Regulatory news

The Federal Court has ordered Cigno Australia and its director Mark Swanepoel and BSF Solutions and its director Brenton Harrison to pay a combined penalty of $7 million for engaging in credit activity without a licence and charging prohibited fees.

Cigno Australia was ordered to pay $3 million, its director Mr Swanepoel $500,000, BSF Solutions $3 million, and its director Mr Harrison $500,000.

The penalty orders follow the findings of the Federal Court on 24 May 2024 of breaches of the Credit Act by Cigno Australia and BSF Solutions through their use of the No Upfront Charge Loan Model and involvement in those breaches by Mr Swanepoel and Mr Harrison (24-111MR).

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, ‘ASIC has taken regulatory and enforcement action over many years to respond to various business models used by entities connected to Cigno Australia, BSF Solutions, Mr Swanepoel and Mr Harrison. ASIC believes their No Upfront Charge Loan Model was designed to sidestep consumer protections laws and put consumers at risk.

‘From July 2022 to May 2024, Cigno Australia and BSF Solutions charged consumers more than $90 million in fees.

‘Today’s outcome demonstrates ASIC’s commitment to protecting Australians from predatory lending practices and holding individuals and companies accountable for their actions.’

In delivering his judgment, Justice Jackman said, ’ASIC submits, and I accept, that the respondents’ decision to operate that model denied consumers important protections under the Credit Act and Credit Code. In relation to the No Upfront Charge Loan Model, those protections included limits on the fees and charges that can be imposed for the provision of credit.’

Alexander John McCulloch, a former project manager at Beacon Minerals Limited (Beacon Minerals), pleaded guilty yesterday to one rolled-up count of insider trading (amended to include two trades). One count of insider trading was discontinued.

In January 2017 Mr McCulloch procured two associates, Christopher Allan Gall and Thomas James Collins, to acquire 11 million shares in Beacon Minerals while he was in possession of inside information.

At the time, Mr McCulloch was responsible for managing the gold exploration drilling program for Beacon’s Jaurdi Gold Project.

Mr McCulloch previously pleaded not guilty to two charges of insider trading, and the matter was provisionally listed for trial from 9-20 November 2026.

Mr McCulloch will now appear for a sentence hearing on 23 September 2026.

This matter is being prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (CDPP) following a referral from ASIC.

AUSTRAC has raised concerns about alarmingly low suspicious matter reporting (SMR) on the part of the wealth management sector. The findings follow a supervisory campaign in which AUSTRAC found that 98 per cent of wealth management businesses did not submit a single SMR in 2025, despite operating in a sector that is directly exposed to a wide range of money laundering risks including high-value transactions, complex ownership structures, and client profiles that can obscure the true source of wealth.

AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said the numbers indicate that many businesses may not have adequate systems or processes in place to meet their reporting obligations, nor to properly identify high-risk customers. The finding is not a technical compliance curiosity — it points to a fundamental failure of risk culture. AML/CTF laws require reporting entities to detect and report suspicious matters as a core obligation. A sector in which 98 per cent of businesses report nothing, across an entire calendar year, is a sector that is either not looking, or not seeing, or not reporting what it sees.

The wealth management sector’s SMR silence is particularly significant given the expanded AML/CTF obligations that came into force in 2025. AUSTRAC’s supervisory campaign signals that the regulator is actively testing whether firms are meeting those obligations in practice — not just on paper. For wealth managers, superannuation trustees, and investment managers, this is a clear signal that supervisory attention is intensifying. SMR frameworks, customer risk assessment processes, and transaction monitoring systems should all be reviewed in light of this finding.

AUSTRAC has acknowledged the decisive action Australia’s banks have taken to disrupt the financial flows underpinning the illicit tobacco trade, strengthening oversight to more effectively cut off criminal cash flows.

ASIC has today launched a new range of free and independent tools and resources on the widely trusted Moneysmart website to help Australians to plan for their retirement.

This comes in response to national research showing that around half of Australians approaching retirement worry they could run out of money, yet many want to learn more to build confidence about their future.

With around 2.5 million Australians expected to retire over the next decade, ASIC has made it a priority to understand their needs and provide tools and resources to help them to make good and confident decisions.

The national research shows that:

• 48% of Australians (aged 50 to 66) are worried they will run out of money in retirement.
• nearly a third (32%) feel they are already behind in preparing for retirement.
• only 18% have a clear retirement plan in place.

In response, ASIC has developed a consumer awareness campaign which directs Australians to the new Moneysmart Retirement Hub where they will find practical tools, calculators and guidance to support their retirement planning.

A key feature of the Hub is the Retirement Planner which allows Australians to:

• see how much income they could have in retirement from their superannuation, the Age Pension and other income sources.
• understand whether they may be on track for the retirement they want.
• explore how different scenarios could affect their income over time.

The planning tool brings together key sources of retirement income in one place, including superannuation, to help Australians answer the key questions many are asking, such as: Will I have enough money? Am I on the right track? and What can I do next?

The Retirement Hub also provides a range of other tools and resources including calculators to understand superannuation balances, Age Pension eligibility and retirement income options.

Richard Evans (formerly Evertz), the former chief executive officer (CEO) of collapsed ASX-listed technology company Big Un Limited (Big Un), has pleaded guilty to one charge of communicating inside information in the Sydney District Court.

Mr Evans communicated inside information about Big Un to a shareholder around 10 January 2017, when he ought reasonably to have known the shareholder would be likely to trade Big Un shares and options.

The inside information concerned the number of customers who had been onboarded to purchase Big Un’s promotional ‘TV Show’ package at a cost of $12,000, together with a $20 million funding arrangement with ‘Finstro’, a product of Sydney-based financier First Class Capital, which allowed customers to make this purchase on deferred payment terms.

The trial has been vacated with a sentencing hearing set down for 21 August 2026.

The matter is being prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (CDPP) following a referral from ASIC.

Since 2009, 46 people have been criminally convicted of insider trading following ASIC investigations, including senior executives and company chairs.

ASIC has banned former financial adviser Rhys James Rolls Reilly from providing financial services for 10 years and has suspended the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Conexus Group Pty Ltd (Conexus) until 31 July 2026.

ASIC found that Mr Reilly engaged in serious misconduct, including accepting conflicted remuneration, making false or misleading statements to clients, failing to act in clients’ best interests, and prioritising his own interests over those of clients.

ASIC also found that Mr Reilly was not a fit and proper person, was not competent to provide financial services, and was likely to contravene financial services laws in the future.

As a result, ASIC made a banning order prohibiting Mr Reilly for a period of 10 years from providing any financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business.

The misconduct primarily related to advice recommending investments in the First Guardian Master Fund (First Guardian), including advice to roll over significant superannuation balances into this product. ASIC found that Mr Reilly failed to properly investigate the suitability of this investment for certain clients and exposed certain clients to unacceptable levels of risk.

ASIC found that Mr Reilly accepted $100,000 in payments that constituted conflicted remuneration and failed to disclose those payments to clients, while recommending that clients invest most, or all, of their superannuation into First Guardian. ASIC also found that Mr Reilly made false or misleading representations in certain Statements of Advice by stating that no benefits capable of influencing his advice had been received, when that was not the case.

ASIC also found that Mr Reilly was not a fit and proper person and failed to oversee financial advisers operating under Reilly Financial’s authorisation who were advising clients to invest in the Shield Master Fund (Shield) and First Guardian.

ASIC has also suspended the AFS licence of Conexus.

Former financial adviser Shane Monte Silva has been banned from the financial services industry for five years after ASIC found he failed to act in certain clients’ best interests when recommending they switch their superannuation funds to invest in schemes including the Shield Master Fund (Shield) and the First Guardian Master Fund (First Guardian).

Between July and August 2023, while an authorised representative of Financial Services Group Australia Pty Ltd (in liquidation) (FSGA), Mr Monte Silva provided advice to five clients to switch superannuation funds and invest in specific managed investment schemes, including Shield and First Guardian.

In a review of the advice provided by Mr Monte Silva, ASIC found that an adviser of his experience should have been aware that he was not acting in the client’s best interests by providing them with a Statement of Advice (SOA) in his or another adviser’s name, containing material misleading information, that recommended they roll over their entire superannuation savings into one or more high risk products, particularly in circumstances where the fact find had been carried out by an unlicensed third party referrer, where the SOA had been prepared by a paraplanner, and where he was only meeting the client for the first time during a phone call between the client and third party referrer.

The banning order took effect from 11 December 2025.

ASIC has remade a legislative instrument which exempts securitisation entities from holding an Australian financial services (AFS) licence.

ASIC Corporations (Securitisation Special Purpose Vehicles) Instrument 2026/175 (ASIC Instrument 2026/175) continues the relief provided under ASIC Corporations (Securitisation Special Purpose Vehicles) Instrument 2016/272 (ASIC Instrument 2016/272).

We have determined that the instrument is operating effectively and continues to form a useful part of the legislative framework.

ASIC will also make minor amendments to Regulatory Guide 167 AFS licensing: Discretionary powers (RG 167) for consistency and clarity.

On 3 March 2026, ASIC made orders permanently banning Yanhua (Scott) Chen from:

1. providing any financial service
2. controlling, whether alone or in concert with one or more other entities, an entity that carries on a financial services business, and
3. performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business (including as an officer, manager, employee, contractor or in some other capacity).

ASIC found that Mr Chen is not a fit and proper person and his conduct shows that he does not have the necessary judgement and character to operate in the financial services industry.

In making the banning order, ASIC had regard to Mr Chen’s conduct in receiving $490,000 from a client to invest in certain stocks but instead he misused these funds to conduct trading on his own account at a loss. Mr Chen breached the trust placed in him by his client and led her to believe the money had not been lost.