ASIC bans CEOs of Australian Mutual Holdings Limited from providing financial services for 6 years

Maria Nikolova

Mr Jeffrey Worboys and Mr Matthew Barnett have been found to be incompetent to provide a financial service, and to be likely to contravene a financial services law.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today announces the imposition of a ban on Mr Jeffrey Worboys and Mr Matthew Barnett. The duo has been banned from providing financial services for six years following an investigation by the Australian regulator.

Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett were, until February 2018, joint chief executive officers of Australian Mutual Holdings Limited. Mr Worboys remains as the sole chief executive officer of Australian Mutual. Australian Mutual Holdings Limited is an Australian financial services licence holder and a responsible entity which operates a raft of managed investment schemes, including previously managing the Courtenay House Capital Investment Fund.

ASIC has determined that when establishing the Courtenay House Capital Investment Fund, Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett did not exercise the degree of care and diligence required and failed to act in the best interest of the members of the fund. This included a failure to ensure that the persons responsible for trading funds had the requisite qualifications and experience to manage a foreign exchange and derivatives fund.

Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett have been found to have failed to maintain the high standards expected of a financial services adviser, and to have failed to demonstrate a lack of integrity, judgment and professionalism. In addition, they could not be relied upon to discharge the duties and obligations imposed on a provider of financial services; and were not competent to provide a financial service, and were likely to contravene a financial services law.

ASIC notes that Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett both have a right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decisions.

Let’s recall that, back in May 2017, in a separate investigation, ASIC took action to wind up Courtenay House Capital Trading Group Pty Ltd and Courtenay House Pty Ltd. The Supreme Court of NSW appointed Said Jahani and John McIerney of Grant Thornton, as joint liquidators to both companies.

Read this next

Digital Assets

Rockstar Co-Founder and All-star Line Up Join Advisory Board to Take Metacade into Post Beta Orbit

Metacade, the revolutionary Web3 gaming platform, prepares to streak out of beta with a slew of ground-breaking initiatives that will redefine the way blockchain games are developed.

Retail FX

Prop firm The Funded Trader shuts down, claims relaunch in April

Prop trading firm The Funded Trader has ceased all operations, with claims for a relaunch in the near future.

Digital Assets

Ethereum-Based Tokenized Real Estate Platform USP Launches On Republic

How This Californian Startup Is Revolutionizing Real Estate Investment through Ethereum-Based Tokenization.

Digital Assets

Sui Spikes in Weekly DEX Volume, Joins Top 10 of All Blockchains

March DEX volume on Sui stands at over $2.88B – up more than 49% from February – with decentralized exchange Cetus and wholesale liquidity layer DeepBook leading.

Digital Assets

Prisma Finance suffers $10 million crypto exploit, attack ongoing

Liquid staking protocol Prisma Finance fell victim to a security exploit on March 28, resulting in nearly $10 million in Prisma mkUSD and wrapped stETH being stolen by hackers.

Digital Assets

Masa and LayerZero: Bridging Blockchains for Data Sovereignty

Masa Network is poised to revolutionize the personal data landscape with its upcoming launch as a cross-chain platform, making it accessible on a variety of blockchains right from the start.

Digital Assets

Big Time Generates over $100M in Revenue since Preseason

Innovative game developer Big Time Studios announces that its highly anticipated free-to-play multiplayer action/MMO RPG Big Time, has generated $100M in revenue. According to the team, players transacted a total volume of over $230M, without selling a single token.

Digital Assets

Centralized exchanges are 10 times more popular than DEXs in Western Europe

Western European traders are found to prefer centralized exchanges over decentralized ones as CEX traffic outpaces DEXs by a factor of ten.

Market News

Stock Market Analysis: Is NVDA Losing Its Leadership?

Since the beginning of the week, the S&P 500 Index (US500) has seen a modest increase of about 0.58%, whereas NVDA’s share price has experienced a decline of approximately 3.8%. This recent divergence raises concerns among Nvidia stock investors — could it signify a loss of NVDA’s market leadership?

<