Publication
Government Investigations in Singapore 2025
We have contributed the Singapore chapter of Getting the Deal Through, Government Investigations 2025.
United Kingdom | Publication | October 2023
The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has upheld two complaints made against the trustees of the Focus Group Administration Pension Scheme, with Simon Williams (the former sole trustee of the scheme) ordered to repay over £730,000 into the scheme.
The scheme was established in March 2013, with Williams as sole trustee and Glenn House, sole director of Brambles Administration Limited, as the administrator (Brambles). Williams was the sole director and shareholder of Focus Administration Limited (Focus), the scheme’s sponsoring employer. From 2016, Focus was appointed as sole trustee by Williams.
The complainants claimed that the trustees had failed to:
11 members transferred a total of approximately £830,000 of pension benefits into the Scheme. One complainant lost nearly 50 per cent of his pension, while the second complainant said he had lost his entire pension.
The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman found that Williams and Focus had committed multiple breaches of trust and, alongside Brambles, many acts of maladministration resulting in the loss of scheme funds which severely impacted the pension pots of scheme members.
Williams and Brambles were also ordered to pay each complainant £6,000 in recognition of the distress and inconvenience.
In its press release on the determination, the Pensions Ombudsman noted that the determination was reached after an extensive investigation carried out by the Pensions Dishonesty Unit (the PDU). The PDU was established in November 2021 to investigate allegations of serious breaches of trust, misappropriation of pension funds and dishonest or fraudulent behaviour by trustees. The determination has been shared with the Pensions Regulator.
Publication
We have contributed the Singapore chapter of Getting the Deal Through, Government Investigations 2025.
Publication
The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
Publication
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation, commonly referred to as the AI Act, is expected to come into force during the summer of 2024 (the AI Act). The AI Act will be the first comprehensive legal framework for the use and development of artificial intelligence (AI), and is intended to ensure that AI systems developed and used in the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2023