The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) permanently banned financial adviser Gavin Fineff from providing any financial services. He is barred from controlling a financial services business or performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business.
Fineff served as an authorised representative of Sentinel Wealth Management Pty Limited (Sentinel) between 12 December 2011 and 20 March 2020. He was also a manager under the company’s Australian financial services licence for almost five years until 20 March 2020.
The Australian watchdog discovered that Fineff abused his position and deprived clients of the company of their funds. Fineff mislead clients and took over $5 million from them and other individuals as loans and gambled a significant portion of those funds.
ASIC also revealed that Fineff provided financial services outside of Sentinel’s license and that he also acted in conflict with the company.
Sentinel lodged a breach notification with ASEC on 25 March 2020 in relation to Fineff’s conduct. He was then arrested on 7 May 2021 and charged with 18 counts of dishonesty obtaining financial advantage by deception and one count of knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime.
The regulator found that Fineff breached financial services laws with his failure to act in the best interest of his clients and engaging in unlicensed activities. ASIC determined that he is likely to breach the law again in the future and he is not competent or fit as a person to provide financial services. ASIC’s findings led the regulator to issue a permanent ban on Fineff in order to prevent future harm to clients.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) published its 2020 report on scam activity in Australia, reporting 444,164 scams were recorded by different government agencies. The ACC found that Australians lost over $850 million to scams, of which a total of $328 million were lost to investment scams.
