Ezzat-Daniel Nesseim of Pymble, NSW, has been sentenced to a three-year intensive correctional order, including one year of home detention, for engaging in dishonest conduct and providing falsified documents to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Between 16 August, 2017 and 11 October, 2017, Nesseim engaged in repeated dishonest conduct, including by:
- Using three forged wholesale client certificates by providing them to ASIC in an attempt to influence an ASIC officer that they were genuine documents relevant to ASIC’s decision about whether to continue its investigation; and
- Knowingly giving ASIC false answers and information after ASIC questioned Nessim, both under oath and by way of statutory notice, about the forged wholesale certificates.
Nesseim also knowingly made use of other fabricated evidence, including doctored emails and purported witness statements, in a hearing before an ASIC delegate. In that hearing, Nesseim knowingly gave false testimony under oath.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions prosecuted this matter after a referral from ASIC.
ASIC deputy chair, Sarah Court, said: “Instead of showing the honesty and integrity required of someone who works in the financial services sector, Mr Nesseim deliberately lied to ASIC, using fabricated evidence and lied under oath in an attempt to evade ASIC’s scrutiny.
“Where ASIC suspects someone has deliberately lied to us, either directly or by providing us with false documents, we will not hesitate to refer them for prosecution.”
Upon sentencing, Judge McGrath said Nesseim had “weaved a tangled web; and ultimately entangled himself in his own falsehoods. Had he admitted non-compliance with the particular disclosure requirements when first contacted, the consequences for him would not have involved a protracted investigation, compulsory hearings, strike-off and criminal prosecution for serious offences.”
Nesseim was currently the general manager of Accord Partners, a business operated by Foresight Enterprises Pty Ltd, of which Nesseim was sole director. At the time of the offending, he ran a financial services business called Smart Financial Strategies. As a result of his conviction, Nesseim was automatically disqualified from managing corporations for a period of five years from the date of his conviction.
Nesseim was permanently banned from providing financial services on 12 March, 2018 and was also permanently banned from engaging in credit activities from 19 July, 2019 as he was found not to be a fit and proper person to engage in credit activities.
Nesseim had previously held senior positions in the lending desks of major banking corporations and ran a financial planning and advisory business.
