Former Perth adviser pleads guilty to dishonest conduct
A former financial adviser has pleaded guilty to one charge of providing a financial service on behalf of a person who carries on a financial services business while unauthorised to do so.
John Wertheimer of Canning Vale, Western Australia was a financial adviser under his own company, John Wertheimer & Associates Pty Ltd, before appointing Picture Wealth Advisory Pty Ltd to service a group of clients to provide licenced financial advisory services.
He also pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in dishonest conduct in relation to a financial service.
Between 1 May 2020 and 21 May, 2020, Wertheimer made 48 unauthorised transactions on the Netwealth trading accounts belonging to 36 clients of Picture Wealth. Those transactions were made without the knowledge or authorisation of either the clients or Picture Wealth.
Between 29 May 2020 and 22 July, 2020, Wertheimer lodged five investment instruction documents with Netwealth that purported to relay instructions to deal with financial products on behalf of clients of Picture Wealth. Those instruction documents contained forged signatures and were prepared and lodged without the knowledge or authorisation of four of the clients or Picture Wealth.
At the time of offending, he was not authorised by Picture Wealth or any other Australian Financial Services Licensee to provide financial services to clients.
The matter was committed to the District Court of Western Australia for a sentence mention hearing on 11 November, 2022 and was being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions after a referral from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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