New Zealand Financial Markets Authority cancels Les Vela Limited FAP licence and orders five-year de-registration of adviser Le Zhou

The New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has cancelled Les Vela Limited’s (trading as Wise Insurance) financial advice provider (FAP) licence and directed the Registrar of Financial Service Providers to de-register financial adviser Le Zhou (also known as Eric) from the Financial Service Providers Register, with a five-year prohibition on re-registration. The action follows an FMA investigation into alleged “tombstoning”, where insurance applications were submitted for non-existent people to obtain commission payments. After being notified by an impacted insurer, the FMA investigated 15 insurance policy applications submitted by Mr Zhou on behalf of 27 non-existent individuals, resulting in NZD 260,937 in commissions paid to him. The FMA concluded Les Vela no longer meets key requirements under the Financial Markets Conduct Act, citing failure to comply with the code of conduct (including acting with integrity), that Mr Zhou is not a fit and proper person, and that the firm is likely to breach its market services licensee obligations. In parallel, Police arrested and charged a North Shore man in July 2025 in relation to the conduct, with three representative charges of forgery and a further court appearance scheduled for October. The FMA also pointed to misleading or fraudulent activity by financial advisers as a current supervisory focus, as reflected in its Financial Conduct Report on regulatory priorities for the coming year.