Returns from the rental of her unit stopped after she had informed TRG of her intention to return the investment, though TRG said she would receive those with her refund.
TRG did not comment on Jenkins' allegations but told FTAdviser it has now reached an agreement with the Cape Verde government that will secure funding for the completion of the White Sands resort, which it dubbed as a "turning point for investors", pending satisfactory due diligence of the project.
"We have consistently promised that we will deliver White Sands," said founder and executive chairman of TRG Rob Jarrett. "This is an important turning point for all stakeholders in White Sands, our clients, our own team and not least for the people of Cape Verde."
"Every time I think I’ll have my money back by the end of the year, the rug is pulled from underneath me," says Jenkins.
"With pension freedoms, why wasn’t there legislation brought into place at the same time to prevent this? The government were naive at best if they didn’t realise someone would see a way to get their hands on people's pensions.
"It infuriates me that those employed in our financial institutions didn’t see this coming and failed to warn us at every step of the way, and no one has ever been held responsible.
"Steve died thinking he’d been stupid and let us down. Knowing this is how he felt breaks my heart. He was a hardworking and honourable man, unlike the people who [appear to have taken] his pension from him."
The government says there was plenty of advice available for people thinking to transfer their pensions. It had introduced Pension Wise, a free pension guidance provider, alongside the pension freedoms to help people make financial decisions.
It also deems investment decisions to be people's own responsibility.
Jenkins made a successful claim with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in 2018 against CIB Life & Pensions, which had acted as the adviser in Steve's case, and was awarded £50,000.
She has since filed another complaint against Rowanmoor with the Financial Ombudsman Service, which had found against the Sipp provider in a related sample case in January 2022.
The Fos found Rowanmoor had failed to verify the integrity of CIB, which it had worked with on hundreds of high-risk Sipp investments.
It told Rowanmoor to compensate the client fully, as well as take ownership of the investment so the Sipp can be closed and further fees prevented.
At the time a spokesperson said the Fos was handling 886 complaints against Rowanmoor that involved due diligence. Of those, 548 involved investments in The Resort Group.
The debacle led to the £1.4bn Sipp provider's demise in August 2022. As a result Jenkins' claim was transferred to the FSCS, and she is still awaiting news about its progress.
