Ex-Macquarie adviser banned
Queenslander, Brett O'Malley, has been banned from providing financial services for five years after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found he had engaged in unauthorised discretionary trading on nine client accounts.
O'Malley was a representative of Macquarie Equities Limited (MEL) from December 2009 to January 2013.
An ASIC investigation found that between February 2010 and November 2012, O'Malley, had engaged in discretionary trading on clients' accounts, despite MEL prohibiting such activity since 2004.
ASIC stated that O'Malley breached the financial services laws by holding out and representing to those clients that he was authorised by MEL to operate discretionary trading account in circumstances where he was not.
ASIC also found that the Queensland-based adviser had created records on behalf of clients that falsely indicated that he had provided advice to the clients prior to trading when he had not, in circumstances where he had engaged in unauthorised discretionary trading.
MEL has commenced a review process to compensate clients of O'Malley for any losses suffered as a result of his conduct as part of a broader client remediation process, which has been undertaken by MEL as agreed under an enforceable undertaking accepted by ASIC in January 2013.
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