Charges mount against Nelson adviser

Mount - one of the finalists in the 1999 Financial Planner of the Year Awards - was already facing 137 charges of fraud before appearing yesterday before Nelson District Court on 390 new fraud charges.

Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne McCoy of Nelson police said the case was complicated by the fact the Serious Fraud Office was unable to help.

"We had to get accountants because the SFO couldn't help us, they didn't have enough staff, they were too busy doing multi-million dollar frauds," he said.

Mount was originally charged with one count of fraud back in September 2010 which prompted other clients to come forward to police.

In October 2010 further charges were laid and police said at that time that more charges were likely.

The new offences include theft and theft by a person in a special relationship and involve the under-reporting of the sale price of shares and the over-reporting of share purchase prices.

In a 1999 interview with Good Returns Mount said his job was made easier by having a more knowledgeable client base who accepted "they have a part to play and a responsibility for the investment decisions that are made."

Benn Bathgate is a business reporter for ASSET and Good Returns, email story ideas to benn@goodreturns.co.nz

Comments from our readers

On 5 October 2011 at 9:22 am Annoyed Adviser said:

Another reason why Advisers should use a third party custodian (a good audit on prices) rather than some hackneyed piece of software to record sell and buy prices that the adviser inputs themselves.

On 7 October 2011 at 10:32 am Lindsay said:

Interesting that you refer to this chap as a "Crook" when he isn't yet convicted. This comment s not a critisism
In 1999 he was one of 5 in Good Returns nominated for Financial Planner of the year
"Financial Alert" was full of praise for the good work convicted Direct Moses did. I drew to their attention that the Judge didn't see it that way and sent him to the slammer for 2+ years - Financial Alert chopped me off their list for me saying they should not praise the man when the Judge said he was a crook
Good on you for your comment with Mount

On 14 October 2011 at 12:20 pm Majella said:

Where was he called a "crook"?

On 24 April 2012 at 4:15 pm DAJ said:

Shame they didnt find time to more fully investigate his various business partners - one or two of these could still turn up some real gold

Charges mount against Nelson adviser

Nelson financial adviser Tony Mount is facing 527 charges of fraud totaling $1.4 million in a case Nelson police say is one of the largest and most complicated they have ever handled.

Wednesday, October 5th 2011, 5:05AM 4 Comments

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