RetireInvest saga rolls on

Former Australian Olympic rower Hamish McLachlan has been permanently banned from acting as a representative of a securities dealer or of an investment adviser.

Former Australian Olympic rower Hamish McLachlan has been permanently banned from acting as a representative of a securities dealer or of an investment adviser.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) banned McLachlan, a former authorised representative of Thompson Brindal, after finding he had not per-formed efficiently, honestly and fairly as a securities dealer representative. Thompson Brindal was formerly a broking house.

"There was a gross breach of duty and trust by Mr McLachlan," says ASIC South Australian regional commissioner Karen Axford.

ASIC says McLachlan knowingly made false journal entries in the client records of Thompson Brindal relating to transfers of funds between client accounts at financial adviser RetireInvest.

It also said he transferred open options positions from his own account to the accounts of RetireInvest clients for the purpose of personally avoiding incurring losses.

And McLachlan engaged in conduct which had the effect of hiding from RetireInvest clients the true state of their account with Thompson Brindal.

"About 250 RetireInvest clients suffered losses from unauthorised transactions and RetireInvest has since paid about $17 million in compensation to its clients," Axford says.

The transactions occurred between December 1992 and April 1997 and were all con-ducted through Thompson Brindal.

"In view of the sums of money involved, and the period over which the conduct oc-curred, the banning order was necessary to protect the public," Axford says.

Ends more