Compliance
Former Advisor Banned By Australian Watchdog As List Of Miscreants Expands
The Australian regulator's programme of investigating wrongdoing in the financial advisory sector continues to bear fruit, with another advisor banned from the sector.
Australia’s financial regulator has permanently banned Amanda Ritchie, a former financial advisor and former authorised representative of Magnitude Group, a subsidiary of Westpac, after it found she falsely created bank statements and other communications, transferred funds from client accounts without permission, and engaged in misleading conduct.
The offences happened between October 2009 and August 2014, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in a statement. Ritchie is from Shepparton, Victoria.
ASIC said Ritchie is the eighth person to be banned from the financial services industry as part of its Wealth Management Project, a series of investigations and surveillance actions, which started late 2014.
Ritchie has a right of appeal.
Matters came to light after Westpac reported its concerns regarding the conduct of Ritchie to ASIC in December 2014, the ASIC statement said. Westpac terminated her employment in August 2014.
Ritchie was an authorised representative of Magnitude from 19 February 2013 to 14 August 2014. Prior to this, she was an authorised representative with M&S Services from 19 December 2003 to 18 February 2013.
Her banning follows ASIC accepting enforceable undertakings from two Queensland financial advisors - Reid Menkens, a former Millennium3 Financial Services and AMP Financial Planning representative, and Leo Menkens, a former AMP representative. The pair trade as Menkens Financial Group in Brisbane, Queensland.
In March 2015, Australian Financial Planning Solutions, an authorised representative of Charter Financial Planning Limited, an Australian financial services licensee and subsidiary of AMP Limited, paid $10,200 in penalties after ASIC issued an infringement notice for making false or misleading representations.
Other banning actions taken by ASIC include: Stuart Jamieson, Sharnie Kent, Martin Hodgetts, Shawn Hickman, Brett O'Malley, Brian Farber and Rebecca Locksley.
