ASIC winds up illegal investment scheme
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has taken action to wind up illegal investment scheme MyWealth Manager, which was operated by Mustafa Mohammed, Mahek Mustafa and Mubashir Mohammed, after finding that funds of approximately $7 million raised by the scheme were not invested for the promoted purposes.
The scheme also included related companies MyWealth Manager Financial Services and 3M Financial Planning which was trading as MCube Planners.
According to the regulator, from February 2017, MyWealth Manager encouraged clients of MCube Planners to roll-out their existing superannuation funds, establish their own self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and invest in MyWealth Manager.
Following this, the Federal Court had found that all of the investors’ funds were misappropriated by those operating the scheme and that the defendants had contravened the Corporations Act by operating the unregistered scheme while failing to hold the required Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence.
“Consumers should be wary when they are presented with investment opportunities offering high returns and should seek independent financial advice from a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions,” ASIC’s deputy chair, Daniel Crennan, said.
ASIC also obtained an order that a related company, MyWealth Protection Pty Ltd be wound up. Timothy Norman and Robert Woods of Deloitte Financial Advisory Pty Ltd were appointed liquidators of the companies and the Scheme.
Mustafa Mohammed, Mahek Mustafa and Mubashir Mohammed currently reside in India.
AUTHOR
Oksana Patron
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