Mr Erick Tjandra
ASIC has permanently banned Mr Erick Tjandra of Sydney, formerly an employee of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), from providing financial services.
Mr Tjandra was banned following his conviction for a fraud-related offence.
Mr Tjandra was convicted of 37 counts of obtaining money by deception, in contravention of subsection 178BA(1) of the Crimes Act and received a five-year sentence with a non-parole period of three years. The Penrith District Court found that between 31 December 2004 and 15 March 2006, Mr Tjandra had on 37 separate occasions, caused the fraudulent transfer of trust funds valued at over $10 million from the CBA to his own account. At the time, Mr Tjandra was working as a customer service officer at a Sydney CBA branch processing redemptions on fund accounts held in trust by the bank.
ASIC became aware of Mr Tjandra’s conduct as a result of the CBA reporting the matter.
Mr Kinon Sheung
ASIC has also permanently banned Mr Kinon Sheung (also known as Kin On Sheung), formerly of Cremorne, New South Wales, from providing financial services.
Mr Sheung was an authorised representative of Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited, a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, from 15 July 2004 until his employment was terminated on 24 March 2006.
ASIC banned Mr Sheung for life after it was found that he had knowingly engaged in repeated dishonest conduct, including by applying $177,000 of his clients’ money for his own use between 17 October 2005 and 17 February 2006.
Mr Sheung’s actions demonstrated that he had neither the honesty nor the integrity to be permitted to provide financial services in a representative capacity. The money has since been repaid.
Mr Adam Ouiek
ASIC has also banned a former employee of GE Direct (a subsidiary of GE Money), Mr Adam Ouiek of Guildford, Sydney, from providing financial services for five years.
An internal investigation by GE Money found that on 18 occasions between 24 May 2006 and 9 June 2006, Mr Ouiek had debited customers' accounts to pay for Buyers Protection Insurance without obtaining their consent. In a further 28 cases, GE Money found that Mr Ouiek debited customers’ accounts without their consent supposedly to pay for Buyers Protection Insurance. On these occasions, however, the customer did not receive a policy of insurance.
Mr Ouiek admitted that he had debited customers’ accounts without their consent. He stood to gain a performance bonus as a result of his actions.
ASIC became aware of this conduct as a result of GE Money reporting the matter.
Messrs Tjandra, Sheung and Ouiek have the right to lodge an application with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.