Former banker barred for pocketing customers’ money
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned a Sydney woman from providing financial services after she was convicted for fraud-related offences, ASIC announced last week.
Regina Bouskila, 50, of North Bondi, pleaded guilty late last year to 22 counts of obtaining a benefit by deception, ASIC said.
Bouskila was an employee of the Commonwealth Bank for 25 years but on 22 occasions between August 2000 and March 2006 she took possession of customers’ money without their authority, ASIC said.
Bouskila intercepted official bank statements and replaced them with different documents purporting to be bank statements that contained no reference to the unauthorised transactions, ASIC said.
The Commonwealth Bank has since reimbursed all the affected customers for a total amount of $3,109,549.93.
Bouskila was sentenced to five years in prison in December last year.
Recommended for you
Unregistered managed investment scheme operator Chris Marco has been sentenced after being found guilty of 43 fraud charges, receiving the highest sentence imposed by an Australian court regarding an ASIC criminal investigation.
ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of Sydney-based Arrumar Private after it failed to comply with the conditions of its licence.
Two investment advisory research houses have announced a merger to form a combined entity under the name Delta Portfolios.
The top five licensees are demonstrating a “strong recovery” from losses in the first half of the year, and the gap is narrowing between their respective adviser numbers.

