Daly and Linchpin directors banned for 5 years

Well-known dealer group director Peter Daly and two other directors of Linchpin Capital Group have failed in their bid to avoid an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) order banning them from providing financial services for five years. 

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced today it had banned Ian Williams, Peter Daly and Paul Raftery from providing any financial services for a period of five years each, noting they were all directors of Linchpin Capital Group Ltd and Williams and Raftery were also directors of Endeavour Securities (Australia) Ltd (Endeavour). 

ASIC said its banning decisions were made in November 2019 but that following this, Williams, Daly and Raftery each appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). They applied for a stay of the decision and a confidentiality order preventing ASIC from publishing information about the banning order until the decision had been reviewed by the AAT. 

On 29 April, 2020, the AAT heard the applications for stay and confidentiality orders for each of the applicants. On 27 May, 2020, the AAT dismissed the applications for stay and confidentiality orders. 

The hearings for the review of the banning decisions have not yet been listed for any of the applicants. 

ASIC banned Williams, Daly, and Raftery for their roles in the operation of managed investment schemes by Linchpin and Endeavour. ASIC found that they each: 

• Failed to act in the best interests of the members of the Investport Income Opportunity Fund; and 
• Used their position as officers of the companies to gain an advantage for other persons and cause detriment to members of the Investport Income Opportunity Fund.  

ASIC found that Williams, Daly and Raftery did not understand the importance of the duties of directors to protect members of the managed investment schemes and, as a result, their conduct put significant amounts of other people’s money at risk. 

ASIC said the banning orders for Williams, Daly and Raftery had been recorded on ASIC’s Banned and Disqualified Register.