Former adviser defies permanent banning orders

Former financial adviser Ezzat Daniel Nesseim has defied ASIC's permanent banning orders and is in the process of being prosecuted.

Nesseim was slapped with permanent banning orders by the regulator between 2018 and 2019 that barred him from providing financial services and engaging in credit activities.

In 2022, he was sentenced to a three-year intensive correctional order, including one year of home detention, for engaging in dishonest conduct and providing falsified documents to ASIC.

Also that year, ASIC imposed another order, permanently banning him from controlling an entity which carries on a financial services business and from performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business.

ASIC now alleges Nesseim performed functions involved in the carrying on a financial services business in relation to three businesses and provided personal financial product advice to four consumers. This was between June 2022 and December 2024.

On October 13, Nesseim was charged with seven offences of engaging in conduct that breached permanent banning orders at the Sydney Downing Centre Local Court.

Nesseim previously worked for Westpac, Fortnum Private Wealth and Libertas Financial Planning. He was a financial adviser from August 2006 to March 2018.

He served as an executive business financial adviser at Westpac before becoming an authorised representative of Fortnum Private Wealth and finally an authorised representative of the now-defunct Libertas Financial Planning. He served under Libertas' licence between 2016 and 2018.

ASIC said its permanent banning orders are designed to protect consumers and the integrity of Australia's financial services industry and that it "will take action where it alleges those orders have been breached."

The matter is being prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions following a referral from ASIC.

The court ordered the brief of evidence to be served by December 8. The matter is next listed for mention at the Downing Centre Local Court on the same date.

Nesseim previously operated Smart Financial Strategies and was general manager of Accord Partners, which was described as a "financial concierge and management office" on its website.