A New South Wales-based mortgage broker has been charged with three counts of knowingly making false statements to ASIC.
Zhuo Wang holds an Australian credit licence and operates a mortgage brokerage business in Gladesville, a suburb in the Lower North Shore of Sydney.
Australian credit licence holders are required to identify the people involved in the management of their credit businesses, known as “fit and proper people”. Wang is – and was at the relevant time – the sole fit and proper person of his credit licence.
All credit licence holders are required to annually lodge an Australian credit licence compliance certificate with ASIC, in which licensees are required to certify that they are complying with their credit licence obligations.
ASIC alleges that, in April 2016, Wang had his lender accreditation with ANZ suspended.
However, despite this, Wang is being accused of completing and submitting three credit licence annual compliance certificates to ASIC between 1 May 2016 and 3 May 2018 indicating that he, as the sole fit and proper people of his credit licence, had not had his accreditation cancelled or suspended by a lender.
The alleged offense is contrary to section 225(3) of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. The matter has been adjourned to 22 September 2020 for further mention.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter after a referral from ASIC.
