The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has moved against two financial advisers in the past week with both being permanently banned by the regulator from providing financial services.
ASIC permanently banned a former Perth-based financial adviser, Tak Simson Kwok, for engaging in misleading, deceptive and dishonest conduct in relation to client funds and investments between April and December 2013.
Kwok was employed as a financial adviser by HSBC Bank Australia Ltd from 29 September 2009 to 16 December 2013 and ASIC found that between April and December 2013 Kwok mislead and deceived six clients that they were investing around $6 million into products approved by HSBC.
ASIC also found Kwok forged documents and signatures to disguise the fact that client money had not been invested into the approved HSBC products and misled and deceived HSBC into erroneously believing he was only providing recommendations to the clients about products on the HSBC approved product list.
HSBC notified ASIC of Kwok’s conduct and have initiated court actions resulting in full remediation to all of the affected clients while Kwok has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
ASIC has also permanently banned Tasmanian financial adviser Kenneth David Drake from providing any financial services after he pleaded guilty and was convicted of two counts of stealing in the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
Drake was sentenced to six and a half years jail and will be eligible for parole after serving half of that term at a hearing in early April, following an investigation by Tasmania Police.
ASIC has the power to permanently ban a person from operating in the financial services without its own hearing if that person is convicted of serious fraud, such as stealing, with Drake’s ban to take effect from 23 May 2016. Drake still retains the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
The charges and conviction related to Drake stealing more than $940,000 from two elderly clients of his financial services practice over a period of six years and via 64 unauthorised transactions on the client’s accounts, including the use of forged signatures of the clients to facilitate the stealing.
Good on ASIC. This behaviour is the real “blight” on our industry and needs to be wiped out.
What does amaze me though is how long some of these “crooks” have been getting away with it some for years ?? Surely tighter internal processes would bring this to light sooner rather than $2 million dollars later. And it seems to be rife within the very institutions that claim to have their customers best interest at heart. The banks ??
Stop beating up on the retail advisers and look a bit closer to home would be my advice.
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