Adviser loses appeal against ban

TheAdministrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has upheld anAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) ruling permanently banning an investment adviser from acting as a securities dealer representative or an investment adviser.

The ban related to former Feldworth Financial Services investment adviser, Hans Robert John Felden, who was banned on February 9, 2000, following an investigation by ASIC into complaints from a number of investors claiming to have lost significant portions of their investment portfolios prior to Feldworth’s liquidation.

ASIC director enforcement Allen Turton said the tribunal confirmed ASIC’s view that Felden’s permanent ban was an appropriate outcome.

Previously, ASIC found that in the course of his role as an investment adviser, Felden placed a number of investors seeking secure low-risk investments into speculative high-risk investments, specifically EC Consolidated Capital, Lateral Trading and Media Asia Pacific.

ASIC found that Felden had paid little or no regard to the needs and investment objectives of his clients, some of whom would not be in a position to recoup their lost money.

In confirming the life ban imposed by ASIC, the AAT’s Alan Limbury noted that many of the clients were elderly or retired, and that one was the trustee of a 12-year old girl’s inheritance.

“Time and again Felden failed to exercise the critical judgement he was required to apply, yet presented his recommendations as based on research that his clients had no reason to believe was inadequate, as it was,” Limbury said.