An Australian financial advisor has been banned from practicing for 10 years after being accused of defrauding clients of $9.6 million to invest in a cryptocurrency scheme.
Glenda Maree Rogan is accused of siphoning customer funds into a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme from March 2022 to June 2023, according to a statement released by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Wednesday.
While acting as an authorized representative of Private Wealth Pty Ltd and the Fincare group of companies, Rogan "made false statements to clients and engaged in deceptive conduct regarding the nature, risks, and liquidity of the investment," #ASIC said.
The 10-year ban, effective from June 6, also prohibits Rogan from performing any functions in the financial services business or controlling those entities. The regulator added: "ASIC also has reason to believe that Ms. Rogan is not a fit and proper person, not competent to participate in the Australian financial services industry, and may have breached financial services laws."
The regulator alleges that Rogan told victims that their money would be transferred to "a fixed-interest account with high returns, not cryptocurrency, which poses significant risks," and falsely stated that customers were dealing with her as a representative of Fincare.
The plan involves transferring investor funds to bank accounts controlled by Rogan and her personal company, the regulator said. Most of the money was then converted into cryptocurrency and sent to wallets controlled by an entity named Financial Centre, believed to be a trading platform based in the UK that is on ASIC's blacklist.
Australian regulators have ramped up crackdowns on cryptocurrency-related scams in recent years. ASIC claims to have supported the closure of 615 cryptocurrency investment scams as of August 2024. Last month, ASIC filed a civil lawsuit against former ACX.io director Liang "Allan" Guo over the collapse of this exchange, which caused customers to lose more than $20 million.
In March, Brendan Gunn – the brother of Olympic breakdancer Rachel "Raygun" Gunn – was charged in connection with handling money derived from crime in a separate $181,000 cryptocurrency scam.
Meanwhile, the ban on Rogan has been recorded in the banned and disqualified register of ASIC. She still has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, while ASIC's investigation into her conduct is ongoing. #Australia #anhbacong