ASIC’s hat-trick in compliance crackdown

A financial adviser was banned, another had his operation shut down, and a superannuation scheme promoter jailed for 18 months as a result of three separate actions initiated by the corporate regulator.

Rick Alan O’Toole was permanently banned from providing financial services by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) after it established that through his company, Provest Capital, he changed a client’s address without permission so he could swindle over $50,000 of the client’s funds. He was also found to have dishonestly dealt with a loan of $400,000 from the same client.

In a separate case, ASIC persuaded the Supreme Court of Victoria to shut down nine businesses related to Shaun Oliver White, who ASIC claimed “misled investors and acted unconscionably” by enticing them to place nearly $1.5 million into his self-managed superannuation funds and other associated joint ventures. ASIC said the action arose out of their super switching surveillance campaign.

And in another unrelated case, Arkady Sittczenko of Ipswich, Queensland, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment by the Southport District Court for releasing close to $500,000 in funds to members before they were allowed to access them.

ASIC also alleged that Sittczenko dishonestly induced trustees of various super funds in to switching their money across to the Health Group Superannuation Fund and the South Coast Forestry Group Superannuation Fund.

His co-accused, Mark Walter David, has also been committed to stand trial.