Former Australian financial adviser, Daniel McSweeny, has been charged with 20 dishonesty offences alleged to have been committed when he was a company director.
McSweeny ran financial services business, Wealth Achievers, with offices in the Sydney suburbs of Parramatta and Mosman.
He appeared in the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney. The case was adjourned for further mention on 12 March 2019.
During the period where he ran Wealth Achievers, McSweeny was also sole director of two trustee companies, Constantia Capital and Prettoria Capital (both in liquidation), “which each held a bank account into which his clients’ funds, mostly superannuation savings, were transferred”.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) alleges that between 28 March 2011 and 24 December 2012, McSweeny “dishonestly transferred or directed others to transfer funds from those bank accounts for the benefit of himself or others”.
Asic also alleges that between 21 and 29 May 2012, McSweeny “directed an employee to construct a back-dated statement of advice which was given to an Australian financial services licensee”, AFS Group (in liquidation).
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter.
Saad
Also, the regulator has permanently banned Ahmed Saad from providing financial services.
Saad is accused of dishonestly obtaining money from client retail superannuation fund accounts for the purposes of operating a scheme providing clients with illegal early access to their superannuation.
The banning follows an Asic investigation into Saad’s conduct as an authorised representative of Apogee Financial Planning (Apogee) and through his business Saad Wealth Management (Saad Wealth).
Asic said, between October 2016 and September 2017, Saad had:
• Engaged in dishonest conduct on approximately 164 separate occasions illegally obtaining funds between A$1,000 (£563, $714, €623) and A$28,000 from client superannuation accounts for a total of A$1.4 million from Nulis Nominees Australia, the trustee of the MLC Super Fund, and rebated those funds to his clients;
• Engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by falsifying figures and details in client statements of advice and adviser remuneration fee forms provided to Nulis and Apogee; and
• Failed to act in the best interests of his clients and had not provided them with appropriate advice.
On 11 December 2018, Asic found Saad “breached financial services laws and was not of good fame and character”.
Saad has the right to lodge an application for review with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Asic’s investigation is ongoing.
