Adviser gets two years in wilderness for recommending Lifestyle
TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)has handed out another sentence in relation to the Lifestyle Property Group, a failed property investment group which has resulted in a number of advisers jailed, banned and fined over the last two years.
ASIC has accepted an enforceable undertaking from the sole director of Bell's Financial Services, Robert Campbell, stating that he will not carry on a financial services business with respect to financial products including shares, managed investment schemes and other similar investment products, for two years.
These actions follow an ASIC investigation into Campbell and his company’s part in promoting investments in the Melbourne-based Lifestyle group.
ASIC found that Campbell breached the Corporations Act by giving investment advice to clients without being appropriately licensed, marketing securities recommendations without a reasonable basis, and failing to disclose to clients the commissions or fees that Bell's Financial Services would receive as a result of recommending investments in the Lifestyle Group Property Development Partnerships.
In August 2000, ASIC successfully applied to the Federal Court for the appointment of a liquidator to 54 companies within the Lifestyle group following investigations during which a number of accountants and financial planners who promoted the group’s schemes were banned from acting as investment advisers.
Just last month, ASIC sentenced former Lifestyle group managing director Jon McKenney and former employee John Caust to a total of seven years jail after the pair pleaded guilty to charges relating to their roles in obtaining $5,466,970.72 from investors to place in residential development projects undertaken by the Lifestyle.
As part of the undertaking, Campbell has agreed to complete courses in relation to ethics, compliance and investment planning prior to applying for an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), or applying to act as a representative of an AFSL.
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