Mayfair founder’s new offer ‘compliant with court orders’

James Mawhinney is offering a 15 per cent return on a new opportunity for investors through his Eleuthera Group email, only weeks after he filed an appeal against the Federal Court’s ban, in which he was restrained from soliciting funds in connection with a financial product and receiving funds in relation to any financial product for a 20-year period.

Speaking to ifa, Mr Mawhinney said he and his team are working within the court orders in regard to pursuing the new investment opportunity.

“We are in the process of recapitalising the Mayfair 101 Group following the significant damage caused by ASIC’s litigate-first strategy,” he said.

“We have always taken our compliance obligations seriously and obtained legal sign-off, even for the advertising materials that ASIC alleged were misleading or deceptive.”

In April, the Federal Court found that Mr Mawhinney acted with “total disregard” for the Corporations Act and ASIC Act and that his contravention is “of a very serious kind and warrant a very substantial period of restraint”.

“As I have stated, I have no confidence that Mr Mawhinney properly understands or appreciates the protective purposes of Australian financial services laws, or the importance of properly disclosing relevant and material matters to prospective investors,” Justice Anderson said in his sentencing.

Mr Mawhinney told ifa he is confident in his appeal to contest the ban.

“The appeal is an integral step toward preserving the interests of Mayfair 101’s investors,” he said.

“We are confident of a positive outcome and one that is likely to shed some light on the misguided campaign against us.”

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.