Five people have been sentenced following a series of investigations over an eight year period by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Taxation Office.
Judge Julie Dick SC sentenced 55 year old former Townsville financial advisor, Mr Anthony Dick to eight years imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.
The offender pleaded guilty to two offences of causing bribes totalling AUD129,500 to be paid to foreign public officials, contrary to section 70.2(1)(a)(ii) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
Between 18 July 2016 and 10 February 2018, Michael Ming Jinn Ho traded in the shares and options of Big Un Limited while in possession of inside information and on 14 October 2016 he communicated inside information to an associate.
On 31 July 2020, following a lengthy investigation conducted by corporate regulator ASIC the NSW District Court sentenced former financial advisor Mr Graeme Miller to six years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of four years, for conducting a Ponzi Scheme.
In a landmark case, the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd, trading as CommInsure, was fined $700,000 on 28 November 2019 after earlier pleading guilty to 87 counts of offering to sell insurance products in the course of unlawful, unsolicited telemarketing calls. This conduct is known as “hawking”.
On 17 October 2019, former Queensland financial adviser Ben Jayaweera (61), was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of six years, for defrauding clients of $5.9 million by diverting their investments into a failed abalone farm without their knowledge.
On 10 July 2019, a financial advisor who stole $4.8 million from his clients was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of seven years. James Gibbs (51) was sentenced in the District Court in Adelaide, after stealing the money from 30 victims who were retired or preparing for retirement between 2009 and 2016.
Australians lose millions every year to online dating and romance scams. Lured in by the prospect of finding true love, victims hand over their hearts and money to scammers who create fake online profiles targeting dating websites, apps and social media.
On 2 August 2019, Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (K-Line) was convicted of criminal cartel conduct and fined $34.5 million: the largest ever criminal fine imposed under the Competition and Consumer Act.
On 12 April 2019, Mr Sergio Amaranti was sentenced to two years and nine months’ imprisonment, to be released after 18 months upon entering into a Recognisance Release Order, in the District Court of Western Australia after earlier pleading guilty to seven counts of dishonest conduct.
On 15 March 2019, former financial planner Gabriel Nakhl was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of six years, after he took approximately $5.1 million of his clients’ investment funds and used it for his own purposes. Reparation orders totalling $4.6 million were made in favour of the victims.
On 27 November 2018, a former employee of a Reserve Bank of Australia subsidiary, Securency International Pty Ltd (Securency), pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe foreign public officials.
On 1 June 2018, the former Chief Executive Officer of abalone farm Australian Bight Abalone Ltd (ABA) Andrew Ferguson, was sentenced to 3 years, 6 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 1 year for providing false or misleading information to the company’s board and potential investors.
On 29 March 2018, 67-year-old Michael Issakidis was sentenced to 10 years’ jail in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, for his role in a $135 million tax fraud and money laundering case, the largest ever successfully prosecuted in Australia.
Issakidis and his co-accused Anthony Dickson masterminded a corporate tax scam that netted them more than $63 million.
