The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian regulatory authority, has banned Sean Nofal, a responsible executive at State One Stockbroking Limited, from offering financial services to clients. The reason appears to be that Mr. Nofal went against regulatory rules in two instances involving trading clients between 2011 and 2013.
ASIC discovered that Mr. Nofal’s professional conduct fell below the required standard and found him unfit to meet the demands and responsibilities of his role as an executive. His actions may have been a breach of financial services laws, and ASIC thought him likely to violate the law at some point in the future.
ASIC’s investigation revealed that Mr. Nofal was aware that two clients of State One Stockbroking Limited were partaking in questionable trading activity between 2011 and 2013. He had lengthy phone conversations, in which he warned them about the Australian regulator having made inquiries regarding their trading habits. Mr. Nofal then went on to instruct the two traders on how to respond to ASIC’s questions if they were to encounter the authority. Mr. Nofal did not mention these conversations to the compliance team in his company, or to any other colleagues.
Though ASIC did not find Mr. Nofal’s behavior to be dishonest or intentional, the authority did state that he acted with poor judgement. Mr. Nofal has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, so that the decision by ASIC may be reviewed. He has not worked in the financial industry since 2015.
State One Stockbroking Limited is an Australian firm that offers online share trading and advisory services to individuals, institutions, and corporations.
Recently, ASIC also , who had been found guilty of stealing AU$2.5 million from a client while claiming to offer financial services as a representative of a subsidiary of National Australia Bank.
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