ASIC cancels Brisbane education firm AFSL
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Brisbane-based education business, The Sharemarket College, and banned its responsible managers, Graeme Allan Rogers and Jill Rogers, from providing financial services for making misleading statements to members of the public.
ASIC investigation found that The Sharemarket College was making false claims about its own success when trading on the share market and operating a real investment portfolio, with a capitalisation of $100,000, and the company claimed that this portfolio had achieved returns of 60 per cent per annum and advertised that similar returns could be achieved by enrolling in its training courses.
However, ASIC's investigation established there was no investment portfolio and all the claims were false and misleading.
In addition, the regulator said that The Sharemarket College had failed to comply with a number of its obligations as a financial services licensee, which included:
Making misleading or deceptive statements in relation to a financial product or a financial service;
Providing personal advice to clients when they were only licensed to provide general advice;
Failing to notify ASIC of significant breaches within 10 days; and
Failing to maintain the competence to provide financial services authorised under its AFS licence.
As a result, ASIC banned Graeme Rogers from providing financial services for a period of four years and Jill Rogers for a period of three years.
The AFS licence cancellation and the banning took effect on 30 August.
The company, which was a registered training organisation and also held an AFS licence, has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.
ASIC's commissioner, Greg Tanzer, said: "All AFS licensees need to ensure their culture does not drive poor conduct within their business. ASIC will take action against licensees and the individuals who fail to comply with their obligations".
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