ASIC

The former director of Select AFSL has appealed a judge’s decision to slap him with a $100,000 penalty and a disqualification order after finding he “turned a blind eye” to the life insurer’s unconscionable phone sales tactics.

ASIC is calling for disqualification orders and penalties against property guru Sasha Hopkins, alleging he hawked real estate investment opportunities on social media that raised over $32 million without a licence. 

ASIC has brought enforcement action against Vanguard Investments Australia, accusing the investment firm of misleading claims that its ethically conscious hedge fund screened securities for their environmental, social and good governance bona fides.

The corporate watchdog has cancelled the AFS licence of FTX Australia, the Australian subsidiary of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

ASIC has won orders declaring that Gold Coast-based BHF Solutions and Cigno needed a credit licence to issue loans to hundreds of thousands of customers, after the High Court tossed a challenge by the payday lenders.            

Retail broker Openmarkets has paid the largest ever penalty handed down by ASIC’s markets disciplinary panel, with the regulator also banning its former trading head for three years.

Select AFSL, its related entities and its director have been slapped with $13.6 million in penalties after a judge found that the life insurer used unconscionable phone sales tactics to “wear down” often vulnerable consumers, including migrants and Indigenous communities.

A court has imposed a $40 million penalty on Insurance Australia Limited in a case by the corporate regulator alleging NRMA customers were not paid $60 million in promised loyalty discounts.

Executives of collapsed Bruck Textile Technologies have been committed to stand trial on charges alleging they schemed their way out of making more than $3 million in redundancy payments to their 58 employees. 

Queensland lender SunshineLoans has lost its second bid for the Full Court to decide whether ASIC has the power to bring civil penalty proceedings for violations of the Credit Code, with a judge finding its arguments were not strong enough to vacate an upcoming trial.