FMA: Mount was pre-regulation

A Nelson adviser who ripped off his clients was operating at a time of much less stringent regulation, the Financial Markets Authority says.

Monday, December 22nd 2014, 5:59AM 1 Comment

by Susan Edmunds

Tony Mount was last week sentenced to six years and nine months’ prison, after being found guilty of 74 fraud counts.

He ran Independent Financial Consultants in Nelson.

Over a decade, he stole more than $500,000 from clients.

The FMA said the offending occurred before the advent of large-scale regulation of the financial advice industry. “Mr Mount’s offending occurred before the regulation of advisers, under the Financial Advisers Act 2008, took effect. It also pre-dates the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. Advisers are now subject to much higher levels of regulation, and oversight, than at the time of Mr Mount’s offending, as a result of both statutes and the role of the FMA as regulator,” an FMA spokeswoman said.

But the spokeswoman said the case would be examined to determine whether there were any lessons to be learned.

“The FMA will review the court decisions in this case to determine whether they provide any insights or information that might be applied to regulatory practice in future.”

Tags: financial advisers FMA Tony Mount

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Comments from our readers

On 22 December 2014 at 11:47 am dcwhyte said:

Surely the lesson to be learned centres on whether the current regulatory regime would have detected and/or prevented this from occurring?

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FMA: Mount was pre-regulation

A Nelson adviser who ripped off his clients was operating at a time of much less stringent regulation, the Financial Markets Authority says.

Monday, December 22nd 2014, 5:59AM 1 Comment

Comments from our readers

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