Former financial adviser cops minimal fine
Former financial adviser David McEwen has been convicted and fined for breaching FMA stop orders; but the fine imposed was minimal.
Friday, March 6th 2026, 9:28AM 
2 Comments
The Financial Markets Authority, which brought the prosecution suggested a fine of between $150,000 and $200,000. However, in sentencing at the District Court in Auckland this week, Judge Simon Lance ordered a $15,000.
He was also banned from being a company director and from providing financial advice services for seven years.
Defence counsel Karl Trotter was unsuccessful in seeking a discharge without conviction. However, he did submit any fine should be “nominal”, which it was.
McEwen had previously pleaded guilty to four charges of breaching Stop Orders issued by the FMA.
McEwen, who is overseas, continued to offer advice despite the Stop Orders and raised about $183,000 in investments.
In sentencing Judge Lance described the offending as of medium seriousness.
Prosecutor Sam McMullan told the court McEwen’s offending was “corrosive to the integrity of New Zealand’s financial markets.”
Judge Lance said McEwen had provided an affidavit setting out financial means.
It said McEwen had no real estate, no assets, no savings, was in arrears to Inland Revenue, and “in poor health physically and mentally”.
McMullan said the accuracy of the details were hard to confirm, and the judge said there was no way of assessing it as McEwen did not attend the court hearing.
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An affidavit is a sworn statement put in writing. When you use an affidavit, you're claiming that the information within the document is true and correct to the best of your knowledge.
The FMA earlier said its investigations uncovered McEwen made inaccurate statements about the company's holding of shares on behalf of investors, leading to the stop order.
Given this adviser’s track record of deception is the judge really going to trust anything that he says now via an affidavit. Surely our legal system can’t be that credulous.
And as far as safeguarding the integrity New Zealand’s financial markets goes that eroded the moment MBIE allowed a well-known NZ property investment company to have a FAP licence. The FMA despite recently censuring this outfit has done nothing now to address the significant conflict of interest that exits with the financial advice currently been provided to clients by this FAP licence holder. What is the point of even having a code of conduct for financial advice providers if Wellington bureaucrats don’t do the jobs that the NZ taxpayer is supposedly paying them to do?
I think it’s time now to bring the above to the attention of a senior politician with it been an election year.