Life ban for Trio manager

ASIC has accepted an enforceable undertaking from the former operator of the ARP Growth Fund (ARP), permanently preventing him from working in the Australian financial services industry.

Tony Maher, who changed his name from Paul Gresham, entered into the undertaking after an ASIC investigation found, among other things, he engaged in misleading conduct and failed to disclose conflicts of interest, resulting in him gaining financial benefits from various financial deals.

Maher owned and controlled PST Management Pty Limited (PSTM), the company that acted as the investment manager of ARP.

ARP was a managed investment scheme run by failed fund manager Trio Capital Limited (Trio).

In this role he identified and recommended investments for ARP and its predecessor Professional Pensions Pooled Superannuation Trust (PPPST).

According to the regulator, Maher received undisclosed payments of more than $2 million arising from investments he recommended for ARP and PPPST.

In accepting these undisclosed payments he created a conflict of interest for himself.

ASIC was also concerned that Maher engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and failed to undertake adequate due diligence in respect of some investments that he recommended for ARP/PPPST in circumstances where he knew that he had a conflict of interest.

ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft said critical gatekeepers in the financial services system like investment managers must do their job to ensure confident and informed investors.

“Investment managers who engage in misleading and deceptive conduct will not be tolerated,” he said in an ASIC statement.

Medcraft said Maher’s exclusion from financial services and managing companies was the latest outcome from ASIC’s investigation of the Trio collapse in December 2009.

On 19 March 2010, the Supreme Court of New South Wales ordered that ARP be wound up.

The liquidator of Trio has been unable to recover the vast majority of the investments made by ARP.