Unlicensed advisers offer 200% returns
Investigations by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have resulted in charges being laid against the operators of a Queensland-based scheme that offered investors a 200 per cent return on their investment in just a couple of months.
Marianna Casella, Peter Stokes, Anton Vilencia and Ken McDowell, who ran the high-yield unnamed investment, were all charged by ASIC with holding themselves out to be investment advisers without being licensed.
ASIC alleges that the individuals promised investors that their principal investment would be safe and that it would be used for a project establishment fee.
In addition, investors were told that they would receive their 200 per cent guaranteed return within 30 to 95 days.
To date, none of the scheme’s investors have collected their principal investment or any of the promised returns.
It is alleged that investment funds totalling $257,000 were deposited into a trust account operated by McDowell, a Melbourne-based accountant operating as Kenlyn Business Services.
Operating out of an office at Strathpine in Queensland, Stokes was working as an accountant, while Casella conducted a finance brokerage consultancy business named Marianna Casella Consultancy Services. Vilencia was working as a self-employed financial consultant.
Charges were laid against the four unlicensed investment advisers in the Brisbane Magistrates Court last Friday, with Casella, Stokes and Vilencia being released on unconditional bail.
McDowell was summoned to appear on April 7, 2006.
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