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)

Video download link | md5sum 3423a47dfdeaf06eccf9210c582f0523
Energy Suppliers and Gas Pipes
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

THE power supplier we have is not the power supplier we chose. It was inherited by us when we moved in a decade ago and it has since then been acquired by another company, which I’ve endlessly ranted about in the past. The original company, nPower, was relatively OK, but E.ON Next sucks. The above recording is my phonecall or reach-out to E.ON Next regarding what happened with Cadent Gas Limited — a company that basically ruined my entire day and might ruin several more days ahead. Cadent Gas Limited management is unapologetic about it, but at least E.ON Next promises to follow up with a call some time later (unspecified time), so maybe there will be updates ahead.

Is it not astounding that E.ON Next charges almost 150 pounds just to turn off the gas? It sounds like a penalty, not a sane bill for such a trivial job. In a free market of true competition, would such penalties exist? Also, why aren’t the pipes managed by the Council anyway? Why has everything been outsourced to opportunistic privatisers?

Video download link | md5sum 9014d1ac4981a4f86e5930dc24d3679d
Cadent Gas Limited Leaving a Mess Behind
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

THE local (ish) company that handles the gas pipes was here today. I didn’t agree to it, it was imposed on me, and the time wasn’t up for negotiation either. A dirty kitchen was left behind and it seems likely at least one of the people had COVID-19, judging by the cough. Some were smoking on the job, outdoors…

The video (conversation) above discussed a number of issues with one of the managers there (hopefully his name isn’t on the video). I was urged to make a complaint and ask for some clarification about what had happened, why it had to happen etc.

At the end I left aside the first call that I made, before their escalation and callback. It didn’t contain anything important that the second call did not cover as well (besides, it contained personal information like postcode and phone numbers), but it was useful for reference in case they tell inconsistent stories.

Excess deaths in the UK are very high this year. COVID-19 isn’t over either; it’s still spreading and swirling, so having several strangers inside my kitchen, where food and beverages are handled, is undesirable, especially without proper consent. We are paying a lot of money for gas, we sometimes smell gas leaks, and here they go replacing metal pipes with plastic. When challenged about it over the phone, the managers accepted that the greenwashing of plastic pipes was disingenuous.

It’s troubling to see the power that those power (gas/electricity) corporations have in the UK.

It should be noted that the above call (one of two and the more relevant/detailed one) is a culmination of a desire to phone up Cadent Gas Limited or E.ON Next (regarding the suspicious first letter and the suspected gas leak). If there really was an emergency/urgent matter (such as a confirmed gas leak in the area), they’re not talking about it. Both people whom I spoke with (at the above firm) deny there was a gas leak nearby. Remember that they have a vested interest here; they’d possibly deny any emergent issues with the pipes as it’s their responsibility to look after these pipes and leaks indicate a commercial failure of theirs. Lives would be at risk.

Video download link | md5sum 4f51d9642195366129bf811e95b14db4
Fraud Escalation to MP
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ are of interest to the British public sector; we’ve begun contacting relevant people

THE police chief in London openly admits that British courts are cherry-picking cases and it seems clear, based on personal experience, that the police is cherry-picking cases as well, no matter how many victims exist or how profound the crime/s might be. In fact, even when all the unambiguous (“slam-dunk”) evidence is handed over, Action Fraud can decide to do nothing.

I now correspond with my public representative in Manchester. Sirius has had many government clients (which we would rather not name as we never name clients of Sirius). This is a serious reputational problem for various high-profile clients of Sirius, which are tied to the umbrella system, governing the nation, including police, immigration, the health services and so on. They probably would wish to know government contractors scamming their own workers, who worked on government computer systems.

To put it another way, is this how the British government treats workers, via contractors that are rogue? The embezzlement started only a few months after I had joined the company in early 2011. So it’s not something that happened very recently. It had many victims other than me.

The way in which my reports were handled (or not handled) is of interest for political reasons, not just for more ordinary reasons (cracking down on crime). We’ll hopefully be ready to report concrete progress some time before this month ends.

If we must take this ‘dirty diaper’ to all the facilitators, who helped abuse their workforce by proxy, then so be it. We still have 4-5 escalation levels/points at this stage, but we’re exhausting them one by one, based on the hierarchy of the system. Sooner or later, we believe, the Rule of Law will catch up with Sirius and its enablers. Justice needs to prevail, one way or another.

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.”

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.