ASIC bans former adviser Rhys Reilly for 10 years

Former financial adviser Rhys Reilly has been banned from working in financial services for 10 years for "serious misconduct" in which he flogged the First Guardian Master Fund in return for conflicted remuneration.

ASIC's investigation into Reilly, which remains ongoing, found he accepted $100,000 in conflicted remuneration while recommending clients invest most, or all, of their superannuation into First Guardian. He failed to disclose such payments to clients.

Reilly made false or misleading representations in certain Statements of Advice (SoA) by stating that no benefits capable of influencing his advice had been received, when that was not the case, ASIC said, adding that he was "not a fit and proper person, was not competent to provide financial services, and was likely to contravene financial services laws in the future."

Reilly was an authorised representative of InterPrac Financial Plannaing under the corporate authorised representative of Rhys Reilly Pty Ltd from 29 March 2017 to 20 May 2025.

Between 21 May 2025 to 15 August 2025, he was authorised directly by InterPrac. On 5 March 2024, he became a director of Conexus Group.

As part of the ban, ASIC has cancelled Conexus' AFSL until 31 July 2026. This is so that Conexus can sever its relationship with Reilly and update its licence arrangements.

The banning order and licence suspension took effect from April 8.

At the time of ASIC's decision, Reilly was the sole director and person in control of Conexus.

ASIC also found that while Reilly continued run Conexus it "had reason to believe Conexus was likely to contravene its obligations under section 912A of the Act."

ASIC added "it considered that the banning of Mr Reilly and the suspension of Conexus's licence were necessary to protect consumers, promote confidence in the financial system and deter similar misconduct by others."

Reilly has the right to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal to review ASIC's decisions.

Last week, ASIC handed down a permanent banning order for Aristotle Papapavlou, who will no longer work in the financial services and credit industries.

Papapavlou was authorised by InterPrac as of September 2021 and worked for Venture Egg from October 2021 to July 2023. After leaving Venture Egg, he went on to be authorised by Hejaz Financial Advisers up until February this year.

He was found to be actively involved in Venture Egg's high volume advice process, in which third-party referrers undertook the client fact finds, and was complicit in a process in which he knew other advisers were signing his name, and the names of others, on their SoAs.