The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is another failed government police force that is meant to keep the Australian financial industry accountable. But ASIC has been a huge failure with bankers and financial advisors getting away scot-free with major crimes.
A senate inquiry last week recommended ASIC be split up into 2 to create a corporations regulator and a financial services regulator.
The failings of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) were highlighted at the Hayne Banking Royal Commission which ran from 2017 to 2019.
Hayne Banking Royal Commission
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was established on 14 December 2017. The Commissioner submitted his final report to the Governor-General on 1 February 2019. The final report was tabled in the Australian Parliament on 4 February 2019 (Click here to read more)
Wikipedia says: The establishment of the commission followed revelations in the media of a culture of greed within several Australian financial institutions. A subsequent parliamentary inquiry recommended a royal commission, noting the lack of regulatory intervention by the relevant government authorities, and later revelations that financial institutions were involved in money laundering for drug syndicates, turned a blind eye to terrorism financing, and ignored statutory reporting responsibilities and impropriety in foreign exchange trading. (Click here to read more)
The ABC published the below video (3-7-24) titled “Australia a ‘haven for white collar crime’ because of bad culture at ASIC” which gives a good overview of ASIC and last week’s Senate report on ASIC:
The ABC reported:
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is too focused on its own internal problems, too sprawling to carry out its duties under the law, and should be split into two separate regulators, according to a long-running Senate inquiry.
In its final report, the 20-month inquiry by the Senate Economics Committee found Australia’s corporate and financial services regulator consistently fails to prosecute offenders, and it responds to most reports of alleged misconduct by taking no further action.
It found when the regulator did manage to take enforcement action, the civil penalties it imposed “were often at odds with the scale of the offending,” and few criminal sanctions were ever achieved. (Click here to read more)
A prime example of ASIC’s failings was Superannuation company AMP being exposed at the Hayne Royal Commission in 2018 for charging thousands of dead people premiums for life insurance. (Click here to read more)
It wasn’t until 2023 that ASIC finalised a civil penalty against AMP but no criminal charges were ever instituted. It says on the ASIC website:
Court penalises AMP $24 million for charging deceased customers
19th of May 2023 – The Federal Court has found four companies that are or were part of the AMP Group breached the law when charging life insurance premiums and advice fees from the superannuation accounts of more than 2,000 deceased customers.
The Federal Court ordered two of these AMP companies to pay a combined penalty of $24 million for the breaches.
ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said ‘The AMP companies had been notified that these customers had died, and despite this, continued to charge premiums and fees on their super accounts.
The AMP companies received over $500,000 in insurance premiums from the superannuation accounts of deceased customers, with at least $350,000 charged between May 2015 and August 2019. Additionally, the AMP companies received over $100,000 in advice fees from deceased customer accounts, with at least $75,000 being charged between May 2015 and August 2019. (Click her to read more)
ASIC is like a sister government department to “AUSTRAC (the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) which is the Australian Government agency responsible for detecting, deterring and disrupting criminal abuse of the financial system to protect the community from serious and organised crime.”.
So, let’s have a look at a civil penalty that AUSTRAC settled last year:
Federal Court makes ruling in Crown matter
11th of July 2023 – Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth (Crown) have been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia, to pay a $450 million penalty over two years after AUSTRAC launched civil penalty proceedings against them for breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). The Court also ordered Crown to pay AUSTRAC’s costs.
The order comes after Crown and AUSTRAC filed joint submissions with the Federal Court of Australia in May 2023 for the payment of $450 million in instalments over 2 years.
As part of the settlement, Crown admitted that it operated in contravention of the AML/CTF Act, including that Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth’s AML/CTF programs were not based on appropriate risk assessments, did not have appropriate systems and controls to manage their risks, and were not subject to appropriate oversight by their Boards and senior management.
The serious nature of the breaches meant that Crown allowed high-risk activities to take place in its casinos, without intervention, on an ongoing basis. For example:
- Crown continued a business relationship with a major casino junket operator until 2021, although being aware of allegations the operator was connected to organised crime.
- Crown failed to appropriately monitor billions of dollars in transactions (including international payment flows) which impacted its ability to identify and disrupt possible suspicious activity, and to report suspicious matters to AUSTRAC and law enforcement.
- From March 2016 to December 2018, there were at least 75 suspicious ‘incidents’ involving a total of around $23 million in cash, in a private gaming room which Crown Melbourne gave one casino junket operator exclusive access to. (Click here to read more)
It doesn’t matter whether it is ASIC fining AMP $24 million or AUSTRAC fining Crown Casinos $450 million no one ever seems to go to jail when it’s the senior management or directors involved in the corruption.
ASIC and AUSTRAC looking after the top end of town when it comes to not instituting criminal proceedings which is 100% consistent with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) refusing to investigate the 6 Robodebt criminals.
I discuss ASIC, AUSTRAC and the NACC with Pokies corruption whistleblower Troy Stolz in the below video:
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Categories: National Anti-Corruption Commission
No need for me to read this instalment to answer your question, Shane. The answer is a resounding YES! The establishment are in charge and this is how they want it. Many western countries are in the same boat. The top end of town have bought most if not all of the officials, including the politicians, and the peasants can just suck a fat chook.
The higher up the tree it is harder to get the fruit, low hanging fruit is easier to get.
It should be no surprise that ASIC does nothing to jail CEO’s and Board members.
Where do you think most politicians go after they leave politics? After looking out for their big business mates during their political career, they reap the rewards by being given a place on a board or even several boards, where they do nothing but rake in a fat wage for agreeing with whatever crime the CEO wants to try and get away with. This situation has to stop.
Perfect example was the previous Crown Casino Board, oversaw massive money laundering and other illegal activities, action taken by their mates at ASIC, absolutely nothing, zilch zero, came up with absurdity such as it happened a long time ago, a board stacked with former politicians and CEOs, meanwhile ASIC attempts to procecute a whistleblower in Southport Magistrates Court, matter gets dismissed but background history surfaces on dirty low tactics carried out by ASIC…name one Commonwealth agency that is competent and not corrupt or stacked with mates?
Most watchdogs have been captured.
They protect their own.
They wear down the peasants by taking inordinate amounts of time to complete their sham process.
They mostly have an appeals process which decides “it is not in the public interest”.
A council of peasants should decide what’s in the public interest, not them.
when former prime minister morrison retrenched 46 investigators from asic so there were noone to carry out prosecution on the 3000 breaches uncovered by the royal banking commission, regardless of the 10000 breaches that there werent time or resources for the commission to look into, that left asic fairly toothless to be able to bite into corporate crime!
When in opposition Albanese rebuked Morrison NACC changes, asserting it lacked independence and transparency, it lacked teeth.
Albanese said the new NACC needs to be at arm’s length and have the capacity to have public hearings if it deems it is in the public interest and needs to be able to control its own investigation! Yet, since that time with Albanese in government, the NACC investigation report said — “it should protect ‘Sensitive Information’ that is not in the public interest.”
This can become very misleading as it can deliberately withhold important information to prove the sheer volume of the corruption.
Same goes for ASIC, after a parliamentary inquiry it was reported it needed a new structure describing the organisation’s culture as “very sick” and that its record on enforcement had made Australia, for some, “a haven for white-collar crime”.
Nothing has changed with both organisations since Albanese has been in government after investigations, it’s business as usual.
Time to defraud, and if I get caught, just say, LOOK AT THEM.
Mr Ian Varrender in the above interview, refers to the USA and that they enforce USA Corporate Law with very positive effect. I nearly fell of my chair hearing that statement.
You have some of the biggest World criminals in USA and they are let free on the range to do their evil. Insider trading?? Billy G…. is a master of that area and the lies in their Congress hearings is known by the World, yet these elite criminals continue on… that culture has been thrust upon Australia and x numbers “bought off”.
I was a Friend of the ABC long ago and clearly it has lost its way!