Reviewing ASIC’s Q3 advice enforcement activity

Money Management compiles ASIC’s enforcement action during the third quarter of 2024.

This ranges from financial adviser bannings to cancellations of AFSLs over the last three months to 30 September.

July

The third quarter commenced with the regulator permanently banning former Western Australia-based financial adviser Dashiel Benjo Vee after he falsified his adviser exam certificate.

Former Queensland-based adviser, Anass “Caesar” Abdalla, was also permanently banned in July after he allegedly asked an authorised representative (AR) of a licensee, who was not working at the time, to sign documents, misleading clients into thinking that personal advice had been provided by the AR when it had not been.

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Later that month, ASIC secured travel restraint orders against adviser Barry David King while he was the subject of an investigation. The regulator stated at the time: “ASIC is currently investigating Mr King for alleged financial misconduct in a network of companies and related trusts.”

Christopher Edward Luff, an NSW-based adviser, was banned from providing financial services for five years and the AFSL of his business Build Your Wealth was cancelled by ASIC. This was due to him not acting in the best interest of clients and the advice he provided was not appropriate.

Rounding out the month, the enforcement body banned financial services director Joel James Hewish for 10 years and cancelled the AFSL of his company, United Global Capital Pty Ltd (UGC), after he recommended clients invest in speculative investments and rollover their superannuation.

August

Former national financial advice business, Libertas Financial Planning, saw its AFSL cancelled by ASIC in August after it went into liquidation in May 2023. Libertas was acquired by Sequoia Financial Group in August 2019. An AFCA determination was also previously made against Libertas on 24 July 2023, but this was not paid by the firm.

ASIC’s Financial Services Credit Panel (FSCP) issued a warning to a relevant provider for failing to provide a client with a statement of advice (SOA). This was because the relevant provider contravened the Corporations Act by failing to provide an SOA after giving personal advice to the client.

Moreover, former Brisbane financial adviser, Ben Jayaweera, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of 28 counts of fraud totalling $5.9 million. In the sentencing remarks, Judge Moynihan KC described his conduct as “brazen, gross and callous”, and there had been a gross breach of trust which had caused victims to suffer substantial personal and financial harm.

September

The final month of the quarter began with Tony Iervasi, a former director of Courtenay House, being sentenced in the Supreme Court of NSW to 11 years’ imprisonment for his role in the operation of a Ponzi scheme. When handing down the sentence, Justice Sweeney said Iervasi was dishonest on an “egregious scale”, “establishing the veneer of a successful wealth creating business ... which sought to reassure and persuade victims to invest”.

A few days later, former Melbourne financial planner Bradley Grimm was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, with nine months to serve for three counts of engaging in dishonest conduct. ASIC said he engaged in dishonest conduct on five occasions when he transferred funds between two of his clients’ self-managed superannuation funds to three separate companies of which he was the sole director.

The FSCP made two further determinations in September, one regarding possible breaches of conflicted remuneration and the second about non-compliance with CPD. In the first case, there were concerns that the adviser had breached conflicted remuneration and best interest duty within the Corporations Act and had breached the code of ethics. The second related to a relevant provider where the panel was concerned it had failed to comply with continuing professional development requirements. However, the panel took no action in either case.