Advisers banned permanently by ASIC

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

13 February 2023

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has handed down two permanent bans for former financial advisers on Monday, after one was convicted of fraud and the other of dishonest conduct.

Perth-based Rahul Goel was sentenced to a three-year jail term in December 2022 for fraud offences after he was charged with dishonest conduct for illegally obtaining close to $40,000 in superannuation from his clients’ accounts.

An ASIC investigation found Goel submitted falsified benefit access applications after he gained First Nations’ consumers superannuation details. After receiving the pay out, Goel “retained up to 100 per cent… in fees before forwarding the balance to consumers”.

He has been permanently banned from “having any involvement in financial services and credit activities”.

Sydney-based Sean John Sweeney was convicted of fraud on 4 November last year and has been banned from “providing any financial services, performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business, and controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business”.

“Financial advisers must act with honesty and integrity in their dealings with clients,” the watchdog said in a release.

“ASIC may ban a financial adviser if it has reason to believe that they are not a fit and proper person to provide financial services or that they are likely to contravene a financial services law.”

Sweeney filed an application with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in late December last year to review ASIC’s decision, which is currently pending.