Actions against Financial Services Group Australia and its manager – June 13, 2025
The Australian Financial Services licence of Financial Services Group Australia Pty Ltd, has been cancelled and its Responsible Manager (RM) Graham Holmes has been permanently banned after multiple failings.
Some of the reasons for cancelling the licence included failing to:
- ensure that two of its representatives provided appropriate financial product advice in the client’s best interests;
- lodge financial statements and auditor’s reports on time;
- lodge breach reports with ASIC, and
- comply with its licence condition which required the company to have total assets that exceeded total liabilities (regarding financial years 2022 and 2023).
Graham Holmes was banned after being found to be involved in contravening financial services law by the company, including not ensuring representatives acted in the clients’ best interests, and receiving fees even though he did not fulfil his RM duties.
ASIC has earlier taken action against Ferras Merhi, who was the sole director of the company from February 2021 to May 2025, in connection with ongoing investigations into the Shield Master Fund and the First Guardian Master Fund.
Refused credit licence application for Bakken Holdings Pty Ltd’s – June 13, 2025
Bakken Holdings Pty Ltd’s application for an Australian credit licence to provide debt management services has been refused by ASIC.
After the refusal, the company must now stop engaging in debt management services.
Court proceedings also started against the company in August 2023 as an operator of the debt management business Solve My Debt Now over concerns of substantial consumer harm by failing to pay creditors.
Allegedly, from April 2020 to June 2022, Bakken collected A$3.6m ($2.4m) from its customers but only paid out A$1.1m ($720,000) to creditors – 64% of the customers did not have payments made to their creditors at all.
Glenda Rogan banned 10 years – June 12, 2025
Former financial adviser Glenda Maree Rogan has been banned 10 years from providing financial services due to misleading or deceptive conduct.
Between March 2022 and June 2023, Rogan was found to be transferring at least A$14.8m (9.6m) of funds invested by clients, family and friends to a cryptocurrency-based investment scam while she was a financial adviser with the Fincare group of companies and an authorized representative of Private Wealth Pty Ltd.
She made false statements to clients, and mislead them about the investment, including claiming it was a high-yield fixed interest account instead of cryptocurrency investment.
She transferred the funds to her own bank accounts and personal company, where most of the money was converted to cryptocurrency, then transferred to various wallets nominated by the Financial Centre – an entity listed on ASIC’s Investor Alert List as unlicensed and which should not be trusted. According to ASIC, Rogan should have had suspicions about the legitimacy of it from at least October 2022.
The Commission’s investigation into Rogan’s conduct is ongoing.
Australian Unity Funds Management sued – June 11, 2025
Australian Unity Funds Management Limited has been sued for allegedly failing to confirm product suitability for investors.
The allegations concern the Select Income Fund where three Target Market Determinations were made between October 2021 and October 2023 to identify the class of suitable investors, yet no reviews of questionnaire answers were made until August 2023.
“Issuers do not meet these obligations just by issuing a questionnaire. They need to actively review investor responses and assess there is nothing in those responses that is inconsistent with the defined target market for the product.”
Sarah Court, Deputy Chair, ASIC
An interim stop order was also issued against the company in June 2024, stopping it from issuing or distributing interests in fund to retail clients.
The order was made in response to a retail client questionnaire with “significant flaws”, leading to a high risk that clients would not understand it and that it would therefore result in inaccurate responses and distribution of interests outside the target market.
Former BBY CEO Maharaj charged – June 10, 2025
Arunesh Narain Maharaj, former Chief Executive Officer of stockbroking firm BBY Limited, has been charged with aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring BBY’s dishonest conduct.
Allegedly, the offence happened between June and December 2014. Maharaj is said to have engaged in dishonest conduct in communications with ASX Ltd and its subsidiaries relating to a A$192m ($125.2m) acquisition of shares in Aquila Resources Ltd on behalf of a client.
Maharaj was charged with one offence of violating sections 1041G(1) and 1311 of the Corporations Act 2001, and section 11.2(1) of the Criminal Code.
He was also charged earlier in October 2023 and said to have aided, abetted, counselled or procured offences by a former BBY staff member, who, by deception, gained financial advantage via an overdraft facilitation account for BBY from St George Bank, a division of Westpac Banking Corporation.
Court updates
Guilty pleas in Telegram pump and dump group – June 10, 2025
Larissa Quinlan, Kurt Stuart, Emma Summer and Syed Yusuf have all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to committing market rigging and dealing with the proceeds of crime connected to a Telegram pump and dump group. The conspiracy took place between about August 22, 2021, and September 22, 2021.
Stuart and Summer pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with money or other property that was or believed to be proceeds of crime to the value of A$10,000 ($6,515) or more. And Quinlan and Yusuf to one count of dealing with proceeds of crime to the value of A$1,000 ($652) or more.
“ASIC takes breaches of the market manipulation rules very seriously and as demonstrated in this matter, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action where appropriate.”
Joe Longo, Chair, ASIC
According to ASIC, the four formed a private group on Telegram to discuss and select penny stocks, then later announce which stocks to get in the public Telegram group ASX Pump and Dump Group. A total of nine announcements were made in September 2021, and each of the four are believed to have purchased some of the stocks that were discussed.
A date for a sentence hearing is yet to be decided, and they face a maximum penalty for the conspiracy offence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine of over A$1m ($651,561).
ASIC news week 24
Global action cracking down on unlawful finfluencers
ASIC has met and collaborated with eight regulators from the UK, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Hong Kong and Canada to take actions against finfluencers as part of a Global Week of Action Against Unlawful Finfluencers.
During the week, the regulators combined regulatory and enforcement powers to make arrests, issue warning notices, and take down websites. They also created educational schemes with authorized finfluencers plus consumer awareness programs.
For Australia, ASIC issued warning notices to 18 social media finfluencers that were suspected of unlawfully promoting high-risk financial products and providing unlicensed financial advice.
As earlier covered by GRIP, the UK made arrests and authorized criminal proceedings.
“It’s important that consumers separate fun from fact when it comes to finfluencer content. Popularity doesn’t equal credibility,” said ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland. “Check their credentials and whether they’re licensed or authorized, before checking your money out.”
Speeches
On June 10, ASIC Chair Joe Longo made the opening remarks at the ASIC Symposium on Australia’s Public and Private Markets, addressing ASIC’s role in shaping the future of the markets.
“Many of our conversations have focused on whether ASIC has a role in regulating private markets. I want to be clear that ASIC is in no rush to regulate.”
Instead, Longo said that ASIC is focusing on sharpening its understanding of private markets, even though some responses on its consultation paper suggested increased supervision and consistent standard-setting across areas such as valuations, managing conflicts of interest and fee disclosure.
“But fundamentally we need to be very clear about the problem we are solving before jumping to regulation. I’ve said many times before, regulatory complexity is a problem in Australia, and we need to simplify our approach.”
He also promised to showcase the Commission’s proposed roadmap for private markets in quarter four. “We have a window of opportunity to design the public markets we want to see, not just tomorrow but in five- and 10-years’ time.”
After the remarks, two ASIC Symposium panels were held, State of Our Markets, and Private markets, where to now? discussing “where do we go from here?” following what Longo touched on.
Later on June 12, Chair Longo spoke at the AmCham Regulator Luncheon Series in Sydney about the growth of superannuation sector – focusing on whether it is time for super trustees to listen and act on complaints.
The superannuation sector is growing and is a pillar of stability for the Australian economy, “but quantity isn’t everything,” Longo said. “We must have quality too. Size and growth should not outstrip governance – nor customer service.”
Both ASIC and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority have taken recent actions against the sector, and the next phase of ASIC’s work is to address how trustees learn from and respond to the complaints they receive, and to address board blind spots in the sector.
“Super funds hold the keys to the future for millions of lives – and so they’re trusted with all the responsibilities and obligations that go with that.”
Two-year trial path for faster IPOs
A new shorter initial public offering (IPO) timetable is now available for entities listing on the ASX via the fast-track process.
The shorter timetable is part of a two-year trial, where ASIC will engage with an issuer before to the exposure period aiming to reduce deal execution risk. It will also include a ‘no action’ position which will allow eligible companies to accept retail investor applications during the period with actions.
“Greater deal certainty for companies should help deliver more IPOs, which means more investment opportunities so companies can expand, increase jobs and ultimately economic growth,” commented ASIC Chair Joe Longo.