Qld adviser’s promise of 8% returns leads to permanent ban

A Gold Coast financial adviser who told his clients he could guarantee them 8 per cent returns has been permanently banned from providing any financial services.

Dean Pagliaccio of Hope Island, Queensland has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, controlling an entity that carries a financial services business and performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business.

From May 2017 to June 2022, Pagliaccio was the director of Veridian Markets where he engaged in dishonest and deceptive and misleading conduct relating to a financial product or financial service.

ASIC determined that he is not a fit and proper person to provide financial services due his conduct when he:

• Made representations to prospective clients that Veridian could on their behalf, invest their funds in Macquarie Bank Cash Management accounts and achieve guaranteed returns of 8% annually;
• Applied the clients’ funds, for personal use, without having authority or permission from the clients to do so; and
• Failed to return funds, even when clients requested redemption of their funds.

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He also continued to provide financial services after Veridian Markets Pty Ltd no longer had AFS license authorisation.

As well as his director role at Veridian, he was sole director at Veridian Securities (deregistered) and Synergy Asia Pacific Partners, previously known as SKR Private and Synergy Equities Group. Synergy Asia Pacific Partner also had its AFSL cancelled by ASIC.

The banning has been recorded on ASIC's banned and disqualified register and he has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.