ASIC denies head-hunting but bans two advisers
TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) today scotched claims that it only targets industry big-hitters by stressing it focuses on “wrongdoing, not individuals” in its enforcement pursuits.
“Suggestions in BRW today that ASIC has a project to target high-profile individuals are wrong. There is no such project and there never has been one during Mr Knott's term at ASIC,” the peak regulator says in a statement.
Reinforcing this notion, investigations by the regulator have resulted in the conviction of two lesser known industry figures.
Justin Nicholas Cardillo, a former employee of licensed securities dealerWilson HTM, has been given a 12 month suspended sentence after pleading guilty of dishonestly using his position as a company employee.
ASIC alleged that between March 29 and December 6 2000, Cardillo dishonestly used his position at Wilson HTM by using nine client accounts to trade securities on theAustralian Stock Exchangewithout instructions from those clients.
Cardillo appeared in the County Court of Victoria and was released on a good behaviour bond and on the condition of consenting to attend psychological treatment for up to 12 months.
Meanwhile a former VictorianMLCinsurance agent has been sentenced to two years’ jail on charges relating to the theft of insurance premiums which he used for gambling and other personal expenses.
The same court ordered that former MLC agent Vittorio Anthony Herbert Ziegelaar serve a 12 month non-parole period and repay $161,802 to MLC as compensation.
The charges followed an ASIC investigation into the conduct of Ziegelaar as the sole proprietor of 'Tori Ziegelaar Financial Services', a business based in Warrnambool, Victoria.
Ziegelaar, acting as an agent for MLC between April 1994 and October 2001, received insurance premiums and superannuation payments from approximately 12 clients totalling $281,312.
He then failed to pass on the premiums to the relevant insurance and superannuation companies and instead used the money for personal expenses and gambling.
Ziegelaar also created false MLC documents which he gave to clients, which seemed to confirm the clients' money had been received by MLC.
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