Adviser convicted of dishonest conduct
A former financial adviser has been convicted in the District Court of New South Wales of engaging in dishonest conduct with investor funds, after eight charges were brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
Gabriel Nakhl, of Illawong, New South Wales, pleaded guilty to all eight charges, which related to being knowingly engaged in dishonest conduct in relation to 12 investors. The charges were all brought under section 1041G of the Corporations Act.
The conduct occurred between March 2009 and March 2011, when Makhl was an authorised representative of Australian Financial Services Limited, and from March 2011 to September 2013, when he was the sole director of SydFA.
Both companies had since been liquidated.
The judgment follows an earlier enforceable undertaking between ASIC and Nakhl in November 2013, in which the latter agreed to be restricted from providing financial services permanently and from managing a corporation for 15 years.
The matter was listed for a three-day sentencing hearing in March, next year.
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