ASIC bans advisers over unregistered schemes
TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)has banned South Australian investment advisers Roger Gordon and Colin Turner from advising on, or dealing in, securities for a period of one year each.
An ASIC investigation found both men had offered interests in unregistered managed investment schemes being operated in contravention of the Corporations Act from 1997 to 1999.
ASIC says during the period, some of Gordon’s clients entered into schemes known as the Infomercial and Music schemes.
According to ASIC, Gordon had made no independent enquiries about the legitimacy of the schemes, and had no reasonable basis for making the recommendations to his clients. Gordon also failed to disclose to clients the commission that he would receive as a result of his recommendations.
The banning against Turner was made as a result of his involvement in offering interests in a scheme known as the ‘BFS Recovery Package’.
Both Turner and Gordon were directors and shareholders of Waldorf Fiducial Marketing (WFM), a company formed in October 2001 to operate the ‘BFS Recovery Package’.
ASIC formed the view that the BFS Recovery Package was an unregistered managed investment scheme, being operated in contravention of the requirements of the Corporations Act.
ASIC found that Turner had promoted the scheme, offered interests in it, and received money from investors. ASIC also found that in promoting the scheme, Turner had made statements to investors that were misleading and deceptive.
After ASIC’s intervention, WFM returned around $189,000 to investors in the BFS Recovery Package.
The latest bannings add to the already substantial list of actions taken against advisers and their businesses this year.
Last weekMoney Managementreported on a number of bannings which saw one adviser banned for life, another for two years, a court order freezing the assets of two other advisers and a number of enforceable undertakings. According to ASIC, the wave of actions are a result of coincidence rather than a targeted campaign.
AUTHOR
Lucie Beaman
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