Tasmanian adviser pleads guilty to $1.7 m fraud
A Tasmanian-based insurance agent and financial adviser has been remanded in custody after pleading guilty to 28 charges of fraud relating to more than $1.7 million in client funds.
Joachim Prehn, an insurance agent and financial adviser based in Burnie, Tasmania, was alleged to have knowingly misused $1,714,229 in funds obtained via clients of Joachim Prehn Insurances Services, between 30 June 1995 and 13 July 1998.
TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) led an investigation into Prehn’s activities and previously obtained Supreme Court orders appointing a receiver to the property of Joachim Prehn Insurances Services and to Prehn’s personal assets, for the benefit of investors and creditors to the company.
Prehn was banned permanently from acting as an investment adviser or a representative of a securities dealer in February 2000.
The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, and a sentencing date is yet to be fixed after Justice Underwood ordered Prehn be remanded in custody.
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