A former financial planner who allegedly embezzled more than $970,000 of client dollars has pleaded guilty in the Cairns district court to 14 fraud charges.
The charges, involving more than $972,000, refer to Piet Cornelius Walters' provision of financial services to the clients of Drury Management.
Drury Management was a Cairns-based accounting practice of which Walters was a director.
An ASIC investigation between 1999 and 2003 found that Walters obtained loans from about 118 private investors in the Cairns area who were guaranteed returns of eight to 15 per cent per annum.
The investors entered into the unsecured loans by way of promissory notes and deeds.
Walters was originally convicted on the charges on 16 September 2006 and appealed the district court decision.
On 27 April 2007, the conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered.
Walters was remanded in custody and returns to court on Friday 2 November 2007 for sentencing.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter.
In September 2002, ASIC obtained interim orders in the Supreme Court of Queensland in Cairns to appoint an interim receiver to an unregistered, managed investment scheme operating as Drury Management Pty Ltd, in Malanda, Queensland.
ASIC obtained orders against the directors of Drury Management, Walters and Mark Samuel Evans, as well as Ransom House Pty Ltd, a company associated with Walters.
In October 2004, the Supreme Court of Queensland ordered Jessup & Partners, who had already been appointed as receiver, take on the role as liquidator of the scheme, as well as Drury Management and Ransom House.
The liquidator estimated approximately $15 million in losses from the scheme.
The court also imposed a permanent injunction restraining all respondents from further operating the scheme, receiving or soliciting funds in connection with the scheme, dealing with any property held by them and destroying or interfering with any of their books and records.
In September 2004, ASIC permanently banned Walters from providing any financial services.
