Accountant, Mervyn Ross Tarrant, has failed to have a seven-year ban from providing financial services overturned by the Federal Court of Australia.
The court heard that from March 2008 to December 2009, Tarrant, as the sole authorised representative of Tarrants Financial Consultants Pty Limited (TFC) made recommendations to its clients that they invest in Astarra Strategic Fund.
Court documents revealed that TFC had received a "marketing allowance" from Absolute Alpha Pty Limit, which managed the Astarra Stategic Fund, from November 2009 to August 2009, however, clients were not made aware of the allowance until May 2009.
In 2011, Absolute Alpha director, Shawn Richard pleaded guilty and was convicted of two offences of dishonest conduct in relation to financial services, which affected Astarra, with all TFC clients who has invested in the fund losing their investments.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued stop orders in relation to Astarra in October 2009 and redemption in the fund were frozen on 16 December 2009, before it was wound up in March 2010 by the Supreme Court of NSW.
In August 2010 TFC was placed in liquidation and its Australian Financial Services Licence was suspended. More than a year later, an ASIC delegate banned Tarrant from providing financial services for seven years.
An Administrative Appeals Tribunal affirmed ASIC's ban and found that he had contravened various financial services laws.
Tarrant subsequently appealed the decision to the Federal Court of Australia, which ordered that the appeal be dismissed and ordered Tarrent to pay ASIC's costs for the appeal and the notice of objection to competency as agreed or assessed.
