A financial adviser has been sentenced to six years and two months in prison after stealing $4.7 million from investors, many of whom were family and friends. Evan Paul Cherry was sentenced at the North Shore District Court today after earlier pleading guilty to two charges of theft and two of misleading investors yesterday.
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SELLING UP: David Ross has been granted $1000 per week to live on, which has infuriated some of his clients. An order freezing the assets of suspected Ponzi scheme operator David Ross will continue until February, as he moves to sell goods to cover his household bills.
Dominion Post OPINION: Terry Hall – Here’s how to make good money from a suspected Ponzi scheme. Invest early, take all dividends, and never put too much into it.
Financial Markets Authority (FMA) CEO Sean Hughes says he accepts the ultimate responsibility for the Ross Asset Management (RAM) debacle and the FMA is likely to seek law changes in the wake of it.
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Ross Asset collapse has highlighted the risks of controlling individuals’ investments.
The investment watchdog says it is taking a vigilant approach to financial advisers who manage their clients’ money on a discretionary basis since the Ross Asset Management collapse but can’t rule out other cases of poor management.
Investors in Ross Asset Management face a “gruesome legal fight” to recover their funds if investigations by regulators show fund principle David Ross was running a Ponzi scheme, says investor spokesman Bruce Tichbon.
A former Securities Commission member says Commerce Minister Craig Foss is “looking in the wrong direction” in claiming Ross Asset Management has not demonstrated regulatory failure.
David Mayhew, the former Commissioner for Financial Advisers who is now a London-based barrister, said the regime authorising financial advisers – where attention on the Ross collapse has focused – was simply designed to ensure applicants were qualified. The problem was a lack of licensing and oversight.
Hubbard investors’ complaint to the Government has failed to bring any action.
The Investor Liaison Group had complained to Commerce Minister Craig Foss and Attorney-General Lyn Provost about the conduct of statutory managers Grant Thornton.
The group hoped the complaint, which was signed by 230 investors, would prompt the Government to find an appropriate solution for all investors, while picking up the tab for management and legal costs, which have reached $12 million.
Some investments in David Ross’ failed business could have been saved if his clients had voiced concerns about their money sooner, says a financial disputes service.
Commerce Minister Craig Foss denies the Ross Asset Management collapse has exposed regulatory failures, with no plans in motion to modify legislation he says is key to building confidence in financial markets.
In an interview Foss, a former investment banker with Credit Suisse, said accountants or other advisers working for Ross’ clients had time to ask questions of how the company was being managed, if the regulator couldn’t.