SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.
In five of the last nine years, ponzi schemers have been banged up in jail as a result of their nefarious actions.
Between 1991 to 2012, New Zealand had at least one active Ponzi schemer at work at all times, most under the old Securities Commission, which was ineffectual and was swept away to be replaced by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
The FMA can’t guarantee there are no ponzi schemes operating as you read this. [Read more…]
A retired Dunedin lawyer has admitted misappropriating investments of $2.8 million from mainly elderly clients in what appears to have the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme.
The Serious Fraud Office will be pressing for a starting point of eight years’ jail when his sentencing is considered, and he was told today that home detention was not an option.
Losses caused by 79-year-old John David Milne totalled about $2.3 million, Serious Fraud Office prosecutor Rachel Reed told the Christchurch District Court today when Milne pleaded guilty to 34 charges. [Read more…]
Today a front page Dominion Post report has called into question an appeal submission by jailed fraudster David Ross‘s lawyer, Gary Turkington, against his client’s sentence of a minimum parole period of five years five months as being “unreasonably crushing” and “manifestly excessive”. Turkington, presenting his case to three Court Judges [see note. 1], questioning the point of such a lengthy minimum term imposed by District Court Judge Denys Barry at Ross’s sentencing on 15 November 2013, for a man in his “twilight years”, and Ross, 64, dwelling without hope in prison. “He’ll emerge with nothing”, he said, as he sought a minimum non-parole period of four years.
The Dompost report has highlighted the fact that Ross’s wife, Jillian Elizabeth Ross, who was jointly indebted with him to Ross Asset Management Ltd (RAM) for $3.49 m, when the company collapsed, has recently bought a four-bedroom two bathroom Lower Hutt home with her brother for $725,00, after she pocketed nearly $900,000 from the sale of the family’s former $2.2m mansion at 105 Woburn Rd, Lower Hutt. [Read more…]
NEW ZEALAND’S single biggest fraudster is no longer a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, which found it “difficult to imagine more serious offending” than his.
David Robert Gilmour Ross, whose company Ross Asset Management, fleeced at least 700 investors, was jailed last November for 10 years and 10 months for running a fraudulent scheme in which investors lost about $115 million.
At a NZICA disciplinary tribunal hearing last week he was charged with being convicted of offences punishable by imprisonment or fine that reflected on his fitness to practice accountancy and brought the profession into disrepute.
A decision released by the professional body yesterday ordered that Ross be removed from the institute’s register of members.
He was not represented and entered no plea at the hearing.
The tribunal found “it difficult to imagine more serious professional misconduct than this”, which was reflected in Ross’ sentence, it said.
Ross had admitted running a Ponzi scheme that he disguised by falsely reporting clients’ investments.
Despite the severity of the charges, the tribunal ordered no monetary penalty as it would dilute funds available to investors.
Ross was ordered to pay full costs of $7200 to the institute for the expense of the hearing.
It also ordered full publicity and said Ross had 14 days to appeal against the decision
Source: Accountants turf out disgraced Ross
Reported by Hamish McNicol
The Dominion Post. Friday 25 April 2014. P. B7.
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Background to story see earlier postings by SPCS:
INTERIM SUSPENSION OF DAVID ROSS’ MEMBERSHIP OF NZICA ANNOUNCED 16 January 2013
Wellington’s David Ross, at the centre of the collapse of a suspected Ponzi scheme involving about $450 million, was stripped of his membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA), but it was only an “interim suspension”. David Robert Gilmour Ross lost his institute membership after a hearing held in secret in the middle of December 2013. The “interim suspension” was announced by the ICA disciplinary tribunal on 16 January 2013.
Published 17/01/13
David Ross stripped of Institute of Accountants (ICA) membership
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Published 17/11/12
Ross Asset Management case – involving a suspected Ponzi scheme – raises audit question
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Published 13/12/12
Securities Commissioner told of Ross Asset Management Ponzi scheme concerns but took no action
A financial adviser has been charged with running a $3 million Ponzi scheme.
Andrew Robinson, 40, was charged this morning in the Auckland District Court with five charges of theft and one of dishonestly using a document.
Robinson was the principal of mortgage broking and insurance firm Strategic Planning Group.
He was a registered financial adviser until being stripped of this status when the Serious Fraud Office and Financial Markets Authority began investigating.
The charges allege that between 2010 and 2012, Robinson used $3m in investor funds to pay for personal and business expenses or to repay other investors, and lied to investors when proving reports.
Robinson and Mark Turnock, a co-director of Strategic Planning Group, also face charges brought by the FMA relating to making false statements.
FMA head of enforcement Belinda Moffat said the prosecution showed financial advisers were being held to account.
“It is critical that members of the public have available to them accurate financial statements when making informed investment decisions. Directors have an obligation to ensure that financial statements are not false or misleading,” she said.
SFO Acting Director, Graham Gill added: “The joint efforts of SFO and FMA have progressed this investigation effectively and efficiently. This demonstrates our commitment to working together to deliver a coordinated response to financial crime in New Zealand’s investment markets.”
Source: BusinessDay.co.nz Published 6/09/13
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/9129732/Charges-laid-over-3m-Ponzi-scheme