Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ have culminated in two parallel reports; tax fraud was reported as well, as per advice we’ve received, even though that’s not “the” crime but a side issue for a company that became “petty thief” (very big thief)

Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. I’ve noticed that almost everyone at Sirius has left already. Very few are left there and they too are looking for a way out (another job). But that wouldn’t be the end of this affair because criminals must be held accountable. They know who they are. They’re managers. They’re also perpetrators.

Many parties knowingly or unknowingly facilitated the crime. One person recently asked me: “Did Standard Life ever send you a statement showing the purported balance of the account or even a statement showing a nil balance?”

No is the short answer, but all of us assumed it was just being silent. All of us.

There is a problem associated with legitimisation of the embezzlement, including letters and payslips that fraudulently claimed pension money had been paid. Every single payslip was a lie. We’re talking about hundreds of payslips.

The Pensions Regulator deals with different scenarios, so it is inapplicable here.

Another person asked: “Do you have legal advice on the topic?”

Well, we went to a lawyer as soon as last year. We agreed it’s not worth suing due to speed and a lack of funds in the company. There would hardly be anything left after 12 months. Litigation is very time-consuming a process. Just 5.5 months after I left the company there are fewer than 5 full-time workers there.

The same person added:

These appear to be the two pertinent questions:

Does the employer owe a debt to you or they owe the money to the pension scheme? This is an important technicality. For example, can they simply discharge their responsibility by giving you a lump sum directly and you can put it in any pension you want.

Defrauding employees and then offering them the money stolen (after getting caught) doesn’t change the fact that fraud took place.

It seems possible that the company tried to ‘pay off’ one victim to keep silent on the matter, but we cannot prove this.

The above person said:

It looks like the pension scheme failed to alert you and failed to alert the regulator. 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. But that’s a good point. I am still investigating this. The company is not cooperative, so we use another route.

Further to the above:

Tactically, if you make it harder for them to trade, for example, by scaring away other staff and clients, then you also run the risk that they go insolvent and they never pay.

They weren’t going to pay anyway. They refuse to even answer queries, both from my colleagues and myself. They’re technically or legally ‘in hiding’ these days.

As for going insolvent? That seems to be happening regardless.

There’s also this:

In the UK it seems to be very easy for directors of very small companies to drain the bank account and then close the company and open a new company the next day with a very similar name. If the debt is very large then they may try something like that. It is very important for you or Standard Life to file a legal claim before the director begins winding up.

Yes, my legal advisor mentioned this too. It’s important to flag the perpetrators of the crime and hold them accountable. It’s perfectly possible and plausible that they already hide money somewhere. This is classic white-collar crime.

To quote more from the person:

Before you have a claim against them, they can spend down the bank account without consequences.

After the legal claim is registered, if they prioritize payments to other expenses or themselves and put you last then they can face criminal consequences.

They can face these regardless.

If you think they have money in the bank to pay the pension then you could force them into liquidation:

However, if they have other debts too then the remaining funds will be divided up pro-rata. E.g. maybe each debt only gets paid 60% of the real value.

Yes, I heard that too. But that’s £302 for court fees and £2,600 petition deposit (to manage the ‘winding-up’). It says: “You might be able to get the fees back if the company can afford to repay them.”

Going to check where the leads stand. This is work in progress. In the next part we’ll elaborate on the matter and explain how Sirius stained the reputation of “Open Source”. When I joined the company in 2011 it only took the company a few months to defraud me (but I could not prove this until months ago, i.e. in 2023). This went on for over 5 years and neither me nor my colleagues knew. We had mere suspicions.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 20th, 2023 at 1:21 am and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.