Enraged investors who lost their life savings in the Westpoint collapse have demanded answers from the corporate regulator.
Continuing on its crusade to make the watchdog accountable, Westpoint Investors Group (WIG) has penned 50 questions to ASIC chairman Tony D’Aloisio.
WIG president Graham MacAulay, who lost $300,000 in the failed property group, likened the regulator to the Keystone Cops in a 12 page letter.
The group is pushing for ASIC to admit it failed to recognise Westpoint was an unregistered managed investment scheme.
It has questioned why the watchdog did not take steps to protect investors from Westpoint when it first became concerned about the scheme in April 2004.
WIG has also questioned why the court case against Westpoint chief Norm Carey’s sister Karen Carey culminated in ASIC dropping all charges. And also, why the costs of the failed prosecution have not been disclosed.
“To not provide adequate answers to my questions would make a mockery of the accountability of ASIC in particular and bring into question the nature of justice in a country that claims it is a democracy,” MacAulay said.
MacAulay has called for a Royal Commission into ASIC’s past performance.
Former Australian Securities Exchange chief and the regulator’s former head commissioner, Tony D’Aloisio, succeeded Jeffrey Lucy as chairman in May.
