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The Federal Court has made interim travel restraint orders against a former director of a finance company.
The orders came after the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) raised concerns that Usman Nadeem Siddiqui, the former director of Equitable Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, which provided credit, including home loan facilities, may have “contravened financial services laws”.
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The court orders are held until 28 February 2023 and restrain Mr Siddiqui from leaving Australia.
The interim travel restriction orders Mr Siddiqui to deliver “all passports and other documents permitting international travel in his name” to the Sydney Registry of the Federal Court.
In addition, Mr Siddiqui must provide a “full and detailed affidavit” that sets out “any bank, building society or other financial institution” under his name and any person “indebted” as well as “an itemised inventory” of assets and liabilities.
The corporate regulator’s investigation into Mr Siddiqui is ongoing and urges any person who is “concerned they have invested” with Equitable Financial Solutions to come forward.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has received 76 complaints between July 2019 and June 2020, with $4.1 million in compensation claims paid out.
Equitable Financial Solutions went into liquidation in November 2019, yet remains a member of AFCA until the board determines otherwise.
The company was established in May 2011 as a proprietary limited company, with the vision to make shariah-compliant financial solutions for the Muslim community, providing credit for car, home loan, and investment services.
ASIC cancels Adelaide broker's licence
In a separate case, the corporate watchdog blacklisted Adelaide-based mortgage broker Domenico Schiafone after he was found to have supplied incorrect documents to five lenders over a two-year period to support 11 home loan applications lodged on behalf of his customers.
ASIC has said that Mr Schiafone has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
In June, the watchdog confirmed that it had banned a former broker and former ANZ employee for five years from engaging in credit activities over their failure to undertake appropriate verification checks over home loan applications.
According to ASIC, between 2018 and 2018, the former broker failed to meet with home loan applicants, accepted payslips and financial statements “from third parties instead of the applicants themselves”, and failed to take steps to verify the accuracy of those documents in contravention of credit legislation.
In April, ASIC banned a former Finsure broker for six years after he was found to be “reckless” in providing supporting home loan documents that were “false” or “materially misleading.”
This followed the 10-year ban of the former financial adviser and broker Mark Babbage, who was blacklisted from engaging in credit activities by ASIC.
[Related: Former ANZ employee banned for 5 years]
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