ASIC permanently bans former Equititrust CEO
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned a former head and founding director of a specialist fund manager that is now in liquidation.
Former chief executive and founding director of Equititrust, Mark McIvor, has been banned from providing any financial services after ASIC found he breached a financial services law and "was not of good fame or character to provide financial services".
Equititrust was the responsible entity of the Equititrust Income Fund (EIF), and collapsed in 2011.
ASIC found that while McIvor was the director between 2004 and 2008, he failed to take necessary steps to ensure he complied with the EIF compliance plan.
He also signed 28 board meeting minutes, which falsely recorded a board meeting to approve a loan meeting to approve a loan application had occurred, when in fact, no board meetings had occurred.
McIvor was also convicted and fined $10,000 in the Brisbane Magistrates Court of six charges of failing to provide a report as to affairs, and to deliver books and records to various liquidators.
Equititrust, which held an Australian financial services licence, was placed into voluntary administration on February 2012.
EIF had about 1,620 unit holders and were owed approximately $203.6 million.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
Recommended for you
Next year will see AMP roll out an end-to-end solution for its North platform, marking a shift in the firm’s position within the advice technology sector and building on adviser feedback.
My Dealer Services is predicting strong growth in self-licensing next year, citing recent ASIC action against Interprac and the desire for independence as key drivers of the self-licensing trend.
ASIC has handed down a six-month AFSL suspension to MW Planning after the firm failed to replace its banned responsible manager.
Despite the year almost at an end, advisers have been considerably active in licensee switching this week while the profession has reported a slight uptick in numbers.
