Former adviser convicted for breaching ASIC banning order

ASIC has confirmed that former adviser Lawrence Toledo has been convicted and fined $1,500 in Brisbane Magistrate’s Court after pleading guilty to three charges of breaching a banning order put in place by the corporate regulator.

Mr Toledo was originally banned from providing financial services for seven years in 2017, after he was found to have failed to act in the best interests of his clients when advising them to establish a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) to purchase properties.

On Monday, 20 June, ASIC revealed that Mr Toledo has continued to provide financial product advice and deal in financial products despite the ban being put in place until 5 September 2024.

The regulator said he breached the order by providing financial advice to a SMSF to invest in Premier Realty Group and arranged the sale of 70,000 shares in the group for $70,000 to the SMSF and a second sale of 14,000 shares for $14,000 to the same SMSF.

The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions after a referral of a brief of evidence from ASIC. 

The news comes just days after the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland ordered a retrial for former Brisbane financial adviser Ben Jayaweera.

ASIC confirmed on Friday, 17 June, that the Court of Appeal made the decision following an appeal against the conviction and sentence in 2019 brought by the former adviser and director of Growth Plus Financial Group (in liquidation).

In 2019, Mr Jayaweera was found guilty of six charges of dishonestly causing detriment to clients, involving approximately $5.9 million and was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, with a minimum period of six years to be served before becoming eligible for parole.

However on Friday, ASIC confirmed that a retrial will go ahead for all six counts.

“The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal on grounds including that deficiencies in the trial judge’s directions to the jury resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” the statement read.

All of Mr Jayaweera’s convictions have been set aside.

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.