A former financial adviser has been charged with 17 offences in Newcastle Local Court.
According to ASIC, Ashley Grant Howard appeared in court on Friday, 13 May via his legal representative where he was charged.
It’s alleged that Mr Howard used 17 false transfer forms to arrange for shares in GPS Alliance Holdings BHP Billiton Limited and Aquarius Platinum Limited to be transferred from one party to another, knowing that the forms were false, between July 2013 and April 2014.
Mr Howard allegedly transferred the shares to an associate and himself without the knowledge and approval of 14 shareholders.
The maximum penalty per offence, when dealt with summarily is two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine not exceeding $11,000.
Mr Howard was originally banned in October 2016 for a separate matter, in which ASIC found that he had breached the Corporations Act by using more than $1.8 million of client funds for his own benefit or the benefit of others (which included paying for cosmetic surgery for his partner, purchasing a house and settling debts to Jordan Belfort, the so-called ‘Wolf of Wall Street’); and provided false information and documents to clients and third parties.
Then, ASIC commissioner John Price said at the time: “ASIC will take action to remove persons from the financial services industry to protect the public.
“Mr Howard’s conduct was particularly bad in that, on occasions, he preyed on elderly and vulnerable people.”
Just throw them in jail already.
Is it a coincidence that they haven’t mentioned who he was licensed through. Was he licensed, and if not why is he being referred to as a financial adviser…
It’s great that ASIC works so quickly on these matters. Only 8-9 years for this action…
IT could be that a client just died and the estate was looking for the shares… The year of the bad actions doesn’t equate to the year it came to ASIC’s attention. Most often these things aren’t noticed for many years.
when will it stop, once again it leaves the rest of us in the industry paying the price for people like this.
was never actually an adviser, just masqueraded as one.
Knock knock ASIC- it’s 2022!!
This appalling individual needs to be removed. Just for context however we are talking about $1.8m worth of illegal activity. The big banks and AMP remediated over $3 billion. How many of them have been removed from the industry?
He is not appearing on any financial adviser register. He’s a crook, not a financial adviser.