Unlicensed QLD CFD trader, director banned
A Queensland-based financial services director has been banned from providing financial services and running a financial services business for 10 years for promoting guaranteed investment returns and trading Contracts for Difference (CFDs) while unlicensed.
In a statement released today, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said Mark Jennings had traded CFDs using client funds and did not have the required Australian Financial Services licence (AFSL) to provide any such services.
Jennings, the former director of Suncoast Trading Pty Ltd that collapsed into liquidation following large losses from trading client monies, advertised “50 per cent, 100 per cent or 200 per cent per year GUARANTEED RETURNS” under the company name of Equity Trade.
The Equity Trade website also said “‘[o]ur investments are recession proof, we profit in both rising and falling markets”.
ASIC’s statement also listed Jennings’ offences, including:
- “carried on a financial services business without holding an AFS licence;
- had some clients deposit their funds into his personal trading account and traded CFDs without consulting them;
- made false or misleading statements as the returns were not guaranteed and there was no genuine basis to make the statement that the trades would be profitable in both rising and falling markets;
- gave false or misleading information to ASIC about the number of Equity Trade’s clients and the extent of losses suffered;
- is not adequately trained or competent to provide financial services; and
- is likely to contravene a financial services law.”
Jennings can appeal ASIC’s decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
ASIC should ban everyone who is not licensed in one fell swoop rather than waiting for unlicensed people to transgress and then banning them from something they weren’t allowed to do In the first place.