Theta AM ex-MD banned by ASIC
Theta Asset Management’s former managing director, Robert Patrick Marie, has been banned by the corporate regulator from providing any financial services for four years.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said Marie had also been banned from controlling an entity that carried on a financial services business and from performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business in any capacity.
Theta was the responsibly entity of the Sterling Income Trust which was a registered managed investment scheme placed into external administration in 2019.
ASIC said Marie had been banned due to Corporations Act contraventions stemming from five defective product disclosure statements (PDSs) for the trust under which $16,710,669 had been raised from retail investors between 20 May, 2016, and 1 May, 2018.
“Theta had previously been held by the Federal Court, in civil penalty proceedings commenced by ASIC, to have failed to comply with the duties imposed on a responsible entity by issuing the defective PDSs,” ASIC said.
“Mr Marie was found to have failed to comply with his duties as a managing director, by failing to ensure Theta complied with the Corporations Act. ASIC’s banning of Mr Marie was based on the conduct of concern to the Federal Court.”
In November 2020, Theta was ordered by the Federal Court in Western Australia to pay a penalty of $2 million and Marie to pay a penalty of $100,000 for contravening the Corporations Act.
Recommended for you
AMP has agreed in principle to settle an advice and insurance class action that commenced in 2020 related to historic commission payment activity.
Financial advisers will have to pay around $10.4 million of the impending $47.3 million CSLR special levy but Treasury has expanded the remit to also include super fund trustees and other retail-facing sub-sectors.
While social media can have positive financial influence, the overwhelming risks signal a greater need for affordable advice as Australians continue to seek financial education on social media.
Fitzpatricks Advice Partners has released a guide on building a national advice firm with the argument that these firms are crucial to facilitating growth in the struggling profession.
