Rodney Charles Carter, of Perth, Western Australia, has withdrawn his appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) of ASIC’s decision to disqualify him from managing companies for four years.

The AAT subsequently dismissed the proceeding.

Mr Carter previously challenged ASIC’s decision in the Federal Court in 2018 (18-214MR). He claimed the disqualification had not started because he had not been properly served with a disqualification order. Mr Carter’s application to the Federal Court was dismissed, as was his subsequent appeal to the Full Federal Court.

In July 2017, ASIC disqualified Mr Carter from managing corporations for four years to 30 July 2021.

Background

In reaching its decision in July 2017, ASIC considered the conduct of Mr Carter as director of the following companies:

• Voiceworks IT Pty Ltd ACN 136 423 517;
• Voiceworks (Australasia) Pty Ltd ACN 112 286 058;
• Mycooee.Com.Au Pty Ltd ACN 121 311 582;
• First Homebuyers Group (Australia) Pty Ltd ACN 126 951 399;
• Standard Publishing House (Aust) Pty Ltd ACN 092 881 466; and
• S P H Holdings Pty Ltd ACN 135 674 181.

Voiceworks IT Pty Ltd, Voiceworks (Australasia) Pty Ltd, Mycooee.Com.Au Pty Ltd, and S P H Holdings Pty Ltd provided fundraising services for charities. Standard Publishing House (Aust) Pty Ltd operated as a printing and mailing business. All six companies were wound up owing creditors more than $100 million.

Section 206F of the Corporations Act gives ASIC the power to disqualify a person from managing corporations for up to five years if, within a seven-year period, the person was an officer of two or more companies that were wound up and the liquidators lodge reports with ASIC about each company’s inability to pay its debts or alleging misconduct.

ASIC maintains a banned and disqualified persons register that provides information about people who have been disqualified from:

• involvement in the management of a corporation,
• auditing self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), or
• practising in the financial services or credit industry.