more on asic

In mid-2008 the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was warned Storm Financial group was going to blow up.
We know this because we warned them ourselves.
"Clean bill of health" was the response. Six months later, Storm and its 13,000 clients and $4 billion in funds collapsed. On the barometer of sheer human misery, this was the worst collapse the country had seen.
The regulator had been fielding complaints about Storm's founder Emmanuel Cassimatis since Cassimatis had been flogging financial product for the Commonwealth Bank in the 1990s.
It had also been warned in advance about Allco and Babcock, ABC Learning, Rubicon, City Pacific and Australian Capital Reserve. No doubt a host of others. These are merely the ones we were involved with, or knew about.
Entire industries blown to smithereens: plantation schemes such as Great Southern, debenture funds such as Westpoint and mortgage funds such as City Pacific, with almost no regulatory action and nary a prosecution. Some $30 billion in savings.
The message, and one which is by no means lost on sharp operators, is that you can swindle people with impunity and you will not be brought to justice; as long as you are big enough.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/watchdog-shies-away-from-enforcement-20140228-33r4a.html#ixzz2ueyZ9InZ