ASIC moves on sunken treasure scheme
A Brisbane man who acted as a commission agent for an investment scheme based on sunken treasure from shipwrecks has been convicted of operating a financial services business without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).
Scott Robert Soutter, 41, of Warana in Queensland, pleaded guilty to the charge, brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), in Brisbane Magistrates Court.
He was ordered by the court to pay $2,000 plus legal costs and released on a two-year good behaviour bond.
Soutter introduced numerous people to invest in a sunken treasure investment scheme known as the Hatcher Unit Trust, which allegedly promised returns of up to 1,365 per cent to investors.
ASIC says the trust was an unregistered managed investment scheme. It was set up to raise money from the public to fund the recovery of sunken treasure from shipwrecks in south-east Asia.
Many of Hatcher Unit Trust’s 130 investors, who invested approximately $730,000, lived in south-east Queensland.
Meanwhile, ASIC has obtained a court order to stop the operation of a Brisbane-based investment scheme involving about $17 million in investor funds, which was intended to be traded on the foreign currency market. The regulator obtained injunctive orders in the Supreme Court of Queensland in Brisbane this month over Arafura Equities, its directors and promoters.
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