Adviser pleads guilty to dishonest conduct

Victoria based adviser Damion Kawecki pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to two counts of dishonest conduct in relation to attempts to satisfy the minimum spread requirement for companies seeking to be admitted to the ASX.

Under the ASX listing rules, a company must meet the ‘minimum spread requirement’, a minimum number of unrelated shareholders in the company, before its shares can be quoted and traded on the ASX. In a statement, ASIC said the prosecution of an adviser for this type of breach was "the first of its kind".

Mr Kawecki pled guilty to two counts of dishonest conduct contrary to s1041G of the Corporations Act, which related to false or misleading information he had included in applications to the ASX share registry for a number of entities seeking admission to the ASX official list, and a stockbroker seeking an entity's re-admission to the list, between January 2015 and December 2016.

Each offence carries a maximum penalty of ten years’ imprisonment.

Mr Kawecki has been committed to Melbourne County Court on the charges with an additional hearing date to take place in August.

He was previously banned by the corporate regulator for Corporations Act breaches relating to share applications in June 2018.