It follows Mr Fineff’s arrest on 7 May 2021, where he was charged by NSW Police with 18 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and one count of knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime.
Mr Fineff was an authorised representative of Sentinel Wealth Management in Sydney from 12 December 2011 to 20 March 2020. He was also a responsible manager under Sentinel’s Australian Financial Services Licence from 12 November 2015 until 20 March 2020.
ASIC found Mr Fineff had misused his position for personal gain and as a consequence, deprived clients and others of their funds.
Mr Fineff engaged in misleading and dishonest conduct in that he sourced more than $5 million from clients and individuals as loans and then gambled and lost a significant amount of those funds, without their knowledge.
ASIC also found Mr Fineff was providing financial services outside of his authorisation from Sentinel, and that he also acted in conflict, and competed, with Sentinel.
ASIC subsequently found Mr Fineff:
- breached financial services laws by failing to act in the best interests of his clients and engaging in unlicensed conduct;
- is likely to breach financial services laws in the future;
- is not adequately trained or competent to provide financial services, perform any function as an officer that carries on a financial services business or control an entity that carries a financial services business; and
- is not a fit and proper person to provide financial services, perform any function as an officer that carries on a financial services business or control an entity that carries a financial services business.
ASIC determined that a permanent banning of Mr Fineff is necessary to prevent future harm to clients of financial services businesses.
He has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decisions.
Mr Fineff’s permanent ban will be recorded on ASIC’s publicly available Financial Advisers Register and the Banned and Disqualified Persons Register.
Mr Fineff first appeared in Hornsby Local Court on 26 May 2021 before Hornsby, with his matter to return to the same court on 21 July 2021.
