The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned a former director of AFS Capital Securities Limited, Dr Bingxing Hu, for five years from providing financial services as he failed to comply with a financial services law.
According to ASIC’s investigation, Hu “knowingly engaged in conduct that was likely to mislead in contravention of s1041H(1) of the Corporation Act”.
Also, the regulator found that Hu may not be adequately trained, or not competent, to provide financial services, “having demonstrated by his conduct a disregard and a misunderstanding of the rules applying to the financial services that he was providing”.
In particular, ASIC found that Hu:
- Caused a list supplied by the company of 158 applicants for shares incorrectly purported to be Australian residents to be forwarded to the company’s share registry;
- Signed a statutory declaration declaring that to his “knowledge… no artificial means have been used to achieve the spread requirement” when he knew or should have known that this was false; and
- Sent emails to various persons that falsely represented that the minimum subscription requirement had been met.
Hu, who was AFS Capital’s director between 8 April 2010 and 18 April 2017, has a right to apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for review of ASIC’s banning order.
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