A Perth financial adviser who misused $200,000 of clients’ funds has been banned permanently from providing financial services by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
Geoffrey David Sanders of Kingsley was also found to have falsified documents and created a fictitious person to conceal his misuse of funds from clients.
Trading as Acclaim Group, Sanders acted as an insurance agent for a number of insurance companies from the early 1990s.
He also acted as an authorised representative of Guardianfp Limited from March 2004 until the dealer group withdrew his authority in September 2004.
Announcing the ban last week, the corporate regulator said Sanders had “the propensity to take financial advantage of clients and engage in unconscionable conduct in connection with the supply of financial services”.
ASIC executive director of enforcement Jan Redfern, said: “ASIC will take action to ensure that participants in the financial services industry act honestly and with integrity when dealing with clients.”
Sanders has the right to lodge an application with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
Meanwhile, a self-managed superannuation fund adviser, who allegedly recommended consumers with as little as $8,000 in superannuation set up self-managed funds charging up to $1,500 in fees, has been banned from operating businesses related to superannuation.
ASIC obtained Federal Court orders restraining Steve Preston (formerly known as Gordon Charles Fowler) and Manito, trading as Superannuation Retrieval Services (SRS), from carrying on a superannuation-related business.
The action arose out of ASIC’s superannuation switching surveillance campaign of financial advisers.
The corporate watchdog issued proceedings against Preston and SRS after SRS approached 34 Melbourne clients to roll their superannuation into self-managed superannuation funds.
At least 10 of these clients have not yet received all of their superannuation funds and ASIC claims a significant amount of SRS clients’ superannuation entitlements remain unpaid.
The Court ordered Preston and SRS to pay back the clients or their superannuation funds and authorised ASIC to send out notices to the 34 known clients asking them to list their superannuation interests and advise ASIC of any amounts that remained unpaid.
