Last week, Australian media outlets, both mainstream and trade, reported the sentencing of Terence Nugara – a former adviser who stole $10.2 million from 38 clients in over just four years – to nine years and 11 months in jail.
While delivering the sentence, Judge Trevor Wraight characterised Nugara’s actions as “reprehensible, callous, and selfish conduct”, driven by “greed and a desire to maintain” his lavish lifestyle, which included overseas trips, race cars, boats, and various luxury items, as detailed in court documents.
A total of 18 of Nugara’s victims provided victim impact statements, with many noting the “financial devastation” he caused.
However, missing from the courtroom were representatives of the advice industry, hardworking individuals who are also victims of Nugara’s actions.
Speaking to ifa, Philippa Hunt, director at Artemis Financial Services with a major in psychology, explained that sporadic criminal activities and fraudulent behaviour by a few advisers have cast a shadow on the industry, undermining the efforts of honest professionals and the industry’s reputation.
“Sadly, it reflects on our industry with the rare and occasional criminal activity or gambling addictions that an adviser does to clients,” Ms Hunt said.
“We have gone through a long period of intense legislative changes to our businesses, education, FASEA exam, and the mental health of advisers was not good for a long time.
“Then to have yet another adviser scam clients throws a negative light on the rest of us who are honest and keep our clients safe and secure. Betrays our industry and the clients. And it does not help build a good reputation for our industry”.
Ms Hunt described Nugara as being “narcissistic in his motivations”, a person who has “no concept of personal outcomes on their own life or the mental health and life of their victims”.
“Typical of the narcissist is the victim mentality when they are caught out. And a stint being incarcerated may not make a difference to their attitude,” she said.
Turning to his victims, Ms Hunt said: “The mental and emotional health of the clients is trampled as they trusted their adviser”.
“The worst part for older clients is their retirement supports, assets and income are lost and no way to make them up again.”
Nugara’s authorisation to provide financial advice was originally suspended in March 2015 before being terminated in October 2016. In April 2023, he was permanently banned from providing financial services.
Ms Hunt also questioned why it took ASIC until 2023 to permanently ban him.
According to court documents, in most cases, Nugara convinced victims to transfer their savings or roll over monies held in their superannuation accounts to self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) accounts he set up and had access to, in order to invest in property developments in both Melbourne and Bali.
Some of the victims were unaware that Nugara had access to their accounts when the purported investments were made.
Instead, he used the client funds to fund an extravagant lifestyle over the course of several years.
Among the victims, many held pre-existing relationships with Nugara, including one victim who he would visit at her retirement home, bringing flowers and taking her out to lunch.
“It is overwhelmingly clear from these victim impact statements that you took advantage of people who had placed their trust in you, many of whom were older and looking forward to a comfortable retirement,” Judge Wraight added.
Nugara pleaded guilty to the charges, with Judge Wraight saying that the guilty plea was taken into consideration during sentencing.
This is terrible and should rightly be punished. But, how much did AMP, IOOF and the big banks cost clients? How much value was smashed from shareholders investments ? It is in the BILLIONS but no one from these businesses is going to jail.
Let’s get some perspective here!
IFA, Can you please either [i]fix[/i] OR [i]explain [/i]why the [b]’thumbs up'[/b] and [b]’thumbs down'[/b] in the comments section [i]are not working and have not been working for many weeks [/i]since I last brought this up with you.
As I stated in my Witness Statement to the Senate Economic References Committee last Wednesday, why is ASIC not claiming against to Professional Indemnity Insurance of the adviser (Nugara), which is an ASIC licensing condition in customer protection, so the insurance payout refunds the stolen money back to those clients who suffered losses? Why is ASIC abandoning the clients who suffered losses?
Wil these clients be compensated under CSLR?
Whilst the damage to the victims is obvious, this is a guaranteed ongoing theft within our industry. If money is involved there will always be a thief.
This is not about the reputation of Financial Planners, it is about filters or legislation to stop / catch offenders much earlier.
So the scammer was suspended 8 years ago, terminated 7 years ago and it took the keystone cops @ ASIC until this year to ban him? Well done on that quick action that deserves a levy increase bonus! Seriously you can’t make this stuff up…
I wonder if the accounting, legal and medical industry pile on the bad actors as much as we do….FPs are always made to look like crooks even though the vast majority do the right thing.
Again, this guy is a bloody creep who was allowed to continue doing dodgy stuff EVEN after being terminated.
Surely CBA should also feel the brunt of some of this responsibility for not detecting these funds vanishing overseas sooner.
No, it does not cast a shadow. Public knows there are always bad-apples.
1) lying politicians;
2) thieving accountants;
3) cosmetic surgeons and neuro-surgeons;
5) religious leaders; and,
6) the list goes on and on
Maybe, Judge Wraight should simply stick to the facts: bad-apple, nothing more, nothing less.
There is dishonesty across all professions, in politics, religion, charities etc, etc. This reflects individual traits, not community wide traits. Nugara is a criminal and it does not reflect poorly on our profession.
“Ms Hunt also questioned why it took ASIC until 2023 to permanently ban him”. I want all my ASIC Levies remediated, if this is ASIC’s modus operandi.
This is the folly of trying to legislate ethics. No matter how many rules and regulations are imposed on the profession, the Terence Nugaras of the world aren’t going to pay them any heed. As a result, clients are forced to pay for the imposition of so much red tape which, ultimately, affords them no protection, whatsoever.
double the gaol term, the dude is bad