The Australian Securities and Investments Commission yesterday announced that the company’s former chairman, Bradley John Sherwin, will be banned for the duration of his bankruptcy – a period of two years and seven months.
Mr Sherwin – who headed up a number of financial services entities that made up the Sherwin Group – had the opportunity to make submissions against the ban but chose not to take this course of action, according to an ASIC statement.
The ban follows the announcement five new defendants would be added to ASIC’s lawsuit against the Sherwin Group and related entities in the Federal Court.
In July, it emerged that ASIC had successfully applied to have the following defendants added to the suit: Brothers Financial Services Pty Ltd, NRL Financial Services Pty Ltd, Sunshine Regional Investments Pty Ltd, Garth Peter Robertson and Catherine Louise Robertson.
The assets of Mr Sherwin, his wife, and Wickham Securities founder, Garth Robertson, have already been frozen – with Mr Sherwin applying for bankruptcy in May.
Wickham Securities was placed into administration in December 2012, in advance of ASIC’s proceedings, and is now in liquidation.
Meanwhile, in June it emerged that ASIC had moved to cancel the registration of the auditor of Wickham Securities, Mr Brian Patrick Kingston, who entered into an enforceable undertaking.
“Mr Kingston clearly failed in his job,” ASIC commissioner John Price said at the time. “ASIC will not tolerate inferior work and is determined to lift standards within the auditing profession.”
