It was also reported that Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of US Senate Intel Committee and Damian Collins MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into “fake news”, met in Washington on or about 16 July 2018 to discuss Russian interference in both British and American democratic processes during an Atlantic Council meeting.
Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts
Friday 20 July 2018
Slowly but surely Russian connections between the UK Brexit referendum campaign and the US presidential campaign are beginning to emerge
“We have concluded that there are risks in relation to
the processing of personal data by many political parties. Particular concerns
include: the purchasing of marketing lists and lifestyle information from data
brokers without sufficient due diligence, a lack of fair processing, and use of
third party data analytics companies with insufficient checks around consent….We
have looked closely at the role of those who buy and sell personal data-sets in
the UK. Our existing investigation of the privacy issues raised by their work
has been expanded to include their activities in political processes….The
investigation has identified a total of 172 organisations of interest that
required engagement, of which around 30 organisations have formed the main
focus of our enquiries, including political parties, data analytics companies
and major social media platforms…..Similarly, we have identified a total of 285
individuals relating to our investigation.” [UK
Information Commissioner’s Office, Investigation
into the use of data analytics in political campaigns: Investigation update,
July 2018]
Slowly but
surely the Russian connections between the UK Brexit referendum campaign and
the US presidential campaign are beginning to emerge.
The
Guardian, 15
July 2018:
A
source familiar with the FBI investigation revealed that the commissioner and
her deputy spent last week with law enforcement agencies in the US including
the FBI. And Denham’s deputy, James Dipple-Johnstone, confirmed to the Observer that
“some of the systems linked to the investigation were accessed from IP
addresses that resolve to Russia and other areas of the CIS [Commonwealth of
Independent States]”.
It was also reported that Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of US Senate Intel Committee and Damian Collins MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into “fake news”, met in Washington on or about 16 July 2018 to discuss Russian interference in both British and American democratic processes during an Atlantic Council meeting.
It was also reported that Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of US Senate Intel Committee and Damian Collins MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry into “fake news”, met in Washington on or about 16 July 2018 to discuss Russian interference in both British and American democratic processes during an Atlantic Council meeting.
UK Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO), media
release, 10 July 2018:
Information
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has today published a detailed update of her
office’s investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns.
In
March 2017, the ICO began looking into whether personal data had been misused
by campaigns on both sides of the referendum on membership of the EU.
In
May it launched an investigation that included political parties, data
analytics companies and major social media platforms.
Today’s progress report gives details of some of the
organisations and individuals under investigation, as well as enforcement
actions so far.
This
includes the ICO’s intention to fine Facebook a maximum £500,000 for two
breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Facebook,
with Cambridge Analytica, has been the focus of the investigation since
February when evidence emerged that an app had been used to harvest the data of
50 million Facebook users across the world. This is now estimated at 87
million.
The
ICO’s investigation concluded that Facebook contravened the law by failing to
safeguard people’s information. It also found that the company failed to be
transparent about how people’s data was harvested by others.
Facebook
has a chance to respond to the Commissioner’s Notice of Intent, after which a
final decision will be made.
Other
regulatory action set out in the report comprises:
warning letters to 11 political
parties and notices compelling them to agree to audits of their data protection
practices;
an Enforcement Notice for SCL
Elections Ltd to compel it to deal properly with a subject access request from
Professor David Carroll;
a criminal prosecution for SCL
Elections Ltd for failing to properly deal with the ICO’s Enforcement Notice;
an Enforcement Notice for Aggregate IQ
to stop processing retained data belonging to UK citizens;
a Notice of Intent to take regulatory
action against data broker Emma’s Diary (Lifecycle Marketing (Mother and Baby)
Ltd); and
audits of the main credit reference
companies and Cambridge University Psychometric Centre.
Information
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said:
“We
are at a crossroads. Trust and confidence in the integrity of our democratic
processes risk being disrupted because the average voter has little idea of
what is going on behind the scenes.
“New
technologies that use data analytics to micro-target people give campaign
groups the ability to connect with individual voters. But this cannot be at the
expense of transparency, fairness and compliance with the law.
She
added:
“Fines
and prosecutions punish the bad actors, but my real goal is to effect change
and restore trust and confidence in our democratic system.”
A
second, partner report, titled Democracy Disrupted? Personal information and political influence,
sets out findings and recommendations arising out of the 14-month
investigation.
Among
the ten recommendations is a call for the Government to introduce a statutory
Code of Practice for the use of personal data in political campaigns.
Ms
Denham has also called for an ethical pause to allow Government, Parliament,
regulators, political parties, online platforms and the public to reflect on
their responsibilities in the era of big data before there is a greater
expansion in the use of new technologies.
She
said:
“People
cannot have control over their own data if they don’t know or understand how it
is being used. That’s why greater and genuine transparency about the use of
data analytics is vital.”
In
addition, the ICO commissioned research from the Centre for the Analysis of
Social Media at the independent thinktank DEMOS. Its report, also published
today, examines current and emerging trends in how data is used in political
campaigns, how use of technology is changing and how it may evolve in the next
two to five years.
The
investigation, one of the largest of its kind by a Data Protection Authority,
remains ongoing. The 40-strong investigation team is pursuing active lines of
enquiry and reviewing a considerable amount of material retrieved from servers
and equipment.
The
interim progress report has been produced to inform the work of the DCMS’s
Select Committee into Fake News.
The
next phase of the ICO’s work is expected to be concluded by the end of October
2018.
The
Washington Post,
28 June 2018:
BRISTOL,
England — On Aug. 19, 2016, Arron Banks, a wealthy British businessman,
sat down at the palatial residence of the Russian ambassador to London for
a lunch of wild halibut and Belevskaya pastila apple sweets
accompanied by Russian white wine.
Banks
had just scored a huge win. From relative obscurity, he had become the largest
political donor in British history by pouring millions into Brexit, the
campaign to disentangle the United Kingdom from the European Union that had
earned a jaw-dropping victory at the polls two months earlier.
Now
he had something else that bolstered his standing as he sat down with his new Russian
friend, Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko: his team’s deepening ties to Donald
Trump’s insurgent presidential bid in the United States. A major Brexit
supporter, Stephen K. Bannon, had just been installed as chief executive of
Trump’s campaign. And Banks and his fellow Brexiteers had been invited to
attend a fundraiser with Trump in Mississippi.
Less
than a week after the meeting with the Russian envoy, Banks and firebrand
Brexit politician Nigel Farage — by then a cult hero among some
anti-establishment Trump supporters — were huddling privately with the
Republican nominee in Jackson, Miss., where Farage wowed a foot-stomping crowd
at a Trump rally.
Banks’s
journey from a lavish meal with a Russian diplomat in London to the raucous
heart of Trump country was part of an unusual intercontinental charm offensive
by the wealthy British donor and his associates, a hard-partying lot who dubbed
themselves the “Bad Boys of Brexit.” Their efforts to simultaneously cultivate
ties to Russian officials and Trump’s campaign have captured the interest of
investigators in the United Kingdom and the United States, including special
counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Vice
News, 11 June
2018:
Yakovenko
is already on the radar of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating
Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, after he was named in
the indictment of ex-Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos….
Banks,
along with close friend and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, was among the very
first overseas political figures to meet Trump after his surprise victory in
November 2016.
It
also emerged over the weekend that Banks passed contact information for Trump’s
transition team to the Russians.
Wednesday 11 July 2018
Former head of Australia's Border Force is still under investigation for corruption
It appears that Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Minister for Home Affairs and Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton's captain's pick is still under investigation.
ABC News, 4 July 2018:
The former head of
Australia's Border Force is still under investigation for corruption despite
being sacked more than three months ago.
Roman Quaedvlieg was one
of Australia's highest-paid public servants until his unprecedented dismissal
for helping his girlfriend land a job with the agency.
The termination came
after inquiries were launched by the Prime Minister's Department and the
Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
The ABC has now learned
the ACLEI probe is still underway — more than a year after the Commonwealth
watchdog was told of Mr Quaedvlieg's alleged misconduct.
"I've never been
interviewed by anyone, including ACLEI," Mr Quaedvlieg said in a
statement.
"This is the first
I've heard the ACLEI investigation is still active."
Fall of Roman's empire:
May 2017: Roman
Quaedvlieg begins paid leave following complaint
June 2017: Australian
Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) notified
August 2017: ACLEI
provides update to Immigration Department boss
August 2017: PM's
Department boss asked whether grounds exist to sack Quaedvlieg
February 2018:
Attorney-General receives PM's Department report
March 15, 2018:
Governor-General terminates Quaedvlieg's employment
The inaugural Border
Force commissioner said he was considering his legal options after being
removed from the $600,000-a-year role.
Mr Quaedvlieg has
previously denied any wrongdoing and last year expressed frustration at the
time taken for investigations to be concluded.
The commission said it
received a referral from Immigration Department secretary Michael Pezzullo
mid-last year.
"The Integrity
Commissioner received a notification in relation to Mr Quaedvlieg … in June
2017 and commenced a corruption investigation shortly thereafter," a
spokesman said.
"At this time the
investigation remains ongoing."
ACLEI has oversight of
about 20,000 Commonwealth law enforcement officials, including members of the
Australian Federal Police and the Home Affairs Department.
The agency had 47
full-time-equivalent staff during the 2016-17 financial year.
Labels:
Border Farce,
corruption,
Peter Dutton
Monday 4 June 2018
Peter Chapman's stint as editor of The Queensland Times is catching up with him
Peter Chapman first swam into public view as a Channel 10 sports editor, commentator and presenter in the late 1980s.
He left after ten years to work for Canberra
Raiders NRL Club and the New Zealand Breakers basketball team.
He re-entered journalism in 2006 and stayed with APN News and Media for ten and a half years as editor first of The Daily Examiner, then the Fraser Coast Chronicle and finally The Queensland Times.
He quietly slipped out of journalism again in November 2016 when he went to work for Leda Holdings, a property development and investment company, as its Marketing and Media Manager. Presumably the new owner of APN's regional newspapers, News Corp, or Peter himself thought they would not be a good match.
Labels:
ABC television,
APN,
corruption,
journalists,
News Corp,
newspapers
Thursday 31 May 2018
Liberals continue to behave badly in 2018 – Part Six, Cash subpoena for 1 August
The Guardian: Michaelia Cash giving evidence before Senate educaion & employment committee, Parlview video, Feb 2018 |
The Federal Court has
ordered embattled Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash to give evidence in the court
case over last year's raids on the headquarters of the Australian Workers
Union.
Court documents seen by
Fairfax Media show a subpoena has been issued for Senator Cash to attend court
on August 1.
The minister has been
under pressure over her role in a federal police raid conducted on AWU offices
in Melbourne in October, details of which were leaked to the media in advance.
Senator Cash's former
staffer David de Garis - who has also been ordered to give evidence - took the
blame for tipping off journalists and subsequently resigned.
Senator Cash has said
she was unaware of the tip-offs. She was due to appear at a Senate estimates
hearing on Wednesday but sent the assistant minister Zed Seselja instead….
She previously failed in
an attempt to stop subpoenas for communications between her office and the ROC
about the raids….
Mr Turnbull has so far
stood by his minister.
Friday 18 May 2018
The people attracted to a career in Tzar Peter’s federal super ministry.....
Brisbane
Times, 16 May
2018:
The information chief at
Peter Dutton’s new Home Affairs super ministry allegedly ordered the deletion
of a government record relevant to a request under freedom of information laws
when he was a senior executive at NSW’s transport agency.
Tim Catley, who began
his high-ranking role at Home Affairs in February, is accused of directing
staff at Transport for NSW to delete government information in 2016, in witness
statements given during an investigation by the state’s Information and Privacy
Commission.
Mr Catley vehemently
denies he asked anyone to delete government records. “The allegation that
I asked anyone to delete an email is not true and it is not technologically
possible to do that anyway [at the transport agency]. Professionally and
ethically I wouldn’t do anything like that,” he told the Herald.
Following a referral
from the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the state’s Information
Commission launched an investigation behind closed doors into the deletion of a
record at Transport for NSW to avoid public disclosure 18 months ago.
During that
investigation, the Information Commission was told of a culture inside
Transport for NSW of suppressing bad news, meaning that higher levels within
the department were not told of potential cost blowouts on projects.
The investigation also
heard that warnings about this culture of suppression were relayed to the then
secretary of the department, Tim Reardon, now NSW’s top public servant as head
of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
A preliminary report on
the Information Commission’s investigation, seen by the Herald, found that
a Transport for NSW executive issued directions to delete government
information relevant to a request under the Government Information (Public
Access) Act (GIPA), the state’s freedom of information legislation.
“The investigation has
found that the executive directed the deletion of records that were germane to
a GIPA access application and that staff acted on that direction,” the report,
by Information and Privacy commissioner Elizabeth Tydd, said.
Ms Tydd’s report did not
name Mr Catley as the executive who directed the deletion. But the witness
statements to the commission assert that it was Mr Catley who gave the
direction.
Despite her finding
about the direction, Ms Tydd determined there were no grounds to refer the
matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Attorney-General….
According to Ms Tydd’s
analysis, if the official who destroys the information is unaware the
information is subject to a freedom-of-information request, the person who
directed them to delete that information did not commit an offence.
And because other staff
at Transport for NSW later ensured the deleted document was retrieved, the
commissioner found the government agency had not failed in its duty.
According to evidence given during the
investigation, Mr Catley raised concerns at a meeting in July 2016 about emails
that detailed a cost blowout in the $425 million “Next Generation
Infrastructure Services” project. An application for information about the IT
project sought under the GIPA Act was also discussed at the meeting.
That same month, Mr Catley allegedly directed a more junior staff member to delete an email about the exit from Transport for NSW of a manager who had a senior role overseeing the IT project, according to witness statements given to the Information Commission.
That same month, Mr Catley allegedly directed a more junior staff member to delete an email about the exit from Transport for NSW of a manager who had a senior role overseeing the IT project, according to witness statements given to the Information Commission.
At the time, Mr Catley had responsibility for technology
at Transport for NSW as its chief information officer, a role he had held since
2012.
Early
this year, a “confidential” report by a consulting firm commissioned by Transport for NSW
revealed a concerning picture of the state of IT at the state’s transport
agencies.......
Saturday 12 May 2018
Quotes of the Week
“Meeting the narrow test of legality is not a licence to be a bastard” [Journalist Peter Hartcher writing about corporations in The
Canberra Times, 5 May 2018]
“budget's forecasts and projections, prepared by that well-known Italian
economist, Rosie Scenario”
[Economics editor Ross Gittens writing in The
Sydney Morning Herald about Federal Budget 2018-19, 8 May 2018]
Saturday 28 April 2018
Quotes of the Week
“He’s nothing but a pre-Fitzgerald corruption inquiry Queensland
walloper” [An anonymous Liberal MP speaking of
Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton, quoted in The
Saturday Paper by journalist Paul
Bongiorno, 21 April 2018]
“At the same time, returns to the AEC show that these same corporations paid a total of $21,733,192 in political donations to political parties with Westpac standing out with donations totalling of nearly $12 million during the 2014-15 financial year alone.“ [Campaigner Rosie Williams, in “What
can open data tell us about Australia’s major banks?”, 20 April 2018]
“The Liberals
complaining that ASIC is sleep is rich considering who administered the fucking
anaesthetic.” [Journalist Richard Chirgwin, Twitter,
23 April 2018]
Labels:
banks and bankers,
corruption,
right wing politics
Wednesday 25 April 2018
As the federal govenment burns are Turnbull and Co. just tinkering at the edges of banking and finance regulations or are they seriously committed to reform?
Way back in
October 2016 the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission (ASIC) began an Enforcement Review which examined the adequacy of legislation
dealing with corporations, financial services, credit and insurance, with
regard to serious contraventions in the financial sector, including fraud and
criminal activity.
0n 18
December 2017 ASIC handed its Enforcement
Review Report to the Turnbull Government.
It was
probably no accident that four days earlier the same government ceased its
sustained opposition to a highest level inquiry and created the Royal
Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial
Services Industry.
With the extent of bank money laundering becoming an issue and the review report on its doorstep there was nowhere else to turn, given the average voter would not have been receptive to the argument that the big banks were historically a protected species because of their generous political donations.
In April 2018 in the midst Royal Commission revelations concerning a host of bank and financial system abuses
the Turnbull Government finally released
its response to the ASIC review report.
This response "agrees" with or gives "in principle agreement" to all 50 recommendations but has placed 20 recommendations on the backburner.
Knowing that ASIC’s
investigative abilities has been crippled
by funding/staff cuts, that entities with annual profits in the
billions just seem to shrug off large corporate fines, often indemnify executives
in relation to individual fines and are able to play the legal system so that executives
rarely see the inside of a prison, on 20 April the Turnbull Government via the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services revealed
that by legislative amendments it will implement the potential for larger individual and corporate
fines and double potential maximum prison sentences:
The Turnbull Government
is strengthening criminal and civil penalties for corporate misconduct and
boosting the powers of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
(ASIC) to protect Australian consumers from corporate and financial misconduct.
These stronger new
penalties will ensure that those who do the wrong thing will receive
appropriate punishment.
These reforms represent
the most significant increases to the maximum civil penalties, in some
instances, in more than twenty years. They bring Australia's penalties into
closer alignment with leading international jurisdictions, and ensure our
penalties are a credible deterrent to unacceptable misconduct.
The Government will
increase and harmonise penalties for the most serious criminal offences under
the Corporations Act to a maximum of:
For
individuals: (i) 10 years' imprisonment; and/or (ii) the larger of $945,000 OR
three times the benefits;
For
corporations: (i) the larger of $9.45 million OR (ii) three times benefits OR
10% of annual turnover.
The Government will
expand the range of contraventions subject to civil penalties, and also
increase the maximum civil penalty amounts that can be imposed by courts, to
the maximum of:
the
greater of $1.05 million (for individuals, from $200,000) and $10.5 million
(for corporations, from $1 million); or
three
times the benefit gained or loss avoided; or
10%
of the annual turnover (for corporations).
In addition, ASIC will
be able to seek additional remedies to strip wrongdoers of profits illegally
obtained, or losses avoided from contraventions resulting in civil penalty
proceedings.
ASIC's powers will also
be significantly increased through:
expanding
their ability to ban individuals from performing any role in a financial
services company where they are found to be unfit, improper, or incompetent;
strengthening
their power to refuse, revoke or cancel financial services and credit licences
where the licensee is not fit or proper; and
boosting
ASIC's tools to investigate and prosecute serious offences by harmonising their
search warrant powers to provide them with greater flexibility to use seized
materials, and granting ASIC access to telecommunications intercept material.
The Turnbull Government
is committed to ensuring ASIC is armed with greater powers to effectively
deter, prosecute, and punish those who do the wrong thing, to improve community
confidence and outcomes for consumers and investors in the financial services
and corporate sector.
These reforms come on
top of strong Government action to reform our financial services sector to
better protect Australian consumers over a number of years.
The Government has
already provided $127 million in additional funding to ASIC to bolster its
investigative and surveillance capabilities; implemented an industry funding
model for ASIC to give it secure funding; appointed a new chairman for ASIC, Mr
James Shipton, and announced a new second Deputy Commissioner with an
enforcement focus, Mr Daniel Crennan QC; established a new standards setting
body for financial advisers; and established a new one stop shop for consumer
complaints which is free for consumers, binding on financial institutions and
can order compensation where appropriate.
Today's reforms to
ASIC's powers and penalties follow recommendations made by the ASIC Enforcement
Review Taskforce (The Taskforce). The Taskforce was established in October 2016
to fulfil the Government's commitment to review the adequacy of ASIC's
enforcement regime in response to the Murray Financial System Inquiry, and
provided its report to Government in December 2017.
The Government has
agreed, or agreed in principle, to all 50 of the Taskforce recommendations and
will prioritise the implementation of 30 of the recommendations.
The remaining 20
recommendations relate to self-reporting of breaches, industry codes and ASIC's
directions powers, which will be considered alongside the final report of the
Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial
Services Industry.
The Government thanks
all the members of the Taskforce, including the Panel of Experts, Treasury,
ASIC, Attorney-General's Department, Commonwealth Director of Public
Prosecutions, as well as all stakeholders who participated in the consultation
of the various position papers put forward by the Taskforce.
The Government's full
response to the Taskforce Report can be found on the Treasury website.
Labels:
banks and bankers,
corruption,
financial advice,
fraud,
royal commission
Friday 20 April 2018
Turnbull Government will ignore this call to extend Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry at its own electoral peril
Remember When Australian Prime Minister and former merchant banker Malcolm Bligh Turnbull ruled out a bankig royal commission?
Telling the nation; "I can tell you wehave as a government decided not to have a royal commission, we made thedecision a long time ago, not because we don't believe there is nothing goingon in terms of problems with the banks, it is because we want to take actionright now and we are".
Recall the time and other limits placed on the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry when it was finally established on 14 December 2017? Giving it the power to ignore anything that it wanted to that would otherwise be within its scope.
Well things did not go entirely to plan for Malcolm and his banker mates.
Because since13 March 2018 the curtain has been drawn back revealing the systemic unethical, deceitful, rapacious, sometimes fraudulent and, in certain instances criminal behaviour, of the financial sector.
National Australia Bank, Westpac, St George, Citibank, ANZ, AMP Insurance and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, along with their financial services spin-offs, had all come under some degree of scrutiny by mid-April with more hearings still sheduled.
So it comes as no surprise that Fairfax Media is now saying what many are thinking.............
The Age, 18 November 2018:
Evidence to the
fledgling financial services royal commission confirms the inquiry, long-resisted
by the Coalition government and the banks, was justified and suggests it will
lead to rigorous reforms. It also suggests the government’s decision to limit
the probe to one year should be reviewed.
A damning admission by a
top executive of what was once one of the nation’s most trusted institutions,
AMP, about his company repeatedly lying to the corporate regulator about
condoned client fraud intensifies concerns about one of the most crucial
industries.
The Royal Commission
into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry
is only in its third week, but there has been a plethora of testimony to
unethical and/or illegal practices including: charging clients for wilfully
undelivered services; fraud; manipulating ‘‘independent’’ audit information;
selling clients irrelevant insurance and financial products (many of them
in-house); failing to declare commissions; refusing to honour insurance
contracts; rigging interest rate markets; and failing to make proper checks
before granting loans.
The banks long argued
the malfeasance was the result of ‘‘a few bad apples’’, a position that became
untenable as bountiful evidence, much of it revealed by The Age,
implicated the companies’ very culture.....
Thursday 19 April 2018
None of the financial institutions are coming away from this Royal Commission covered in glory
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was established
on 14 December 2017, is due to hand down an interim report no later than 30
September 2018 followed by a final report by 1 February 2019.
As of 13 April 2018 the royal commission has received 3,433
public submissions - 69%
of these were Banking, 8% Superannuation 8% and 7% Financial Advice.
Round 2 public hearings finish on 27 April 2018.
Yesterday was the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's turn to reluctantly admit systemic fraud ....
The Guardian, 18 April 2018:
Counsel assisting the
royal commission, Mark Costello, asked Linda Elkins, from CBA’s wealth
management arm Colonial First State, to confirm CBA’s poor record of charging fees
for no service.
“It would be the gold
medallist if [the corporate regulator] was handing out medals for fees for no
service, wouldn’t it?” Costello asked.
Elkins replied: “Yes.”
The commission was told
that from July 2007 to June 2015 clients of CBA’s Commonwealth Financial
Planning, BW Financial Planning and Count Financial businesses were routinely
charged ongoing fees for financial advice where no advice services were
provided.
CBA has had to refund
$118.5m to customers – more than half the $219m in compensation paid by the big
four banks and AMP over the past decade – to more than 310,000 financial advice
customers.
ABC News, 18 April 2018:
Michael Hodge QC
observes that Commonwealth Financial Planning has had a 100 per cent
increase in clients over the past decade but a 25 per cent drop in the number
of advisers.
He asks CBA's Marianne
Perkovic whether the bank had any concerns that clients were not receiving
adequate attention because of the decline in advisers, while client numbers
doubled.
This is in the context
of ASIC's concern that some firms were taking on too many clients for the
number of planners.
Ms Perkovic struggles to
provide a clear answer.......
After disputing the
meaning to be attributed to internal memos between the bank's senior managers
in early 2012, Ms Perkovic eventually had to admit that a Deloitte report
handed to CBA in July 2012 revealed systemic problems in ensuring that
customers weren't being charged for financial advice they did not receive.
Deloitte had found that
at least $700,000 in ongoing service fees were being charged to more than 1,050
clients that were allocated to more than 50 inactive financial planners
who had left the business before 2012.
It appears that Ms
Perkovic was finally ground down by relentless questioning from Michael Hodge
QC, warnings from Commissioner Kenneth Hayne and the irrefutable evidence of
the Deloitte report.
Labels:
banks and bankers,
corruption,
Finance,
royal commission
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