CFS Private Wealth and Combined Financial Solutions, a corporate authorised representative of CFS Private Wealth have been wound up by the Federal Court of Australia.
CFS Private Wealth is not connected to Commonwealth Bank-owned Colonial First State.
Its director, Graeme Walter Miller, has been restrained from providing financial services for 25 years and has been disqualified from managing corporations for three years.
Since 2008, Mr Miller has advised CFS Private Wealth clients to transfer over $4.7 million to CFS Corporation for investment purposes.
Mr Miller instead used those funds as his own personal piggy bank and to make interest payments to other clients.
Justice John Reeves, who presided over the case, described the conduct as a “blatant misuse of investor funds”.
In restraining Mr Miller, Justice Reeves found Mr Miller’s “frequent and ongoing misuse of his clients’ superannuation savings for personal purposes over a number of years, in a long series of transactions which displayed what I consider to be a serious degree of personal dishonesty”.
The court also found that CFS Private Wealth had failed to provide financial services efficiently, honestly and fairly, in breach of the Corporations Act and had failed to lodge its financial reports with ASIC since 2010.
CFS Private was also found to have insufficient assets to meet the conditions of its licence and did not adequately document client investments, including client names, amounts invested and the name of being invested in.
Justice Reeves said in his judgement that Mr Miller had no remorse for his actions and its consequences on his clients.
“There is no evidence that Mr Miller had demonstrated any remorse for, or shown any appreciation of, the disastrous effects of his wrongdoing on his erstwhile clients…[and] no evidence that Mr Miller has any prospects of reforming his behaviour,” said Justice Reeves.
So, assuming a Statement of Advice was provided to the client and assuming this was compliant and assuming the folks in this company were all qualified appropriately even after doing a course in ethics and satisfying TPB requirements and maybe a CFP or FchFP, or a commerce degree perhaps and this still happens ? Really? Amazing. So does this mean that FASEA and the boffins tearing our industry apart are taking note that perhaps education of itself is not as strong as a jail sentence. Oh but then again, suppose the wrongdoing was done by a CEO and the board of a bank or an industry fund. Well now I get it, after all they are a special breed of protected individuals. I see now….
Hey Beacon, you’re next in line guys…..tick tick tick
To those suggesting clickbait…do you really think you’d first hear about Colonial FS being wound up via IFA? Don’t you think it’d be all over the news before you hear about it here?
But that aside, how about some information about the fallout for the investors – are they getting any of the $4.7m back from Miller?
That’s really poor IFA. Really poor Not deceptive or misleading at all.
Clickbait – Whats wrong with the Country Fire Service?
Well CommSec and CFS gave the tools, ability and fuelled Storm Financial and I thought, OMG, at last, a just result.
Past State Managers and executives are still out there running and managing other institutions with no consequences of their appalling past.
Holy Shite fellas I aged 10 years when I read the headline because I have many clients invested in Colonial First State – I’m gonna have a brandy now!
CLICKBAIT
IFA really CFS ? clickbait of the worse kind !!
clickbait much?
LOL talk about fake news
FFS….please change the title….Sounds like you are suggesting Colonial First State as being Wound up. Do you want to give the entire industry a heart attack?????
AGREE …i GOT A SHOCK TOO
Well it should be cfs with Marianne perovic and her rip off merchant mates. How the hopeless execs soldier on on their $1m salary makes the average punter sick.
Clickbait is correct. Also why didn’t Miller get a jail sentence.