The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland has ordered a retrial for former Brisbane financial adviser Ben Jayaweera.
ASIC confirmed on Friday, 17 June, that the Court of Appeal made the decision last week following an appeal against the conviction and sentence in 2019 brought by the former adviser and director of Growth Plus Financial Group (in liquidation).
In 2019, Mr Jayaweera was found guilty of six charges of dishonestly causing detriment to clients, involving approximately $5.9 million and was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, with a minimum period of six years to be served before becoming eligible for parole.
ASIC alleged that between September 2013 to October 2015, Jayaweera, through Growth Plus Financial Group, induced various investors to transfer funds, including funds from their self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF), for investment into an unregistered managed investment scheme, known as the Australian Diversified Sector Income Fund (ADSIF).
ASIC also alleged Jayaweera invested some clients’ superannuation funds into the ADSIF without the clients’ knowledge or permission.
However, ASIC has confirmed in a new statement that a retrial will go ahead for all six counts.
“The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal on grounds including that deficiencies in the trial judge’s directions to the jury resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” the statement read.
All of Mr Jayaweera’s convictions have been set aside.
A prior investigation by ASIC found that between September 2013 to October 2015, Jayaweera met with various clients based in Queensland and told them he would be able to provide them with an investment opportunity to build their wealth towards retirement.
In October 2016, ASIC commenced civil proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland against Growth Plus and Jayaweera.
In May 2018, Jayaweera was charged with the six counts of fraud involving approximately $5.9 million. ASIC also provided the liquidator of Growth Plus with funding from the Assetless Administration Fund (AAF) to prepare a supplementary report that was used to assist with the investigation.
A date for the retrial is yet to be confirmed.
How many of the big bank CEOs are doing 6-12 years for “client detriment”?? One rule for some, eh? Disgusting legal system. [b]ASIC should be completely ashamed[/b], I don’t know how the top people at ASIC manage to look people in the eye to be taken seriously.
ASIC is the bully who only picks on those who don’t have big legal teams to fight them. They are cowards, who run away from a fight when they can’t easily win. This is why despite the senior managers from the banks, IOOF, AMP etc being responsible for a tremendous level of client harm, they have been untouched, and continue to keep their jobs and bonuses, while their shareholders feel the pain of massive fines.
Intersting course of events here.
1. Judgement handed down on 10/06 regarding this case and a potential miscarriage of justice, ASIC only issued a media release on 17/06
2. A judgement was handed down against Aventeos on 15/06, oh and guess what – a Media Release was issued that day!
So they hand down chaps lifetime sentences (ie banning orders) for sending a late statement, or calculating insurance sums insured differently to how an undereducated, inexperienced ASIC analyst or delegate would….yet you essentially get the same sentence but with free board for allegedly stealing $6m from clients? Seems fair…
Duh!!??
They shouldda just fined him and let him carry on with his career – can you imagine the damages if ASIC got this wrong? Will we be footing the bill for this “miscarriage of Justice”?