Melbourne adviser banned for encouraging early super release

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned Terence Rio Nugara, director of Skynet Financial Services, for misleading clients and advising them to access their superannuation early. 

Nugara was the sole director of Skynet Financial Services from 2009 to 2019. During 2013 and 2017, he obtained a total of $1.6 million by advising his clients to withdraw money from their super funds and deposit it into self-managed super funds (SMSFs) that he had created.

The director used these funds to pay off his own personal debts amongst other purposes. 

Earlier this month, Gold Coast-based director Darren Thomas Edden-Brown was also banned by ASIC for assisting consumers who did not meet the conditions for early release to access their super early to repay personal debts.

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Moreover, the corporate regulator found that Nugara had misled his clients into believing they were investing in Melbourne-based property developments, despite the developments not existing. 

He falsely communicated to investors that they would receive significant returns from the non-existent developments. 

ASIC concluded that Nugara’s financial conduct was “deliberate, repeated and extended over several years”. 

The director was permanently banned from providing financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business.

He had the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.

Moreover, the director was also in custody in October 2022 after being arrested by Victoria Police and was charged with 35 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

Nugara did not respond to ASIC’s concerns.