ASIC bans more Commonwealth Financial Planning advisers
A former Commonwealth Financial Planning adviser has been permanently banned by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) after he was found to have forged the signatures of four of his clients.
Anthony Awkar's banning - along with the three-year ban of Jane Duncan of Queensland - brings the total number of actions that the regulator has brought against former Commonwealth Financial Planning employees to five.
Awkar was employed by the subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank as a financial adviser and authorised representative from May 2008 until resignation in June 2010.
According to ASIC, he was ranked as one of Commonwealth Financial Planning's top financial advisers.
"ASIC found that Mr Awkar's conduct was not isolated, and did not arise from inadvertence, ignorance or mistakes," ASIC commissioner Peter Kell said.
"Rather, he behaved in a deliberately dishonest manner on numerous occasions over a period of almost two years and in relation to a number of clients," he said.
The regulator's investigation found that Awkar engaged in dishonest conduct by forging the signatures of four clients on such documents as statements of advice, financial needs analysis documents, applications for financial products and financial services guide receipts.
ASIC stated that he induced another person to deal in a financial product by dishonest concealment of material facts - notably, fee information attached to product advice.
In one instance, ASIC found that one of Awkar's financial needs analysis documents stated that the mother of a client had recently passed away, when - at the time - she was still alive.
The majority of Awkar's clients have subsequently been reimbursed by Commonwealth Financial Planning for any losses arising from misconduct, and he has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to seek a review of ASIC's decision.
In a separate decision, ASIC found that Duncan - who was an authorised representative with Commonwealth Financial Planning between 4 February 2008 and 27 January 2010 - had on a number of occasions provided no reasonable basis for the advice provided to clients.
On one occasion she failed to provide a statement of advice to a client and in some cases failed to provide a replacement product advice record, ASIC stated.
Duncan has the right to appeal the regulator's decision through the AAT.
The latest decisions by ASIC follows the five-year banning of former Commonwealth Financial Planning adviser Christopher Baker, the two-year banning of Simon Langdon and the seven-year banning of Don Nguyen earlier this year.
Commonwealth Financial Planning first entered into an enforceable undertaking with the regulator last year under which the company agreed to conduct a comprehensive review of its risk management framework and develop a plan to address the said deficiencies.
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