Adviser and director receives five-year ban; AFS licence of business cancelled

The Australian financial services (AFS) licence of an Adelaide-based provider has been cancelled, while its director has also been handed a five-year ban.

On Tuesday (2 August), ASIC confirmed that financial adviser Antonio Simeone — who is also the current director, authorised representative, key person and responsible manager of Simeone — has been barred from providing financial services for five years after he was found to have engaged in "misleading or deceptive conduct" when he recommended and facilitated the illegal early release of superannuation.

According to ASIC, Mr Simeone recommended clients who were under financial pressure to roll over their APRA-regulated superannuation fund to a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) and invest in Administrative Incentivised Management Systems (AIMS), another company he worked as director of.

Mr Simeone then allowed the clients to borrow some of the funds invested in AIMS on the understanding there would be no obligation to repay the borrowed funds.

"Mr Simeone’s clients relied on his advice and assumed that the investing of superannuation in AIMS, and the receipt of loans from AIMS, was legally permissible and appropriate," ASIC said in a statement.

"The strategy Mr Simeone recommended to, facilitated for, and allowed for his clients, resulted in his clients breaching the restrictions on the early release of superannuation benefits, and their SMSF not satisfying the requirement that it meet the Sole Purpose Test.

"Mr Simeone’s conduct demonstrated he was not adequately trained or competent, was not a fit and proper person, and was likely to contravene a financial services law in the future."

As well as the ban, Simeone's AFS licence has been cancelled effective 28 February 2022.

The corporate regulator said the decision was made because the company failed to ensure its representatives complied with financial services laws, through Mr Simeone's actions.

"ASIC also found that Simeone failed to make adequate arrangements to manage conflicts of interest, take reasonable steps to ensure that its representatives were adequately trained and failed to do all things necessary to ensure that the financial services covered by their licence, were provided efficiently, honesty and fairly," a statement released on Tuesday read.

ASIC’s decision to ban Mr Simeone remains under review at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Also on Tuesday, ASIC cancelled the AFS licence of PDM Capital as it had not provided any financial services under the licence since it was issued on 10 December 2014.

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.