ASIC crackdown continues
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has forced an undertaking from one promoter of wealth creation seminars and won a court case against another group, capping off a busy week for the corporate regulator.
The 21st Century Academy and its founder Jamie McIntyre have undertaken that they will not promote or conduct wealth creation seminars until proceedings against them are heard in the Federal Court.
ASIC initiated the proceedings, alleging the group had operated a financial services business, including providing advice and recommendations on derivatives, without holding a financial services license.
As a result of the undertaking, seminars scheduled for the Gold Coast from May 27 to 29 have been cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of New South Wales has found that two former directors of the Australian Investors Forum - Dennis Ralph Anthony and Martin Lloyd-Cocks - contravened numerous provisions of the Corporations Act, following civil proceeding brought by ASIC.
The Australian Investors Forum, a licensed securities dealer, ran an investment club offering members placements in new company floats. ASIC commenced proceeding against the group in October 2001 because of concerns it had offered securities without a disclosure document and that its directors had breached their duties. By that stage, the group had received approximately $7.8 million from investors, but only two of six of the new company floats it was dealing with achieved listing on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The action tops off a busy enforcement period for ASIC, which earlier this week caught out a Tasmanian financial planner as part of its ‘super switching campaign’.
Brendan Moore of Hobart, an authorised representative of Financial Services Partners (FSP), appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court charged with four counts of failing to provide a Statement of Advice (SOA) before ‘switching’ his client’s superannuation funds.
FSP has since issued a statement claiming a marriage break up and a death in the family formed part of the reason why Moore did not issue the SOAs.
ASIC also revealed over the past week that it is planning to conduct another ‘shadow shopper’ investigation to monitor financial planners after the introduction of choice of fund in July. The undercover investigation will involve consumers picked by ASIC walking into planning offices and gaining SOAs, which will then be assessed by the regulator.
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