Monday, 22 February 2021

A fraudster by any other name

An interesting article in today's SMH about Melissa Caddick who is alleged to have defrauded her 'investors' of more than $25 million. I took objection to the fact that the article referred to her as an  'unlicensed financial adviser' as she has NEVER been a financial adviser (searching for her name on the official Financial Adviser Register (FAR) doesn't come up with anything, so she isn't even a former/de-registered adviser!

To quote the FPA:

"After over a decade of advocacy by the FPA, the use of the terms financial planner and financial adviser are restricted within the law to those authorised to provide financial advice and listed on the ASIC register. The Corporations Amendment (Professional Standards of Financial Advisers) Bill 2016 restricting the use of the terms was passed by parliament on 9 February 2017 and will commence on 1 January 2019."

Anyhow, I find it amazing that she managed to bilk her 'clients' of $20.28 million between Jan 1 2018 and Sep 18 2020. In the two years since I became a registered financial adviser I haven't got a single client, yet a total con artist managed to convince up to 61 people to give her $25 million to invest on their behalf.Go figure.

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