The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled the licence of an advice group and in separate actions banned a former ANZ adviser and a fake SMSF adviser.
The corporate regulator cancelled the Australian financial services licence (AFSL) of Sydney-based Edwards Benefits Advisors Pty Ltd after it failed to comply with obligations of its licence to lodge financial statements, auditors reports and auditor opinions over consecutive years and to notify ASIC of the breach.
The AFSL for Edwards Benefits, which had been operating since 1999 and was authorised to provide general financial product advice in relation to superannuation, investment, and life and disability insurance to Australian retail clients, was cancelled on June 29.
Edwards Benefits has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
In related news, ASIC has banned a former ANZ financial planner from providing financial services for 18 months after he engaged in conduct was that likely to mislead.
ASIC banned Craig Scott Miller, formerly of Malanda in North Queensland, following an investigation which found that during 2012 and 2014 Miller had signed a client’s name on an Authority to Proceed and requested a client sign a blank Authority to Provide Information document which was then copied before the names of super funds were inserted.
ASIC also found Miller had altered another Authority to Provide Information after it was signed by a client and created diary notes related to the same event which were signed by Miller and dated with the date of the event they recorded, when the diary notes were created some weeks after the date shown.
Miller was employed by ANZ as a financial planner between 2008 and 2015 to provide advice to clients of ANZ.
Also in Queensland, ASIC has permanently banned Mark Steven Grevsmuhl from providing financial services and engaging in credit activities after he was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in the Brisbane District Court on 8 October 2015.
Grevsmuhl is currently imprisoned and is eligible for parole in April 2019 after he was sentenced to 13 and a half years imprisonment after setting up fake superannuation investments and defrauding approximately 74 complainants of $6 million.
Grevsmuhl is also automatically disqualified from acting as a director of a company until at least five years from the day he is released from prison as a result of his conviction but has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s banning decision.
