A Pension Funnelled Into Pinnacle Asset — Clawed Back 41%

A cold call offering a “free pension review” ended with a 57-year-old’s retirement savings sitting on Pinnacle Asset — an offshore platform that soon stopped answering. We recovered 41% by working the bank and the chain at once.

Operator on file: Pinnacle Asset — read the full scam-broker dossier in our directory.

How the trail began

The call opened as a friendly “pension review”. Over a few weeks an adviser introduced an “FCA-aligned digital growth fund” run through Pinnacle Asset and walked him through transferring savings, which would be converted to Bitcoin for “inflation protection”.

There were forms, a portal, statements showing steady gains. It felt like dealing with a real firm.

Where the trail broke

When he asked to draw funds, the Pinnacle Asset portal showed “withdrawal maintenance”. Then the adviser went silent. The “FCA-aligned” fund had no registration matching the firm he had spoken to.

His savings had been routed bank-to-platform, converted to BTC and withdrawn.

“It looked official. There were forms, a portal, a polite adviser. The forms were the most convincing part of the lie.”Claimant statement — file DAD-2026-0408

The recovery trail

1. We reconstructed the transfer

   We gathered the transfer paperwork and bank records to establish a clear money trail.

2. We split bank from chain

   The bank-to-platform leg was actionable under APP fraud rules; the BTC leg needed on-chain tracing.

3. We pursued bank reimbursement

   We supported his authorised-push-payment reimbursement claim with documented evidence of deception.

4. We traced the crypto leg

   The BTC conversion was followed to a clustered withdrawal address at a centralized exchange.

5. We combined the two tracks

   Bank reimbursement plus a partial exchange freeze produced the recovered total.

Warning signs

• Unsolicited calls offering a “free pension review” or early access to your pension.
• Any product that routes your retirement savings into cryptocurrency.
• Claims of being “FCA-aligned” or “FCA-style” — check the FCA register directly, never a brochure.
• A polished portal showing steady gains you can see but cannot withdraw.