A former Brisbane financial adviser has been sentenced to nine-and-a-half years' imprisonment following a major fraud conviction.
Thanh Tu, of Forestdale Brisbane, has been sentenced to nine-and-a-half years' imprisonment in the Brisbane District Court this week after pleading guilty to 33 counts of fraud and 21 counts of fraudulent falsification of records.
According to an ASIC investigation, Tu dishonestly induced 18 separate individual investors to invest approximately $9 million between September 2008 and September 2013, whilst an employee of Patersons Securities Limited.
ASIC alleges Tu misled investors and gave false Certificate of Investment in the fictitious Paterson Securities – API Protected Fund and fictitious Patersons Securities Capital Protected Fund.
The defendant did not invest the money into secure investments as directed but instead, fraudulently redirected the funds, through a number of different accounts, to a personal trading account held by him with another organisation.
He then, for his own purposes, traded the money in risky investments and ultimately lost a total of $8,120,073.53 of the original capital invested.
During the offending period, Tu also made “interest” payments to some of the clients, which were funded through money provided by other clients and not through investment profits made by the defendant.
ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said Tu had deliberately and systematically breached the trust of his clients on a large scale.
“The actions of Mr Tu were deceitful and calculated and undermine confidence in the financial advice industry. His lengthy jail sentence should send a strong message that such conduct will not be tolerated by ASIC or the community,” he said.
Tu will be eligible for parole after serving three years, taking into account time already served in custody.
