Moore to go back to court
Tasmanian-based Financial ServicesPartners (FSP) adviser Brendan Moore has lodged an appeal to have his criminal conviction, stemming from the non-issuance of Statements of Advice (SOA) to four clients in regard to super switching advice, overturned.
Moore lodged the appeal shortly after the Hobart Magistrates Court, in April, found he gave false and misleading answers while being examined by the Australian Securities and InvestmentsCommission (ASIC) during its investigation of the aforementioned chain of events.
As a result of the finding, Moore received a criminal conviction and was placed on a good behaviour bond of $5,000 for a period of two years.
FSP chief executive Geoff Rimmer said: “We’re terribly disappointed that he was found guilty but at the same time we must abide by the law, and the magistrate is an impartial umpire and we’ve got to accept whatever that outcome is going to be.”
He revealed the dealer group would continue its support of Moore through the appeal process and drew a small degree of optimism from the magistrate’s comments when the current conviction was handed down.
“What we’re heartened by, notwithstanding that we now have an adviser who has a criminal conviction, is that the magistrate did say that he was satisfied that there was nothing malicious in it, and he noted that the client with which ASIC ran the case against Brendan made it very public and very plain that he’s happy with Brendan as his adviser and intends to stay with him,” Rimmer said.
As a result of the conviction, FSP has put in place procedures to manage Moore’s level of compliance to give both the courts and the regulator a level of comfort that a similar occurrence would not happen again.
“We’ve decided as a business that we now have to see Brendan as somebody on high alert for us, so we’re now auditing him quarterly and we’re looking at him having a six monthly review with an external consultant to the business,” Rimmer explained.
The FSP chief executive said Moore was in complete cooperation with the dealer group in regard to these additional compliance and operational safeguards.
While the fallout from Moore’s situation is yet to be fully determined, Rimmer revealed the Tasmanian-based adviser still has professional indemnity insurance cover, and any clients lost to date has been as a result of the publicity surrounding the case and not from the matters that were investigated.
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