In banning Ahmed Saad of Glenroy, Victoria, ASIC said it found on 11 December that Mr Saad breached financial services laws and was not of good fame and character.
ASIC said the ban follows an investigation into Mr Saad’s conduct as an authorised representative of Apogee Financial Planning and through his business Saad Wealth Management.
It found that, between October 2016 and September 2017, Mr Saad had breached various financial services laws, including that he had:
- Engaged in dishonest conduct on about 164 separate occasions, illegally obtaining funds between $1,000 and $28,000 from client superannuation accounts for a total of $1.4 million from Nulis Nominees Australia, the trustee of the MLC Super Fund, and rebated those funds to his clients;
- Engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by falsifying figures and details in client statements of advice and adviser remuneration fee forms provided to Nulis and Apogee; and
- Failed to act in the best interests of his clients and had not provided them with appropriate advice.
ASIC said the investigation is ongoing, and that Mr Saad has the right to lodge an application for review with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
That wasn’t even the same thing or related but anyway…
Hey MLC (Apogeee), you are bloody lucky this guy wasn’t a case study at the RC. How come you don’t have supervisory mechanisms to stop fees up to $28k being stolen out of client’s accounts. You are equally to blame for your lack of control and oversight.
Does banning a person from being a financial planner really solve the problem? What about punishment? 164 separate occasions does not amount to a mistake, to a slip of the pen, to “a clerical error”! This is as effective as banning a drunk driver from driving. He’s drive anywhere, any time any day with apparent impunity! So too, can a financial planner continue under another name, robbing victims or breaking the law at will! Jail time is the only deterrent, surely?
An adviser cannot operate another another name, or at all if banned. You require adviser codes with fund managers to place/manage business – of which cannot be obtained with an ASIC adviser registration.
Apogee was/is NAB. I thought they ran a water-tight and highly audited AFSL. But then, maybe not !
This seems to be happening a lot lately – earlier this year a melbourne based dealer group was shut down and fined $9 million for operating this type of scheme en-mass