ASIC wins orders against SA mortgage investment scheme
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has obtained orders against a South Australian resident for operating a South Australian mortgage investment scheme that owes investors up to $10.3 million.
The Supreme Court of South Australia also found Jonathan Peter West and John West & Associates Pty Ltd (JWA) were in breach of the Corporations Act for operating an unregistered scheme and not keeping financial records.
In September last year the court ordered the winding up of JWA, and later in the same month that a liquidator be appointed to the related unregistered managed investment scheme.
Yesterday it ruled that West and/or JWA, which borrowed funds from more than 60 mainly South Australian investors, had offered lending interest rates of up to 3 per cent per month for investment in the scheme.
West and/or JWA was found to have then on-lent those funds to borrowers for commercial purposes, including the purchase and development of property and the start-up and funding of a business.
ASIC also alleged that the security provided by borrowers for investors’ funds advanced to them was often inadequate and, in the case of more than $1.19 million, security not provided at all.
Much of the unsecured money was used to repay people who had earlier invested in the scheme, according to the regulator.
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