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The corporate regulator has commenced court action against a Gold Coast-based accountant for allegedly failing to comply with an enforceable undertaking.
Gold Coast accountant faces Federal Court action
23 November 2020
•
7 minute read
ASIC has commenced civil proceedings in the Federal Court against Jenan Oslem Thorne of Saber Superannuation Pty Ltd.
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Ms Thorne, also known as Cenan Thorne or Cenan Dikmen, had previously entered into an enforceable undertaking with ASIC, requiring her to inform 103 former personal advice clients of the enforceable undertaking.
She was then required to notify ASIC in writing on whether each client has been informed.
ASIC alleges that Ms Thorne took deliberate steps to reduce the likelihood that her clients would receive the written notification, including directing that the letters not be sent to some clients that had made complaints about the company and other letters be sent to client addresses from expired driver’s licenses.
The corporate regulator is now seeking orders from the Federal Court directing Ms Thorne to comply with the relevant terms of the enforceable undertaking.
Ms Thorne had entered into the enforceable undertaking in February 2019, after ASIC found that she had advised some of her clients to establish SMSFs without taking their circumstances into account.
It found that Ms Thorne had not properly considered her clients’ existing superannuation arrangements or explored why they were interested in investing in direct residential property through an SMSF. When recommending SMSFs to some of her clients, she had inappropriately scoped advice by excluding insurance and retirement planning.
ASIC also found that Ms Thorne did not adequately stress-test SMSF strategies and had recommended SMSFs to some of her clients despite inadequate evidence to suggest that the strategies would provide increased retirement benefits.
Furthermore, Ms Thorne had recommended that her accountancy practice, Saber Accountants Pty Ltd, prepare the annual accounts and tax returns for the SMSF clients. This led ASIC to determine that Ms Thorne recommended the services of a related party to create extra revenue for herself.
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