A Melbourne accountant has faced court to plead guilty to charges of operating unregistered managed investment schemes after an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Mark Ronald Letten, a South Yarra accountant and the former director of LGH Holdings Ltd (in liquidation) and the principal of the accounting firm Lettens Pty Ltd, formerly The Letten Group, pleaded guilty to 27 criminal charges in the Victorian County Court.
The charges included 21 charges of operating unregistered managed investment schemes, one charge of carrying on a financial services business without an AFS licence and five charges of breaching directors' duties.
According to ASIC, between 1998 and 2010 more than $100 million was placed by over 1000 investors in property investment schemes in Australia and New Zealand which were managed and promoted through a number of companies including LGH Holdings Ltd.
The companies and schemes have since been wound up following applications by ASIC in the Federal Court of Victoria commencing in 2010. These were followed with Letten being charged in December 2011 and a committal hearing in December 2012 which is being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
Letten was placed on conditional bail and will reappear in the Victorian County Court in May. He faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment for each of the unregistered scheme charges and the directors' duties charges. He also faces a maximum two years imprisonment for the charge of carrying on an unlicensed financial services business.
