Ostrava wound up and directors banned
The Federal Court in Melbourne on Thursday wound up Ostrava Equities and eight other companies associated with the Ostrava financial services business, and its proprietors, Bradley Grimm and Vanessa Ash.
The court also ordered that Grimm, and Ash, who is a lawyer and former employee of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), be restrained from providing financial services for 20 and 10 years respectively, and disqualified from managing corporations, for 15 and seven years respectively.
The court found that Ostrava Equities and Grimm had engaged in dishonest conduct by charging unauthorised fees to clients, contravened the Corporations Act by misleading statements to clients about the value of their self-managed superannuation fund, provided unlicensed managed discretionary account services, failed to comply with financial services disclosure obligations, and failed to act in the clients' best interests.
In winding up the firm, Justice Davies said that Grimm's conduct was "deliberate and in contumelious disregard of the law and statutory requirements".
She also said that Grimm had engaged in deliberate courses of conduct to enrich himself and the corporate group that he established at others' expense.
Justice Davies said Ash "either knew, or ought to have known, the standard of conduct required by law but she appears to have relied passively on Mr Grimm in the carrying on of the financial services business without proper supervision or exercising any independent or critical judgment".
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