Lack of paper trail for Nguyen advice rejected
A financial dispute resolution specialist has rejected claims by Commonwealth Financial Planning that a number of former clients of Don Nguyen were not compensated because there was no documentation available to prove Nguyen provided advice.
Financial Resolutions Australia (FRA) made the claim in its submission to the Senate Inquiry into the performance of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and stated that the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) was aware of Nguyen’s actions despite the absence of a paper trial.
In supporting its claims FRA supplied to the Senate Review an internal compliance document from a senior Colonial First State (CFS) executive which stated that CFS, owned by the CBA, was aware of switching requests for eight of Nguyen’s clients despite the absence of advice documentation.
FRA also presented background information regarding a former client of Nguyen which it claimed had been rejected by CBA when it was brought to the bank’s attention by FRA.
The group stated it made it submission with the internal compliance document from CFS as it was “concerned that once again an all too convenient assumption has been made to Mr Nguyen’s behaviour by CBA and ASIC has accepted this as fact”.
FRA said these assumptions were inconsistent “with evidence uncovered as to contacts with Mr Nguyen that were not formal, and by testimony of his victims”.
“We raise this matter with the Senate Inquiry into ASIC as further evidence that the statistics provided to ASIC for compensation must be treated with extreme caution as they derive them basically from CBA,” FRA stated.
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