Kloogh sentenced to prison
Former financial adviser Barry Kloogh has been sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison.
Friday, July 31st 2020, 3:03PM
Kloogh, who ran Breathe Financial Planning and Impact Enterprises, had his offices raided by the Serious Fraud Office in May, after a tipoff by the Financial Markets Authority.
Kloogh admitted 11 representative charges, including obtaining by deception, forgery, theft by a person in a special relationship and issuing false statements.
The 57-year-old ran a Ponzi scheme for more than 20 years. It is understood he had 162 victims, of which a handful read victim impact statements in court.
Serious Fraud Office director Julie Read said: “Mr Kloogh exploited the trust and goodwill of his clients to misappropriate at least $15.7 million. His selfish and criminal actions have destroyed people’s retirement plans and jeopardised their financial wellbeing. Such offending erodes trust in our financial system. The prosecution of such matters is a priority for the SFO.”
Clients were told they were depositing money into a Consilium bank account for Kloogh to invest as per their plans.
But he did not. The money was pooled into a general account for his business and was used to fund other expenses, including other clients’ withdrawals.
Kloogh charged his clients about $500 for insurance plans, debt reduction plans and wealth plans. If an investment plan with portfolio recommendations was included he would charge more, depending on how much the client had to invest.
He was also paid commissions, implementation fees, consultation fees and management fees.
The bulk of his offending happened with manipulation of bank accounts, so clients and custodial services thought that money was coming and going to and from sources – when it was often going straight to his own bank accounts.
The “external investments” from clients that Kloogh maintained in the Consilium platform were almost entirely fictitious by the time he was apprehended.
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