The former founder of Storm Financial, Emmanuel Cassimatis, has filed an appeal against charges and a $20,000 fine brought against him by the FPA.
FPA deputy chief executive and general manager for professionalism Deen Sanders said an appeal had been lodged.
“I can confirm that matter has been subject to appeal,” Sanders said.
“The member has lodged an appeal and we are progressing with that activity. I can’t give a definitive date on how or when that will conclude – all I can tell you is that it is subject to an appeal.”
In October last year, the FPA ordered Cassimatis to pay $20,000 in fines and had his FPA membership cancelled.
The fine and expulsion was handed down after the FPA found him guilty of multiple breaches of its code of ethics and rules.
The association found Cassimatis guilty of four charges after lengthy investigations were conducted by its Conduct Review Commission’s Disciplinary Panel.
Cassimatis was not a certified financial planner or practitioner member of the FPA, but was a general member at the time of the complaint, the FPA said at the time.
Meanwhile, the federal court judge presiding over ASIC’s legal action against Cassimatis and his wife, Julie, has voluntarily stepped down over issues of conflict.
Justice John Logan used his orders in the parties’ first directions hearing on 4 February to dismiss himself from the case after agreeing his involvement in the 2009 wind up of the failed financial advisory group constituted bias.
“In my opinion, the case for my not hearing the pecuniary penalty [fines] proceeding, on the basis identified, is a compelling one, having regard to the findings and observations necessarily made in the course of giving judgment for the winding up of Storm Financial,” Logan said.
“I therefore do not propose to hear and determine the case.”
The case has now been adjourned for directions on a date to be fixed.
