On 25 May 2018, Birk pleaded guilty to five counts of dishonestly using his position as director of the Carter Group with the intention of gaining an advantage, for himself or others, in the amount of approximately $800,000, ASIC said in a statement.
The charges relate to conduct between September 2010 and October 2011, while Birk was an authorised representative of Professional Investment Services (PIS) and a director of the Carter Group (now in external administration), which was a corporate authorised representative of PIS.
ASIC alleged that Birk dishonestly used his position as a director in that he:
- caused cheques to be drawn on a client’s superannuation account without authorisation;
- deceived some clients as to the use of funds withdrawn from their superannuation funds;
- deceived another client as to the price at which units in an unlisted registered managed investment scheme had been sold for and used a portion of the proceeds for the benefit of Birk’s father; and
- misled clients in relation to the value and other details of units they had purchased in an unlisted registered managed investment scheme.
“Mr Birk’s actions were dishonest and betrayed the trust of his clients,” said ASIC commissioner Danielle Press.
“Today’s decision shows this type of behaviour will be met with serious consequences.”
ASIC said Birk can be released after serving four months upon entering into a recognisance order of $10,000 upon the condition that he be of good behaviour for a period of two-and-a-half years.
The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
What has been published is only what he got caught for. The DPP only prosecuted him for 4 of the 30+ complaints. The ATO was also made aware of tax fraud by this grub & if they did an audit they would uncover a large web of fraudulent activity spanning back many years.
he was a stinking accountant first and foremost – call it properly – and PIS dobbed him in first too –
A guy steels $800K and we’ve got a lynch mob…yet a corporation steels $800 million and we say nothing.
For the past 50 years AMP have been out paying kickbacks, commissions, BOL, lying to ASIC, CBA blaming “advisers” for every sin in town, the FPA takes 12 months to handle a complaint in return for TV appearances, Count is making millions from orphan advice clients, Industry super funds misleading people with so called “Balanced funds” and dodgy unit pricing…. yet we seem to be quite comfortable with all that and all those relationships. Pretty sure many within the angry mob pay dealer group fees to these CROOKS.
What causes the most red tape, the most Government intervention? One guy steeling $800K or a broken industry, that could be fixed by advisers having a look in the mirrow & taking a moral high ground and questioning relationships they have with these firms at every level…which includes their professional association. Wake up fools.
the vast majority of people in this industry are, as you call it [b]fools[/b]. they don’t have any money yet they are out their calling themselves financial planners and giving other people advice about how to manage theirs.
If you haven’t got any money yourself and you want to tell others and charge a fee? can you all please leave you are ruining my style.
Why are you here if you have money
so i can teach people how to make money and manage theirs. what about you? why are you here to learn ?
Help people save money and structure. You sound like your into property.
[i]”If you haven’t got any money yourself and you want to tell others and charge a fee? can you all please leave you are ruining my style.”[/i]
Umm… such ignorance… wow.
Most people (and planners) would have mortgages, equity in their homes, earn an income, pay tax, saved some super, life and disability insurances, have parents or clients dealing with centrelink, or know people who are on their way make very silly investment decisions, etc.
This is not money? These are not financial decisions?
If you’re coming to me to get “rich”, go away, you’re not my kind of client.
If you want to learn how to manage the ‘system’, to have the best available options to you, to fund and live your life the way you would like to, then let’s have a conversation.
Most people I know don’t know how to do these things and it clearly creates anxiety for them. If we can reduce or remove that anxiety, then we are doing our job. Therein lies the value of our work.
so you are a community service person. which is great. we need people like you.
financial planning is a not for profit endeavor where we help people achieve other people’s goals and dreams while not achieving any of ours.
high income earning professionals are associated with other professions: medicine, the law, engineering, computer science and the like
while financial planning is about helping the community and going broke yourself.
Yes, understandable frustration at the current state of affairs.
As much as I applaud the actions of ASIC in pursuing this case it is a shame they don’t pursue the bigger fish with the same vigour
Well what can be said that hasn’t already, but seriously how do grubs like this just manage to keep getting away with such poor behaviour and getting a slap on the wrist. This guy has had a pattern of poor moral and work standards for years before he was caught out and has ruined peoples lives. You can only hope for karma but it does seem that the odds are stacked against the honest and moral. Hire a good lawyer with others money and have a good sob story and you too can get away with deceit and fraud. When are the courts going to take this seriously.
I sometimes wonder if the Judges mother or father was a victim , whether the penalty would be a bit more severe !!!
Bring back corporal punishment.
IFA your negligent in not having the right heading this person was an accountant longer than an adviser TELL THE TRUTH
When are the courts and regulators going to get serious? This grub is a criminal, he stole from clients, 4months and $10k is no deterrent.
Bloody Accountants at it again! Ban the lot of them!!
It seems that Accountants cannot be tainted with this type of behavior, and we have to use the title Adviser instead…Disgraceful
To be fair to the author, if he had just been an accountant he probably wouldn’t have gotten taken to court because they are “trustworthy” so no one would have looked at him. Still would have robbed people but no one would have looked.
Unbelievable.
How anyone, let alone a learned judge could sympathise with this germ is beyond me. He screwed over clients, and two honest, stand up people in his partners, who all trusted him. In doing so, he showed absolute contempt for his legal and moral responsibilities as an adviser/accountant, and he gets little more than a slap on the wrist.
I ask, how is this in any way supposed to be a deterrant to the next person who decides to abuse their position in such a way. Massive fail by ASIC and DPP.
The judge actually felt empathy for this scumbag because of his ‘so called’ injury. Very little consideration was given to the real victims – his clients & his ex-business partners. Some of the victims have lost everything, one attempted suicide & this low-life scumbag was smiling in the docks when his lawyers informed him that his four months will not be spent in a jail cell, but at the PA hospital. So in 2019 he returns to his family, business as usual, & the victims have to try & rebuild their lives. A big FAIL by ASIC, the DPP & Counsel representing the DPP. An absolute disgrace!
Well explained . We now know the real story . In victoria we would ask why say 2.5 tears Jail means 4 months and so would the liberal party ??
That’s a joke!
A slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket !
Not enough time for this low life
Why isn’t the heading “Gold Coast Accountant…””
This publication is just as shallow as the media at large.
Yep. I bet the bulk of his legitimate revenue was from accounting. So fairly should be label accountant and PT adviser.
Why is it the ‘ White shoe brigade ” up north seem to be over represented in things like this ???
I think it’s perception. Have a look at the WA, Victoria and SA advisers that were banned recently, or the Godfather of horrific financial advice, Don Nguyen from Sydney who cost the CBA $140 mil in settlements. Unfortunately, it’s across the board.