Promoter of non-existent fund has ban cut
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has backed an agreement between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and a Queenslander, to reduce his ban from financial services by 12 months.
Active Capital Managers sole director, Paul Duncan, was banned from financial services for four years in May 2015, after being found to have promoted a non-existent investment fund.
In a statement released today, ASIC said that the regulator had come to an agreement with Duncan to reduce the ban to three years, ceasing on 20 May 2018, following an appeal by the Queenslander to the AAT.
The agreement was approved by the AAT on 7 April 2016.
As previously reported by Money Management, ASIC found false or misleading representations on ACM's website from around August 2013 onwards relating to the Exalt Managed Futures Fund.
Those representations, which ASIC considered as false and misleading were likely to give the impression that the fund existed and was offered by Exalt Global Fund Limited, a separate firm which does hold an Australian Financial Services Licensee.
ASIC was also concerned that it appeared the fund was fully regulated and trading at low risk whilst generating high returns when in fact it had never existed, nor did it operate under any financial services licence, and it was not regulated or trading when the representations were made
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