ASIC has permanently banned Emma Maree Radke from providing financial services for engaging in misconduct which included dishonestly transferring client money into her personal accounts.
From 2011 to 2018 Ms Radke provided administrative services via a related company of Fitzpatricks Private Wealth Pty Ltd (Fitzpatricks), a financial services licensee.
Ms Radke was convicted of fraud in April 2019, after the District Court of Queensland found that, between January 2017 and January 2018, Ms. Radke used her own banking security token and a second banking token that did not belong to her to transfer a total of nearly $300,000 of client and corporate funds into her personal accounts. The fraudulent transactions affected client and company accounts of Fitzpatricks Private Wealth Partners Pty Ltd, a related body corporate and authorised representative of Fitzpatricks.
ASIC found that Ms Radke’s conduct involved ongoing dishonesty and, in the interests of promoting confident and informed participation by consumers, decided she should be permanently excluded from the financial services industry.
ASIC notes that Ms Radke was not acting as an authorised representative at the time of the conduct, but Ms. Radke was previously a financial adviser and had continued to hold trusted positions within the financial services industry over a number of years.
ASIC further notes the matter was identified and reported by Fitzpatricks who have taken steps to ensure any impacted client accounts have been identified and remediated.
Ms Radke’s banning will be recorded on ASIC’s publicly available banned and disqualified persons’ register.
Background
In April 2019, in the District Court of Queensland, Ms Radke plead guilty to two counts of fraud contrary to s408C of the Queensland Criminal Code. Ms Radke was sentenced to six years imprisonment.
This conviction constitutes ‘Serious Fraud’ and as such ASIC is not required to offer a hearing prior to deciding whether or not to make a banning order under s920A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).