Former director of Adelaide-based firm Power Financial Planning, Stephen McArdle, has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment after being found guilty of aiding and abetting the company to provide financial services without an Australian financial services (AFS) licence.
Sentenced in the Magistrates Court of South Australia, McArdle will be released after serving a minimum of six months jail. Upon release, he will be subject to a good behaviour bond.
The court also ordered that $10.3 million be paid by Power Financial Planning and McArdle as compensation to investors.
McArdle was found guilty earlier this month following an ASIC investigation into numerous individuals and entities who dealt in Westpoint products.
Power Financial Planning, one of a number of companies operating under the Power Loan banner, pleaded guilty in August to carrying on a financial services business without an AFS licence. The company was also convicted and fined the maximum penalty of $33,000.
ASIC alleged that during 2005, Power arranged for 120 clients of an associated company, National Finance & Trading Group (NFTG), the proprietor of Power Loan, to invest over $10 million in financial products.
These products included Westpoint promissory notes and interests in Prime Retirement and Aged Care Property Trust, Kebbel Development Capital Fund No. 2 - Mount Gilead Trust, and Kebbel Development Capital Fund No. 3 - The Riverside Pier Trust.
McArdle was a director of NFTG, Power, and a number of other associated companies. ASIC alleged that he entered into agreements to market the various financial products, assisted with the issue of product disclosure statements, and facilitated the transfer of application forms and investor funds.
