ob体育 has banned Mr David Stephen Cornford of Centennial Park, New South Wales, from providing financial services for six years. Mr Cornford was employed as an adviser at Kaz Capital Pty Ltd between 2014 and 2017.
ob体育鈥檚 concerns related to Mr Cornford:
- buying聽and selling listed securities on clients鈥� accounts without the 聽聽聽聽 authorisation to do so; and
- trading聽Contracts for Difference (CFDs) in a personal capacity, in a manner that聽conflicted with the interests of his clients.
ob体育 found that Mr Cornford had:
- taken聽part in transactions that had, or were likely to have, the effect of聽creating or maintaining an artificial price for trading in shares;
- did聽acts that had, or were likely to have, the effect of creating, or causing the creation of, a false or misleading appearance with respect to the聽market for, or the price for trading in, shares; and
- provided聽聽a financial service when the Australian financial services licence of Kaz聽Capital, where Mr Cornford was employed at the time, did not cover the聽provision of the service.
Mr Cornford has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ob体育's decision.
Background
On 16 January 2019, ob体育 imposed licence conditions on Kaz Capital following concerns about the adequacy and effectiveness of its compliance framework. The conditions require Kaz Capital to appoint an independent expert to review the effectiveness of its implementation of recommendations for remediation made by another external consultant (19-006MR).
The integrity of both listed securities and the retail over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives sector are key focus areas for ob体育.
Maintaining the integrity of our markets is critical for promoting investor trust and confidence in financial markets. Mr Cornford traded CFDs, in a personal capacity, that referenced the price of the securities traded for his clients.
ob体育鈥檚 Market Supervision team is responsible for surveillance of trading across Australia鈥檚 listed and OTC markets and is further enhancing its capabilities to detect cross-market misconduct.