Court hands down prison sentence for unlicensed business director

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist

13 May 2026

The County Court of Victoria has dished out an almost six-year prison sentence for former financial services company director, Ashley Arandez, after he pleaded guilty to a raft of offences related to the misuse of client funds and unlicensed advice on investment products.

The sentence comes after an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) investigation that began in 2022 uncovered Arandez’s dishonest conduct across five related business entities of which he was a director and involved the delivery of unlicensed and unauthorised product advice that eventually amounted to $1.97 million in misappropriated client funds.

Through his businesses that were active between September 2017 and April 2021, the ASIC investigation found Arandez recommended to clients that they invest funds from their self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) into investment products which he controlled, and promised fixed interest returns of 8 to 12 per cent per annum or up to 300 per cent payable on maturity after three years.

From June 2019 onwards, Arandez was not licensed or authorised to provide financial services and his “promised investments were mostly unfulfilled”, having spent investor funds on personal purchases including a property and a motorhome.

ASIC first sought interim orders from the Federal Court to freeze Arandez’s and his companies’ assets back in June 2022, before he was charged with three counts of dishonest conduct, eight counts of dealing with proceeds of crime and one count of carrying on a financial services business without holding an Australian Financial Services licence in June 2023.

“Mr Arandez betrayed the trust of his clients, misappropriated investors’ funds and used the money for his own benefit,” ASIC Deputy Chair, Sarah Court, said.

“ASIC took this action to protect consumers from harm caused by dishonest and unlicensed conduct. The Court’s sentence reflects the seriousness of Mr Arandez’s misconduct and sends a strong signal to deter others from similar conduct.”

Arandez will be eligible for parole after three years and six months, and his automatic disqualification from managing corporations will be lifted five years after his release from prison.

The five entities related to Arandez’s dishonest conduct included:

• HLK Advisers Pty Ltd, as trustee for The HKA Trust,
• NCAA Holdings Pty Ltd, as trustee for The NCAA IP Trust,
• Mindenergetix Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Mindenergetix Trust,
• AWM Australia Pty Ltd, as trustee for The AWM Australian Trust, and
• Zednara Holdings Pty Ltd