ASIC slaps Spaceship Capital chairman with ban

ASIC has slapped Spaceship Capital director, chairman and responsible manager Paul Ernest Dortkamp with a two-year ban from performing functions as an officer and responsible manager of a financial services business.

In a statement on Wednesday, the corporate regulator said that an investigation had found that Mr Dortkamp failed to understand all of the financial services offered by Spaceship under its licence.

Spaceship is the promoter of the Spaceship Super Fund, which is issued by Diversa Trustees Limited as trustee of the Tidswell Master Superannuation Plan.

ASIC said that, in late 2018 and into early 2019, Mr Dortkamp had failed to take the necessary steps in relation to a fault in Spaceship Super Fund’s consumer onboarding system in a timely way.

According to the corporate regulator, this fault resulted in an unknown number of members being assigned to the incorrect superannuation product.

“ASIC found that Mr Dortkamp had incorrectly concluded that the fault was not Spaceship’s responsibility, and therefore that it was not his responsibility to deal with it,” the regulator said.

“ASIC considers that this misunderstanding of the scope of Spaceship’s function was a fundamental oversight for someone in his position.”

As a result, ASIC found that Mr Dortkamp was not competent to perform functions as an officer or responsible manager of a financial services business.

Mr Dortkamp has the right to appeal ASIC’s decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Previously, the former director and CEO of Spaceship Paul Bennetts was hit with a six-year ban from providing financial services after an investigation by the corporate regulator found that he had dishonestly obtained his Australian Institute of Company Directors qualification.

Jon Bragg

Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.