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Time for Sirius Management to Face Prison
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ are very serious; we’ve come to the point now where it’s more or less a countdown ahead of arrests or class action lawsuit (or both)

TODAY we published a lot of material about Sirius ‘Open Source’ and since recording the above video we’ve published a little more.

In light of what Standard Life told us last night (they sent a letter at night, which is unusual for firms that work 9 to 5), we’re now progressing the case against a company that defrauded GNU/Linux system administrators, Free software specialists, programmers and so on.

This is now a criminal matter. Several people need to be arrested.

The issue is further complicated by an NDA signed with the Gates Foundation (we don’t even know the details of it). The principal fraudster now resides in Washington, the state. To get full accountability they will likely have to issue an extradition warrant (sent from authorities in the UK to the US). This adds a number of new dimensions, including the divorce. The financial fugitive has many liabilities in the UK. Some of these issues are discussed in length in the video above.

This is what they sent me in 2011 (other Free/libre software and GNU/Linux enthusiasts were also scammed this way):

Along with 7 pages in total:

Summary: The pension fraud of Sirius ‘Open Source’ was facilitated by Standard Life; the very large pension fund, which is based in Scotland, needs to pay reparations to many victims (we cannot even tell how many; these are colleagues who are unaware of what’s going on) and the criminals need to be arrested (the fugitive in the United States needs to be extradited to face justice for his crimes)

In their own words (lies or contradictions included):

Summary: After almost 40 days Standard Life finally gets back (in writing) to victims of the fraud at Sirius ‘Open Source’; the response is designed to help Standard Life “wash its hands” without actually tackling fraud committed in its name (and with documents produced by Standard Life, not forged)

HOURS after I prodded Standard Life by E-mail they finally got back to me (and others) with something more concrete. As expected, they did nothing to actually solve the problem and in the process they resorted to lying to us about the dates.

“I got response from standard life,” one former colleague told me.

“They have stated I can confirm Standard Life has administered a pension scheme for Sirius Corporation Plc from July 2009 until December 2012. Unfortunately, there is no record of you joining the scheme during that time and it would not have been possible to join after the Scheme closed in 2012.”

Notice the above. They just used templates. They barely investigated anything on an individual basis, yet in their PDF they made it seem like it was tailored to the recipient, including individual passwords. All they changed was the name of the person and maybe the case number.

My former colleague noticed a glaring anomaly in their narrative/story. “This seems to be slightly different to what you have been told,” the former colleague said, “as I think you said it was moved in 2018.”

“2016″ was said repeatedly to me by the manager, on several occasions. So either the above letter contains a lie or the managers lied to me repeatedly over the telephone.

Here is the message I received:

Dear Dr Schestowitz

I’ve completed my investigation of your concerns since I last contacted you on 29 March 2023. Thank you for your patience.

I’ve attached a letter which outlines our position [...]

If you have any questions, or you are having a problem accessing the letter, please let me know.

Yours sincerely

???????? ??????????????

Customer Relations

slcomplaints@standardlife.com

The name is in the image, but we don’t want that in text.

This is more like a cover-up, not an investigation. Did it take them almost 40 days to just run a search through a database? Really!?

Did they bother contacting authorities? Did they contact Sirius?

They sent the same thing to other victims in order to cover things up, talking like a lawyers’ department, looking to cover their own behind while solving nothing at all. If this is how pensions are managed in the UK (this is a very large provider), then we’re in serious trouble.

Notice that they are not saying there’s no crime, they just resort to the equivalent of “try another department” or “none of our business!”

As a reminder, I still have papers from Standard Life with my full name, date of birth, and account/scheme code/numbers on them. I still have countless payslips showing pension contributions were made. Standard Life cannot simply claim to have nothing to do with it; Standard Life basically legitimised a fraud. The perpetrators are still not held accountable. Two of them are in the UK and one is a fugitive in the United States, residing not far from Bill Gates, whom he took money from under an NDA.

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ help highlight abuse by pension providers; after more than 3 months they’re still not holding accountable pension fraudsters (at least 3 people were involved in the fraud and two of them are based in the UK, so extradition proceedings aren’t even required)

Latest (today):

>> I hope this helps to settle your concerns regarding your
>> NOW Pension fund, as you can see from the above, they
>> have outlined how and who is responsible for protecting
>> your pension savings and applies to all NOW Pensions members.
>
> Hi,
>
> Please send the full letter, as promised, to
> 1) my wife
> 2) myself
>
> as promised by ???????? (staff)
> as promised by ???????? (staff)
> as promised by ???????? (manager)
>
> several times since February. We need this obligation in
> writing.

I need an update on this. There are multiple complainants about the pension fraud. We need action, not stalling tactics. You behave like lawyers, not like a pension provider.

Video download link | md5sum 819584aa5aa6510b785e6a76e1fcbbf7
Sirius Victims Out the Woodwork
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: We’re learning or becoming informed of some more crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ (a company we left over 4 months ago); the video above explains that the company or its boosters (maybe shills) resort to intimidation tactics and threats (familiar tactics), having not just lost key staff (including the CEO) but also found itself unable to recruit

NOW that people are speaking out about what the company did to them even a decade ago I thought I’d mention a bunch of old stories about what the company did to staff, clients, and suppliers.

The company may not last much longer (maybe weeks or months), pension providers have resorted to stalling tactics and lies (covering their own behinds), but we need to properly explain what happened, more so after Bill Gates had passed some money to the CEO under an NDA.

Whether Sirius was sabotaged or simply sabotaged itself is something for “historians” to decide. NDAs make its exceptionally hard to figure out what really happened.

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were brought to the attention of NOW: Pensions a long time ago. But it’s still failing to fulfil a simple promise or, in other words, it lied (3 people, including a manager, lied).

A few days ago we shared a response from a manager at NOW: Pensions. But nothing was sent by post.

“I hope this helps to settle your concerns,” he said, but he did not actually do what his colleague, another manager, said would happen. “Please send the full letter, as promised, to 1) my wife 2) myself,” I said, “as promised by [redacted name]
as promised by [another redacted name]
as promised by [manager's redacted name]

several times since February. We need this obligation in writing.”

“To make matters worse, the company is trying to seed doubt, gaslight many victims, and make veiled threats against people who speak out facts.”I already have several of things on record (audio), demonstrating the promises were made. Those were never fulfilled, and very much by intention. The state of the pension “industry” isn’t good and their handling of pension fraud is rather revealing. Sirius found itself a convenient accomplice.

To make matters worse, the company is trying to seed doubt, gaslight many victims, and make veiled threats (by proxy) against people who speak out facts. NOW: Pensions has not replied to my message yet, but it’s a holiday here.

Even the CEO left last month!

Summary: Amid inflation, in light of Sirius workers leaving in droves, salaries have been cut even further (they’re looking to pay GNU/Linux engineers as little as 20,000 a year for an overnight job, including weekends and holidays!); of course many won’t know some of that sum will moreover been stolen (embezzlement) under the guise of “pension”

Bonus: The current pension provider has been put on notice regarding pension fraud at Sirius ‘Open Source’ . This has been escalated to the top management there. New letter below.

Dear Roy,

NOW: Pensions Trust (“the Scheme”)

Thank you for your time and patience allowing us to investigate your concerns, we very much regret that it has been necessary for you to contact us with your concerns.

Our understanding of your complaint is your concern that your NOW Pension is not safe due to your previous boss of Sirius potentially being involved in suspicious activities regarding the collection
of contributions.

It was necessary for us to refer your concerns to our compliance department; they have come back with the following information.

 

NOW: Pensions are authorised and regulated as a master trust by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). We’re one of approximately

38 master trusts approved and supervised continuously by TPR to maintain the quality of master trust providers in the UK. This means increased protection for members and their pension savings.

 

We employ a specialist company known as a
custodian, which is responsible for guarding and protecting your money. It holds your pension savings, and those of all members, under a custody agreement (which is protected
by the law) until you ask for your benefits to be paid. The money is kept in a ring-fenced account which is separate from both NOW: Pensions and the custodian’s own funds and company accounts.’’

Our custodian is
BNY Mellon, one of the world’s largest custodians. It looks after over US$30 trillion on behalf of pension schemes and other investors.

The above protection is only applied to funds that have been paid over to us.

Please also note that if you are a deferred member of the scheme ie you have stopped contributing the following charges will still apply:

• A monthly administration charge of £1.75 (£21 a year) which covers the cost of running the Scheme.
• An annual investment charge of 0.3% of the value of your savings. This covers the cost of investing your money.

However,
we won’t take any administration charges if this deduction would result in your pension savings account falling below £100.

I hope this helps to settle your concerns regarding your NOW Pension fund, as you can see from the above, they have outlined how and who is responsible for protecting your pension savings and applies to
all NOW Pensions members.

Should you consider that this does not bring the matter to a conclusion, you can request that the Trustees review the matter through the Internal Dispute Resolution Process (IDRP).

 

Please contact us or visit:

https://www.nowpensions.com/contact-us/internal-dispute-resolution-process/

 

You can also contact Money Helper for assistance:

 

Money Helper (formerly The Pensions Advisory Service)

120 Holborn, London EC1N 2TD

Telephone: 0800 011 3797 Website: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement

 

If you have general requests for information or guidance concerning your pension arrangements contact:

 

 

We’re here to help. If you have any questions or need information, you can call us on 0330 100 3334 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday. Calls may be recorded and monitored for
quality purposes. When you call, please quote the reference above, your full name and National Insurance number. This will help us to help you faster.

 

You can also email us at membersupport@nowpensions.com or write to us by post. Please quote the reference above, your full name and National Insurance number in any correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Neil Morris

 

NOW: Pensions Trust Administration Team

For the record: Standard Life investigators now have several formal complaints from several different victims of Sirius pension fraud. It’s hardly surprising that remaining workers are fleeing (almost nobody is left, so the company lies about who’s there).