Company director ‘restrained’ after licence breach


A former director of a Victorian foreign exchange provider has been "restrained" from providing financial services after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found his company had provided services not covered by its Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).
The Federal Court of Australia ordered that James Sonny Quinten Hunter, and Monarch FX Group - of which he was a former director and general manager - had provided recommendations to clients regarding their superannuation, which he was not authorised to do.
Court documents revealed that Monarch staff were provided with a list of "client leads" to sign up to Monarch FX's foreign exchange service, and were told that if clients did not have access to funds to pay for the membership agreement, they were told by Hunter to recommend that they set up a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).
The Court ruled that both Hunter and Monarch were restrained for a period of four years from carrying on, either directly or indirectly, a financial services business within the meaning of s 761A of the Corporations Act.
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