Chess and Pension Fraud - allegation

[Chris Goodall]

If 11 people had made plans for a comfortable retirement taking the grandkids to theme parks and being a patron of the community theatre, and had seen it go up in smoke thanks to (in the most generous interpretation) my blind faith in an untested legal loophole, I hope to God it would affect my mental health. I would be a psychopath if it didn't.

[Mark Howitt]

Guys just to give a quick free bit of info here...

Average amount in UK bank account about 1k...

No way GM Williams got 730,000...

[Nick Ivell]

I'm sure Simon has more than a grand, but 700k is a painful amount for anyone to fork out.

[Roger de Coverly]

I'm sure Simon has more than a grand, but 700k is a painful amount for anyone to fork out.

It's not something that has received much publicity, but it appears that the Ginger GM company was sold to Chessable back in February 2021. Chessable previously being owned by Play Magnus is now part of the chess.com empire. I have seen mention of the sale proceeds which were substantial if insufficient.

[Matt Bridgeman]

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[Matt Bridgeman]

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[Nick Ivell]

Going off those figures, 700k could be ruinous. Without forgetting the victims in any way, I find that a bit sad; because although the term 'patsy' may have been used ironically earlier, I can't imagine that Williams was in any sense the ringleader behind this.

[Geoff Chandler]

I can't imagine that Williams was in any sense the ringleader behind this.

Hi Nick,
Neither can I, and going by what Simon posted back in 2019 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10323&p=238517#p238517 it appears he was badly advised, misinformed and possibly way out of his depth.

Not knowing any of the details treat this as a separate question. Nothing to do with Simon's case.

Is there not a compensation pension fund for people who have lost money due to blue collar dishonest activity. They get their money back but the people behind it have to pay the full amount back to the compensation fund (or whatever it is called.) and face some extra punishment on top of that. Basically the victims get reimbursed, the state takes on the debt, chases down the villains and gets the money out of them.

[Matt Bridgeman]

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[Ian Thompson]

Is there not a compensation pension fund for people who have lost money due to blue collar dishonest activity. They get their money back but the people behind it have to pay the full amount back to the compensation fund (or whatever it is called.) and face some extra punishment on top of that. Basically the victims get reimbursed, the state takes on the debt, chases down the villains and gets the money out of them.

Maybe you're thinking of this, but it only covers defined benefit schemes, so it wouldn't help in this case.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Ian and Matt,

That link gave: "The Fraud Compensation Fund pays compensation to occupational pension schemes which have lost out financially due to dishonesty." That is what I heard about, though they put it in a much better way. Thanks.

It appears you have to join to take out anti-scam insurance. Maybe all pensions should be forced to join an anti fraud, safety net scheme - maybe they do, I really have no idea.

[Matt Bridgeman]

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[Chris Goodall]

Blue collars go with work overalls, white collars go with suits.

I have to say: if it's true that chess players are too ready to leap to the defence of one of their own, it is truer when it's Williams than when it was Ramirez or any of the other alleged predators.

[Gary Quillan]

Due to the adverse publicity regarding the recent Pension Ombudsman judgement against Simon Williams I believe it is appropriate that I make a statement:

Myself and a number of associates with many years’ financial experience were involved in the majority of the investments of the Focus Administration Pension Scheme. Simon was asked to be the trustee of the pension scheme and he accepted on the basis that he could rely upon the guidance of myself or my colleagues.

His duties involved signing off bespoke investments in property and small, property based companies, but at no time did Simon recommend any investments nor offer advice to the members of the pension scheme. He was not involved in any of the companies receiving the investment funds, nor did he receive any monies whatsoever from those companies. His role was to ensure that the investments were legitimate, allowed by UK pension law and there were explicit written instructions from the members to make the investments.

Unfortunately the bulk of the scheme investments failed as a result of the collapse of one investment, which had a domino effect, causing the others to also collapse, as the investments were closely correlated.

The Pension Ombudsman ruled that the investments were inappropriate for this type of pension scheme, and whilst I disagree with a number of the ombudsman’s findings, it is clear that the advice and guidance on the responsibilities and risks of being a trustee, was totally inadequate and failed to take into account many nuances in the legislation. I take full responsibility for this. I have apologised to Simon and intend to help him through this extremely difficult situation.

Please note that the sole purpose of this statement is to clarify Simon’s involvement and I do not intend to comment any further.

[John Moore]

Gary - I appreciate your posting and I see that you do not intend to comment further. But why on earth would you ask someone like Simon to be the trustee of a pension scheme. Simon seems to be a nice guy but he has and had no expertise in the area so why him.