The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will continue ramping up its surveillance of hedge funds and financial advisers, while working closer with international regulatory agencies to “more broadly identify persons of interest and risks to Australia’s financial markets”.
In a market update on its investigations into the collapse of hedge fund manager, Trio Capital, the regulator said it was increasing its monitoring of the financial planning and hedge fund industry, as well as assessing the adequacy of current dispute resolution and compensation schemes.
It also confirmed it would abandon its investigation into Jack Flader, the alleged mastermind behind Trio.
ASIC conceded it had been unable to find sufficient evidence to prove Flader breached Australian laws despite extensive work with the Australian Federal Police and overseas counterparts.
ASIC’s announcement coincided with former Trio investment manager, Tony Maher, who changed his name from Paul Gresham, pleading guilty to 20 criminal changes in Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney.
Maher, 60, of Katoomba, admitted that on four occasions he provided false or misleading statements with the intent to obtain financial advantage for his company, PST Management.
As a consequence, Trio made 12 payments to PST totalling $564,991.06, of which $435,229.12 was attributable to the false statements.
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