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07 November 2025 by Adrian Suljanovic

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Koch found guilty on ASIC charges

  •  
By Christine St Anne
  •  
4 minute read

The corporate regulator nabs a motivational speaker and acts against an insurance spruiker.

Motivational speaker Christopher Koch has been found guilty of deceiving investors into investing in a fake international high-yield investment scheme.

Koch has been remanded in custody to a date to be fixed for sentencing.

He was charged on 15 counts of obtaining property by deception and seven accounts of obtaining financial advantage by deception totally $1,152,000, according to an ASIC statement.

He was also charged with one count of making an offer in an interest scheme totally $1,742,000.

 
 

In 1996, Koch promoted a fake international high-yield investment strategy where investors were told that they would earn between 50 to 150 per cent return in periods as short as 90 days.

He sold the scheme for four years earning $1,742,000 from 11 people.

The legal action follows years of investigation by the corporate regulator which began in 2001.

The investigation involved the extradition of Koch to Australia when he left for New Zealand in early 2004. He was finally extradited to Australia in 2007.

Meanwhile, the corporate regulator has also banned an insurance representative in Western Australian from providing financial services.

ASIC found that between December 2006 and December 2008, Steven Kerr informed clients they had insurance policies in place when in fact they did not.

In one case, Kerr had paid one client just over $58,000 in an insurance claim against a non-existent insurance policy.