Keydata Crisis: one year on and still the boss won't say sorry

Me and my wife are both retired. We both have investments in KEYDATA (ISA)

products. We depanded on the income we were receiving from our investments.The income has now stopped. When I phoned FSA , I was told that I MAY get my money back at the end of investment period i.e. 7 years later !!

No income and no capitl.

Please note Keydat was authorised to do the business by FSA.

I only hope that the new coalition government help, help fast to get the investors money back.

Myself and my wife invested with key date isa linked schemes and have also been told we cannot withdraw any monies until the investment period ends.we should recieve a payment every march but this has ended as well,the whole set up seems weighted against the investor and you cannot talk to anyone connected with it to find out if there are any policy changes.

Like the above we are pensioners as well. took out our 5 year Secure INcome Plan through an IFA in April 2006, IFA recommended Keydata and as it was regulated by the FSA and also covered by the FSCS compensation scheme went ahead, we were told it was a very low risk investment and invested in an isa and direct investment (life insurance). In all this time we have only ever had statement from Keydata with no mention of Lifemark , in there paperwork at all.The new structure plan that they are considering from Car Val would be useless to us .Our plan was due to mature in April 2011 , and who in their right mind is going to leave it with this company for another 14 years with no income and no guarantee that you will get your original investment back

(that is if you are still alive then)

As above, I and my wife are retired. We invested a significant amount of our life savings in KD. We understood this to be a 'safe' investment and our IFA advised us that this was a 'low-risk' investment particularly suited to our needs. We understood that this was an FSA approved investment, backed by FSCS's compensation scheme. If we had known the actual risk that was involved, we most definately would NOT have invested in KD. We have been misled and the Regulators have done absolutely nothing to protect us, or support us. Whilst all this is going on, PWC are being paid millions and eating up our investment. We have already lost our monthly income from this, and we accept that we can't do much about this. HOWEVER, WE WANT OUR ORIGINAL INVESTMENT BACK SO THAT WE CAN RESTORE AN INCOME AND GET ON WITH OUR RETIREMENT INSTEAD OF WORRYING OURSELVES SICK, ON A DAILY BASIS, ABOUT WHAT THE OUTCOME AND REPERCUSSIONS WILL BE, FOR US AND THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER INVESTORS, MANY OF WHOM ARE PERSIONERS. THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE SCANDAL AND THE GOVERNMENT ARE DOING NOTHING TO HELP US PENSIONERS. ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL!!!

What galls myself and my husband is the lack of ANY update from PWC or KPMG on the situation. It seems they have taken a vow of silence. Not even a short paragraph to say they are still working on the problems and apologising for it taking so long. But I suppose as long as they are earning money they will eke it out as long as they can! Another sore point is that PWC were the auditors for Keydata and should have picked up the irregularities a long time ago, let alone being appointed Administrators. There is also a certain amount of collusion going on behind the scenes as one item revealed in a Freedom of Information Request submitted by one of the persons enrolled on the Keydata Victims website (keydatavictims.ning.com) when emails between the Treasury and the FSA wanted to confirm that they were taking "the same lines". So although the FSA were shown to be lacking in their regulation of Keydata in 2005 the Treasury still seem to think that they are the bees knees!!

SHEILA

You are right, PWC is well into this as regards making massive fees. As for this article by Iain Martin, well:

As a writer myself it amazes me that Martin has not added one piece of new information to his whole piece. Except perhaps particularly poor graphics and a pic of a rather sappy looking Doctor Crane lookalike with a smile on his face that says "I've just hit the jackpot!"

When it comes to making easy money the said article is a prime example of what most good journalists will recognise. i.e., Don't find something new, just repeat what you and others have already written . . . then, collect your wages and go to the pub! If only my old editor had been so easy to fool!

To add to the frustration, like hundreds of others, I am still waiting to hear the other side of the story. But that seems to be held up until the beaurecratic inept FSA manages to produce a report that could have been done in a few days.

FSA is giving us no information, and PWC are keeping absolutely quiet, apparently only interested in their fat fee coming at the end. The person dealing with the Key Data scandal seems to be on a permanent week's leave, promises to ring back on his answer phone and never does.

The matter is simple, the FSA approved, licenced and superised KD. They failed in their task (as usual) and should compensate those who relied on them.. Then they should take the crooks at KD to the cleaners.

But unlike the US, in this country we do not punish cheaters if they do it on a large enough scale. We just slap them on the wrist and tell him to behave better for the next six months.

Fortunately I didn't have any Keydate funds at this time so I suppose that there but for the grace of god go I. Reading this article I can only suspect that the FSA were perhaps '' incompetent '' along the way?

It seems the new coalition goverment now also want the FSA department abandoned so perhaps they too have come to the same conclusion. I just hope all the innocent victims get some serious recompense and soon ... I'm not holding my breathe though.

I hope the truth will quickly prevail .... so good luck to all these innocent victims!

Is Elias really dead? Was that really his body. He has used injury and illness before to slip away. I've been involved with Jack Irvine - he's a rottweiler ex-Scottish Sun editor who thinks he can eat journalists for tea (he will be flattered by this).

i read this article last week ! ! then read another version of it today ! what is Ian Martin trying to do here ? is he trying to wind up investors and play with there emotions or what !!!!!!!!

Could this be the same Grant York who popped up on the Keydata Victim's website recently? - along with several other newcomers to our unhappy band of disenfranchised pensioners? You know - the newcomers who registered as "names" all at about the same time.

These newcomers had different names but all did the same thing (and nothing else - wierd that) - they all pointed us to the Keydata deposed supremo's bizarre valedictory notices and ludicrous self justifications which had just started to appear at about the same time as Jack Irvine - the Supremo's PR man - went into action last week. Funny, that.

Possible answer to your to your question Grant (and all you others) :

Perhaps as any detached observer looks at this situation in more detail the picture which emerges is one of greedy obnoxious and unprincipled people who have taken advantage of the very weak and ineffective regulation we have in this country to relieve 30,000 elderly UK people of their savings.

The main mistake which the FSA made in this case was not in closing this lot down on June last year, but in letting this bag of worms continue for so long when there were clear warning bells ringing all over the place long before they acted.

peter,

I really feel sorry for you ! although it's getting more and more difficult to !

your constant rantings are not really helpfull ! you are adding nothing to the debate and your stupid accusations are out of order,

so why don't you just keep your big mouth closed and let us all get on with trying to solve this problem !!!!!!!

We all have our own opinions about what went on, and if it doesn't agree with yours then up you pop to try to discredit the person making the point.You clearly have to much time on your hands !!!

YOU ARE VERY QUICKLY LOSING CREDABILITY................

Oh dear - I've upset someone else.

Still - not to worry - he can always invent another persona and come back with a more reasoned response.

Perhaps he can then explain in a bit more detail the signing-off process for the grossly extravagant secret commissions which "Stew" paid himself.

If you recall - one of Stew's paid mouthpeices has claimed these were "signed off" by MeesPierson trustees. All above board we were told.

Only there seems to be a little matter of date discrepancies and time line confusion which could do with clearing up (amongst many, many other things which need clearing up) One thing at a time, however.

(Grant - your exclamation mark key seems to have got stuck down - viz: !!!!!!!!!!!!)

Funny that - I've noticed the same problem with postings made by several other names in response to my observations.

Incidentaly it's CREDIBILITY which is at stake here. Perhaps the incorrect spelling will appear in a few more postings too.

peter,

Thanks for correcting the spelling, your good at that ! putting everybody right about everything appears to be your speciality.....ask eugene !

Your'e not upsetting anyone here ! your just making an fool of yourself.

now go back to the peter hilton victims website and all the other victims websites you are on, and give us all a break !!!!!!

PETER

Once more relatively intelligent discussion has been dragged down to the level of pantomime. Everyone that answers you cannot be a 'baddy". Remember what a great poet once said: "There's so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us. It ill behoves any of us to talk about the rest of us".

Just because we are all behind you don't get paranoid. Just remember Peter:

WE ARE BEHIND YOU!

Yes chay, I have got your message (and all the other messages).

And I also recognise the messengers for what they are. (don't have to be too bright for that)

Could it be that we are seing the first personal threats emerging here? Someone is really getting rattled it seems. Perhaps the attempt to ride the deposed and discredited Supremo in as a white and shining knight is going a bit awry. Bit more of a dodgy cowboy on a pantomine horse, it seems.

Perhaps it's a lost cause. Silk purses and sows ears. Any ideas about the Billericay trust at all? Or theactual dates of the signing off of the Lifemark commission arrangements? or the £4M which seemed to so astray in the irregular secondary market dealings? or .........? I could go on. It's all on the record. But where will it all end up, I wonder. Probably the Virgin Island?.

Enough said. You can lead a (panto) horse to water but you cannot make it drink. But I think I have found a slightly surreal character to add to my story. By the way Pete, you have a few bad spellings in your last piece.

Peter,

Don't let oiks such as the one above, the so called Grant York, get the better of you. Like me, there are probably thousands of investors supporting you and ready to rally together when the time comes. And it will come!!

We thank you for all your hard work and your high profile on this scandalous affair.

Thanks, A.1. for those words of comfort. I understand fully why you and thousands of others want to remain behind the scenes in this dreadful tragedy (or sometimes it appears to be pure, incompetent, farce)

After all we were all simply looking for a home for our life savings, a bit of income in retirement and a quiet life. Being dragged into this drama was not something any of us sought or relish.

As you can see from my spelling mistakes in my previous posting I am really rattled by the apparent threats which are now coming my way. Good. It seems I am getting through to someone.

I cannot believe how incompetent and unsophisticated these people are at their chosen "profession" Still, since we are mostly retired senior citizens there is not really much in the way of hidden shameful secrets for them to work on so they cannot employ their usual scary techniques. If I were Stewart Ford I would be looking for a discount on the bill.

I had a letter some time ago from the FSCS saying that they would cover the tax on my Keydata ISA but today a letter from my IFA saying that LifeMark is short of money and unable to pay the premiums on the Life Assurance policies that underpin the ISA so the whole thing may collapse. What on earth were PWC doing (apart from collecting their fees) when they told me the money was safe it was just the tax position that was in doubt?

I would just like to thank Ian for continuing the publicity & being one of the few financial journalists who has a grasp of the situation. It is a very difficult story to succinctly report to the general public, rest of media , MPs etc.

Like yourselves we invested my partners pension so he could have an income because he needed to finish work early due to ill health and now we feel really let down we don't recieve enough information as to whether we will get monies each month or will we get anything back at the end of the term do they not think this is making us sick with worry. We were also told it was a safe investment and was covered with the FSA.

has anybody got any contacts we could try to get more info

Stewart Ford mobile number was 07808 714946