A former Gold Coast monetary adviser has been jailed for six years after he took cash from his purchasers’ superannuation funds and used it to repay his private money owed and bills for himself and his business.
On Monday, the previous proprietor of Refocus Financial Group, Brett Gordon, pleaded responsible to 9 counts of fraud, totalling $652,000, following a large-scale investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Judge Ken Barlow KC mentioned Gordon’s actions had been “deliberate, fraudulent and unforgivable given his position of trust”, handing down a six-year jail sentence with a non-parole interval of 1½ years.
Gordon withdrew cash from his purchasers’ self-managed superannuation funds between 2015 to 2018, with Judge Barlow including that Gordon didn’t try and repay his victims.
The investigation into Gordon started in 2018 after ASIC referred the matter to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
In 2018, ASIC alleged that Gordon had “recommended” his purchasers “establish self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) and then advance unsecured loans to a related company, Diverse Capital Management Pty Ltd (Diverse) to undertake property development”. However, Diverse went into liquidation in 2018.
In 2020, Gordon was charged with 10 counts of fraud, totalling $975,000.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
