ASIC cracks down on SMSF auditor non-compliance

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has taken action against 17 self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) auditors during the final six months of 2024, after the regulator identified several instances of misconduct.

Between 1 July and 31 December 2024, ASIC disqualified four SMSF auditors, applied additional conditions to two SMSF auditors and cancelled the registration of 11 SMSF auditors due to breaches of:

• the professional obligations of approved SMSF auditors, such as complying with auditing and assurance standards, the auditor independence requirements, continuing professional development requirements or holding a current policy of professional indemnity insurance,
• compliance with annual statement requirements, and
• having the practical experience necessary to carry out SMSF audits.

Joseph Badawy, Gareth Evans, Vjekoslav Fak and Ryan McGrath were the four SMSF auditors to be disqualified; Brent Connor and Sam Danieli had the additional conditions imposed on their registrations; and the registrations of Evan Bekiaris, David Bromet, Judy Chu, Denis Ford, Bruce Mackley, Michael Mazza, Geoffrey Page, Anthony Richards, Michel Schoers, Wayne Tilley and Grace Wong were cancelled by ASIC.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had referred the 17 auditors to ASIC for compliance checks and was particularly responsible for identifying the 11 auditors whose registrations were cancelled as having “insufficient practical experience”.

“SMSF auditors are responsible for providing assurance on assets worth $1 trillion held in over 638,000 SMSFs. SMSF auditors are trusted gatekeepers that contribute to the integrity and confidence in the SMSF regime,” the regulator’s statement said.

“ASIC is empowered to cancel the registration of SMSF auditors that do not perform any significant audit work during a continuous period of 5 years.”

This comes after ASIC had also taken action against three other SMSF auditors in October last year, suspending them for one year each after the watchdog found they had “breached independence requirements by auditing thousands of SMSF clients from a single referral source, who is a SMSF administration provider”.