ASIC has announced it will be bringing about civil penalty proceedings against the principals of Storm Financial as well as pursuing legal action against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Bank of Queensland (BOQ) and Macquarie Bank (MB) in relation to the collapse of the financial planning organisation.
The regulator will be taking legal action against Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis, alleging they breached their duty as directors by allowing the organisation to be exposed to legal liability after the two principals implemented a business model that did not take into account the personal circumstances of its clients.
ASIC will be looking to impose the associated pecuniary penalties for each breach of the Corporations Act on both parties, as well as to ban them from managing corporations and providing financial services.
In regard to the action against CBA, BOQ and MB, ASIC will allege their participation in the Storm business model amounted to the running of a managed investment scheme.
As such, it was required to be registered under the Corporations Act and this was not done.
