the best a “civilised” police force has to offer^**? This kind of failure by the police seems to have become common knowledge by now and even the police chief in London (the Met) became outspoken about it earlier this month.

Some people might (at this point, in light of such experience) just go like, “what’s the point reporting it to the police? What’s even the point?? What are they gonna do about it???”

This is the hallmark of failing systems, including justice systems designed to selectively enforce the law for the few who hoard lobbyists, lawyers, and even politicians. Cops serve and protect them.

To sum up, in the above case Action Fraud does nothing, does not even indicate it looked into the report. No phonecall, nothing in the post, not even any follow-up questions in the interim. Kafka would have had a short novel about this kind of scenario.
_______
^* When I say that the Friday call fell on deaf ears I mean to say that nobody even heard me at all. I was on the line for about 12 minutes and paid for a call. I never got through the menu system to ever reach an actual human.

^** An anonymous friend agreed with this assessment and further commented: “The two automated messages indicate that 1) they are not doing anything and 2) it probably hasn’t even reached someone’s desk yet.”