Australian Securities & Investments Commission takes enforcement action against 17 SMSF auditors including 4 disqualifications and 11 cancellations

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission announced enforcement action affecting the registration of 17 approved self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) auditors taken during the second half of 2024, citing breaches of professional obligations, annual statement non-compliance, or auditors no longer having the practical experience required to conduct SMSF audits. Between 1 July 2024 and 31 December 2024, ASIC disqualified four auditors, imposed additional conditions on two, and cancelled the registration of 11. Joseph Badawy, Gareth Evans, Vjekoslav Fak and Ryan McGrath were disqualified, with ASIC confirming its decisions after reconsideration requests from Badawy and Fak. Additional conditions were imposed on Brent Connor and Sam Danieli, while Evan Bekiaris, David Bromet, Judy Chu, Denis Ford, Bruce Mackley, Michael Mazza, Geoffrey Page, Anthony Richards, Michel Schoers, Wayne Tilley and Grace Wong had registrations cancelled in connection with an Australian Taxation Office project identifying auditors with insufficient practical experience, including where an auditor has not performed significant audit work during a continuous five-year period. All matters were referred to ASIC by the ATO, and the update follows ASIC’s earlier suspension of three high-volume auditors in October 2024. ASIC noted SMSF auditors provide assurance over around AUD 1 trillion of assets held across more than 638,000 SMSFs. ASIC highlighted review pathways available under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, including requests for ASIC reconsideration and, where a decision is confirmed or varied, the ability to apply to the ART for further review.