ob体育 has today released its enforcement update report for the period 1 January to 30 June 2020.
A copy of the report - outlining key actions taken over the past six months to enforce the law and support our enforcement objectives - can be found here.
The report covers the ongoing areas of focus, including a foreword from ob体育 Deputy Chair Daniel Crennan QC discussing ob体育鈥檚 enforcement progress in the first six months of 2020 including in relation to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry-related enforcement work.
During this period, ob体育 has successfully completed enforcement action in two long-running matters, Octaviar and Storm Financial, both of which related to directors鈥� duties obligations in Australia and resulted in civil penalties and disqualification orders.
ob体育 has also had significant civil penalties imposed against large financial institutions including:
- CBA was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $5 million and publish a corrective notice regarding its AgriAdvantage Plus Package; and
- AMP was ordered to pay a civil penalty of over $5 million for failing to prevent insurance churn by its financial planners.
ob体育 has achieved enforcement outcomes against individuals including:
- Former Kleenmaid director Andrew Young sentenced to nine years鈥� imprisonment for fraud and insolvent trading;
- Company director George Nowak sentenced to ten years鈥� imprisonment for deception relating to his dealings with the assets of self-managed superannuation funds;
- Former Sirtex Medical Limited CEO and director Gilman Wong sentenced for insider trading; and
- Pre-insolvency adviser Stephen O鈥橬eill sentenced to five years鈥� imprisonment for money laundering for his role in a scheme to remove the company assets of a company that subsequently went into liquidation.
ob体育 has also commenced civil penalty proceedings including against:
- Colonial First State Investments Limited (CFSIL) over alleged misleading and deceptive statements made to members of its FirstChoice superannuation fund; and
- CBA and CFSIL over alleged conflicted remuneration paid by CFSIL to CBA between 2013 and 2019.
To address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian financial system, ob体育 has developed a set of pandemic-related enforcement priorities to guide the organisation鈥檚 response to misconduct associated with the pandemic. The priorities are set out in the enforcement update report and ob体育鈥檚 Office of Enforcement has a number of investigations into pandemic-related misconduct.
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- Report 666 ob体育 enforcement update January to June 2020
- Report 660 ob体育 enforcement update July to December 2019
- Report 625 ob体育 enforcement update January to June 2019
- Report 615 ob体育 enforcement update July to December 2018
- Report 585 ob体育 enforcement outcomes: January to June 2018
Editor's note:
On 24 May 2021, following action taken by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Cth) (Act), orders were made by the Supreme Court of New South Wales, with the consent of Mr Wong, to forfeit $2,132,862.23 (plus interest accrued) to the Commonwealth, being the value of the proceeds from his sale of 74,968 Sirtex shares which was previously restrained by the AFP on 20 November 2020.
This followed a referral by ob体育 to the AFP鈥檚 Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) in relation to the proceeds of the insider trading offending.