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Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Sirius ‘Open Source’ Far Smaller Than It Wants People to Believe

Summary: Today’s part talks about what’s left of Sirius ‘Open Source’; about two thirds of the people listed in the “Meet The Team” page of Sirius ‘Open Source’ aren’t there (some left years ago), the company is unable to recruit, and LinkedIn is linking the company to people who don’t work (or barely ever work) for Sirius ‘Open Source’

THE pension fraud at Sirius ‘Open Source’ is still being ignored by Action Fraud. This won’t end well because Sirius ‘Open Source’ is connected to Action Fraud through its likely biggest client (if it’s still a client at all). Are they waiting for the company to simply vanish as a legal entity with the word “LIMITED” added to its name, leaving the culprits off the hook? Because it would contribute to the perception that the police becomes an actual facilitator of the crime, for self-serving purposes at least.

We’ve meanwhile noticed that Sirius ‘Open Source’ makes itself look bigger than it really is. Here’s an example:

 Sirius 'Open Source' senior engineer

Sirius ‘Open Source’ has maybe paid him for hundreds of hours of contract work over the past decade. That’s a few dozens of hours per year. Don’t be fooled by Microsoft’s LinkedIn. It helps companies, not just people, craft a fictional image/perception of themselves.

British Government Not Investigating and Punishing for Crimes Committed by Its Contractors

Video download link | md5sum 0cf753fb90aab5992efe0bfd625e24fb
Political Escalation
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Today’s video mostly covers part 3 of the series while stressing the relevance to Free software and the British government; Sirius ‘Open Source’ did play a big role in adoption of Free software in the UK, so its crimes against staff (that worked on government computer systems) matter a lot, except the British police prefers to overlook this matter

THE pension fraud at Sirius was a serious crimes and the perpetrators of the crime have not been punished yet. For context, this is a company that once upon a time sponsored the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for several consecutive years and wasn’t reluctant to put GNU logos in its Web site.

Things soured over the years. A decade ago I went to a meeting which helped secure a very important deal for the company. I’d rather not name the client, but let’s just say it supervises (or is in charge of) the people who run Action Fraud — basically the very same folks who turned down my report of a crime, a crime committed not only against myself. This is confirmed, it’s not merely a suspicion.

Action Fraud, what about action? Where’s Action Fraud?

Are they trying to hide something?

It has been three weeks already and they’re not even responding to my elected representative, who (to her credit!) seems eager to get to the bottom of it.

The video above is a verbal update on the issue. We still have a lot of material left to publish and many steps remaining to explore, bodies to escalate to, issues to scrutinise etc. This cannot possibly end well unless the perpetrators are held accountable. All of them. Facilitators are another matter as they’re only indirectly culpable. ?

Sirius ‘Open Source’ and a Lack of Accountability in the British System

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.

Sirius Open Source: Very Little Staff and Clients Are Left Now

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 25th 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.

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, Engaging in Selective Enforcement That Protects the Government?

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

Sirius staff; Haha, it's OK, the government knows me, they will protect me
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

HMRC Fraud Reporting Tool Does Not Protect Privacy and Reporters Are Left With Neither Feedback Nor ‘Receipt’

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.

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, Just a Web Site for the Peasants (Not Even a Reference Number Given When Fraud Reported)

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

Regulators and enforcers asked to tackle the crimes; No action....

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)

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