ASIC permanently bans former authorised rep from providing financial services

ASIC has permanently banned Roderick Halligan from providing financial services or having any involvement in a financial services business.

According to ASIC, between 1 June 2015 and 22 October 2020 Mr Halligan, who was an authorised representative of the BR Securities Australian licensee, transferred shares of over $550,000 from client accounts into the trading account of Santorini Sun - a business in which he held interest – without client authorisation.

Mr Halligan then sold these shares “to the benefit of Santorini Sun and himself”.

“ASIC also found that Mr Halligan engaged in conduct designed to cause his clients to believe that they still had the shares he had transferred without authorisation,” the regulator said in a statement.

“In permanently banning Mr Halligan, ASIC found that he was not a fit and proper person to provide financial services. ASIC also found he had failed in his legal obligations not to mislead or deceive and was likely to continue to contravene financial services laws.”

In October 2020, BR Securities Australia reported Mr Halligan’s conduct to ASIC and reimbursed his clients for their losses. BR was then reimbursed by Mr Halligan.

Mr Halligan has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of ASIC’s decision.

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.