Behzad Eghrari charged for alleged market manipulation – March 14, 2025
Behzad Eghrari has been charged with three offences of creating a false or misleading appearance of active trading – violating sections 1041B(1)(a) and 1311 of the Corporations Act.
Allegedly, Eghrari executed 679 trades between August 3, 2022, and January 23, 2024, in share trading accounts he controlled and did not involve any change in beneficial ownership, which created a false or misleading appearance of active trading. The ‘wash trading’ was in connection to financial products relating to:
- Investigator Resources Limited;
- Silver Mines Ltd; and
- Lumos Diagnostics Holdings Ltd.
FIIG Securities sued for cybersecurity failures – March 13, 2025
FIIG Securities Limited (FIIG) has been sued for systemic and prolonged cybersecurity failures over more than four years. The lack of adequate security measures enabled the theft of approximately 385GB of confidential data, which was also released on the dark web, and could have affected as many as 18,000 clients.
The failures allegedly took place between March 2019 and June 2023, and the hacking went undetected between May 19 and June 8 in 2023. The stolen data included highly sensitive customer information such as:
- names;
- addresses;
- birth dates;
- driver’s licences;
- passports;
- bank accounts; and
- tax file numbers.
FIIG had not detected the incident before it was contacted by the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre about its ‘potential malicious activity’, yet FIIG still failed to investigate and respond to the incident for almost a week after being notified.
“This matter should serve as a wake-up call to all companies on the dangers of neglecting your cybersecurity systems.”
Joe Longo, Chair, ASIC
ASIC’s allegations against FIIG include:
- not having proper configured and monitored firewalls;
- not updating and patching software and operating systems to address security weaknesses;
- not providing mandatory cybersecurity training to staff; and
- not having proper resources to manage cybersecurity.
ASIC is seeking declarations of contraventions, civil penalties, and compliance orders.
Peter Surtenich permanently banned – March 13, 2025
The former financial adviser Peter Surtenich has been permanently banned from working in financial services after acting dishonestly, and for showing “a fundamental lack of knowledge and judgement, integrity, trustworthiness and professionalism.”
As a director and responsible manager of Suetonius Wealth Management Pty Ltd, Surtenich was found to have made dishonest representations when recommending clients to invest in a program that he said offered high yield returns.
ASIC also points out that he should also have been alerted of potential red flags in connection to transferring client funds to another Australian entity to obtain a so-called stand-by letter of credit, as well as with the payment of subsequent fees to a bitcoin wallet of an alleged banking institution.
At least 18 clients were advised to invest in this scheme between July 28 and December 14, 2020.
AustralianSuper sued for death benefit claims failures – March 12, 2025
The trustee of Australia’s largest superannuation fund AustralianSuper Pty Ltd has been sued over significant claims failures when it delayed processing of 6,897 death benefit claims.
Allegedly, the failures happened between July 1, 2019, and October 18, 2024, where claims were processed between four months and four years.
AustralianSuper also allegedly failed to pay member’s benefits as soon as practicable after deaths for at least 752 members. Even though all required information was sent, it still took AustralianSuper 1,140 days to make a payment, and others took 438, 412 and 366 days.
“It is the trustee’s responsibility to ensure sufficient resources are available to service members and claimants, and that adequate oversight of systems is maintained to deliver all services as promised.”
Sarah Court, Deputy Chair, ASIC
By failing to take all necessary steps to ensure that the services were provided efficiently, honestly and fairly, ASIC alleges that AustralianSuper violated 912A(1)(a) of the Corporations Act, and 912A(1)(c) for failing to comply with the financial services laws on 752 occasions when not paying out claims as soon as practicable.
For this, ASIC seeks penalties, declarations, an adverse publicity order, and orders for compliance matters to be implemented.
AustralianSuper was earlier in February fined A$27m ($17m) for failing to merge multiple member accounts.
ASIC news week 11
Financial advisers providing poor superannuation advice through FSCP
Targeting unsuitable superannuation advice is one of ASIC’s remaining key issues for 2025, and one part of that is to have convened multiple sitting panels of the Financial Services and Credit Panel (FSCP) between July and October 2024.
Many of the panels were convened due to concerns of financial advisers failing to comply with the best interest duty and giving appropriate advice to clients, including breaching the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics.
After identifying failings and misconduct, the panels have so far issued financial advisers:
- two reprimands;
- one written direction to appoint an independent person to audit the next 10 pieces of advice intended for retail clients, and to submit a report to ASIC on the adviser’s compliance; and
- one direction to undertake continuing professional education for the upcoming 12 months.
Speech
In a keynote speech at the Australian Institute of Company Directors Australian Governance Summit on March 12, ASIC Chair Joe Longo addressed directors’ obligations, foundational duties and expectations of them, and regulatory complexity.
The speech took in subjects including cybersecurity, AI, climate change, geo-political risk, and increasing technical expertise on boards. Longo said that even though times are changing, the foundational duties and expectations of directors aren’t.
Fulfilling those duties can be overwhelming, so Longo highlighted the importance of both trusting the board, as well as board composition. He said broad skillsets and perspectives enable boards to be in a better position to “ask the right questions.”
“Having professional, competent and curious management that the board can rely on is fundamental,” he emphasized. “We have high expectations of directors – and so we should. But it’s harder for them to meet those expectations effectively in an environment of complex, overlapping, changing, and increasing legal obligations.”
Longo also addressed regulatory complexity. He said that ASIC is looking for ways to simplify some regulation, and will convene a Simplification Consultative Group to look at regulatory guidance and legislative instruments.
Warning of payday lenders breaching consumer protection laws
A report by ASIC shows that some lenders that provide small amount credit contracts could be breaching consumer protection laws by trying to move vulnerable consumers into contracts with less protections.
The report, Falling short: Compliance with the small amount credit contract obligations, discloses insights from its recent review into lenders, where ASIC is concerned that some credit contract providers could be failing their obligations by:
- going into unsuitable contracts with consumers; or
- failing to point out a suitable target market and distributing their products accordingly.
“We were disappointed to uncover that some lenders may be seeking to shift consumers into other forms of credit, some of which involve greater risk,” said ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland.
