Former Brisbane-based adviser, Thanh Tu, will serve a minimum of three year imprisonment after pleading guilty to fraud, which led to losses of more than $8 million.
Tu was sentenced to nine and a half years in jail, after an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) investigation found that between September 2008 and September 2013, while employed by Patersons Securities Limited, he had dishonestly induced 18 investors into investing almost $9 million in “secure investments” only to redirect the funds to a personal trading account.
“The defendant then, for his own purposes, traded the money in risky investments and ultimately lost a total $8,120,073.53 of the original invested capital,” ASIC reported.
ASIC commissioner, Greg Tanzer, said Tu had systematically breached the trust of his clients on a large scale.
“The actions of Mr Tu were deceitful and calculated and undermine confidence in the financial advice industry,” he said.
“His lengthy jail sentence should send a strong message that such conduct will not be tolerated by ASIC or the community.”
Tu who was remanded in custody after pleading guilty to 33 counts of fraud and 21 counts of fraudulent falsification of records, on 6 November 2015, will be eligible for parole after serving three years.
