Fast Pensions Ltd along with five of its related firms were wound up at the UK High Court on Wednesday.
While investigators are unable to determine the full extent of the companies’ activities at least £21m ($28m, €24m) was invested into the 15 schemes.
Some victims were tricked into handing over their savings after receiving cold calls questioning the performance of their pension funds or offering free pension reviews.
Others were people originally looking for credit who were advised by the connected finance companies that they could get a loan if they transferred their pension savings to one of Fast Pensions’ schemes.
Bad advice
Advice provided was inadequate as the companies misrepresented the schemes on offer, the Insolvency Service said.
Advisers also failed to disclose information around returns and the high risk and illiquid nature of the investments made by the schemes, as well as the benefits members would be entitled to.
Apart from commissions the remaining funds were largely used to make loans to companies and other entities which appear to be connected with Fast Pensions and trustee FP Scheme Trustees Ltd (FPST).
The official receiver in the Public Interest Unit (North) is now the liquidator of all six companies.
Between 2012 and 2013, 520 people were encouraged to transfer their pension savings from existing providers into one of 15 schemes, with Fast Pensions acting as the sponsoring employer.
FPST was the trustee of all 15 pension schemes and a proportion of the funds were invested in the remaining four related finance companies.
Unsavoury tactics
The High Court ordered that Fast Pensions and the five related companies be put into provisional liquidation in March 2018.
“People work long and hard to put money away for their retirements but the six companies that have been shut down paid scant regard to their members,” said David Hope, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service.
“They used unsavoury tactics to attract members and failed to paint the full picture as to what would really happen with their savings.
“By shutting the companies down, the courts have put a stop to their unscrupulous activities and we hope this sends a strong message that we will robustly investigate and take action where people’s funds and savings are at risk.”
The official receiver has made an application to The Pensions Regulator for the appointment of an independent trustee to take over the running of the pension schemes and it is expected the application will take four to six weeks to complete.
The 15 pension schemes involved are: Broughton Retirement Plan, DM1 Retirement Plan, Elphinstone Retirement Plan, EP1 Retirement Plan, Fleming Retirement Plan, FP1 Retirement Plan, FP2 Retirement Plan, FP3 Retirement Plan, Galileo Retirement Plan, Golden Arrow Retirement Plan and Leafield Retirement Plan.
