Adviser banned for life
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned a Canberra financial adviser for life.
Warren John Aitken was found by the securities watchdog to have made recommendations to clients about investments that Digman Gisz Financial Planners, of which he was an authorised representative, had not endorsed, nor knew about.
While Aitken was representative of Digman (later to become Futures Financial Group), he purchased units for his clients in a unit trust that funded a ski lodge development at Perisher Valley in NSW. Aitken carried out the purchases in association with another company, Laseron Custodians.
And in a separate incident, ASIC found that Aitken had transferred around $300,000 from superannuation funds of his clients without their authority.
Aitken is currently not representing any securities dealer, but ASIC's action in banning him for life was taken to prevent him from returning to the industry.
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