AMP adviser banned by ASIC
Ex-AMP Financial Planningadviser Klinton Jay Lehman has been banned from acting as a representative of a securities dealer or of an investment adviser for four years by theAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC).
The ban resulted from an ASIC investigation which found that Lehman was carrying on his investment advice business in conjunction with a third party, and that clients did not understand with whom they were dealing, and who was the agent of AMP.
According to ASIC, Lehman had allowed an unauthorised person to advise on and recommend AMP products and place those products through Lehman’s proper authority.
ASIC says he attempted to conceal the third party’s involvement by not properly recording dealings with clients in his client records and attempted to frustrate the legitimate efforts of AMP to oversee his activities as a proper authority holder.
Lehman was an authorised representative of AMP Financial Planning between February 2001 and April 2002, when AMP terminated the authorisation.
Also this week, John Charles Whitehead has been banned from acting as a representative of a dealer or an investment adviser for two years.
An authorised representative and director of Winthrop Securities, Whitehead had advised clients to invest in redeemable preference shares for various Industrial Edge companies, when he was a director and shareholder of these companies, according to ASIC.
ASIC ruled that Whitehead’s involvement in developing the Industrial Edge projects as investment products interfered with his ability to make an objective recommendation to his clients.
Whitehead was also found to have caused or permitted extensive breaches of Winthrop Securities’ licence conditions over a period of about five years, by providing advice on securities for which Winthrop did not hold an appropriate licence.
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