Australian Securities & Investments Commission bans NSW solicitor and accountant Christopher Malcolm Edwards from providing financial services for 10 years

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned NSW solicitor and accountant Christopher Malcolm Edwards from providing financial services for 10 years, and from controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business or performing functions involved in such a business for the same period. The ban took effect from 15 September 2025 and is recorded on ASIC’s banned and disqualified register. ASIC was concerned Mr Edwards carried on a financial services business without an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence or authorisation, including arranging for clients to establish self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), roll over funds into SMSFs, and invest those funds in debentures issued by companies he controlled. A review of a sample of clients found he provided financial product advice over a four-year period with sufficient system, repetition and continuity to constitute unlicensed financial services, and that his recommendations to accounting and legal clients to invest in entities he controlled created an inherent and significant conflict of interest. ASIC also found he arranged “Deeds of Agreement” under which clients provided money for three or four years in return for principal and fixed interest, and treated these deeds as debentures and therefore financial products under the Corporations Act. Mr Edwards may apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for review of ASIC’s decision, and ASIC’s investigation into his conduct is ongoing.