After handing out a sentence of six years in prison in May, ASIC confirmed on Friday that it has permanently banned Ross Andrew Hopkins from providing financial services.
Mr Hopkins, who was an adviser and sole director of QWL Pty Ltd (QWL), was sentenced after he was found to have misappropriated $2,938,750 million of his clients’ funds.
Mr Hopkins — who previously pleaded guilty to all charges — misappropriated his clients’ funds over a nearly three-year period (14 October 2016 to 8 October 2019), after he was assigned to manage their self-managed superannuation accounts, and used the funds for his own personal benefit, including holidays, paying rent and paying off his own personal credit cards and loans.
ASIC found that Mr Hopkins made 167 unauthorised transfers which impacted 13 clients.
He was convicted of 15 dishonesty offences and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years.
“Mr Hopkins lied to his clients, and the court’s decision demonstrates the seriousness of this conduct,” ASIC commissioner Danielle Press said in May.
“Financial advisers must be open and honest with their clients, and if they aren’t, they face serious consequences.
“Financial advisers should always allow clients to have direct access to information about their own investments. If this is not occurring, clients should contact ASIC with their concerns.”
Mr Hopkins has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
**$2,938,750 million** of his clients’ funds….?
Could buy a small country somewhere with that kind of dosh
Had the ethics exam and further study been mandatory in 2016 this wouldnt have occured. How else does an adviser know this is not appropriate
This wouldn’t have happened if he passed the new ethics unit.
comment of the year….lolol
Indeed, an ‘[b]ethics[/b]’ exam should stop this sort of ballyhoo in its tracks, I’d say. I say we have an industry wide ‘[b]ethics[/b]’ exam to sort these bad advisers out from the good ones! What say ye?!
Q. Are industry funds providing advice “Financial advisers” also, if they provide financial advice to retail clients as defined in the Corporations Act 2001?
80% of profits go to Unions and 90% of their profits go to the Australian Labor party, so Julia Gillard created a special carve out for those super funds. This relationship also means they don’t need to comply with any Australian laws and regulations too and ASIC turns a blind eye. It let’s them advertise their funds only cost $1.50 per week and helps to explain why APRA has never prosecuted a Super fund in it’s life. In some countries they call that corruption but here it’s called Marketing.
Good. Should be more of it.