Former director sentenced over 'test' trading accounts

A former financial services director, who dishonestly obtained near $1 million by tricking his clients into investing into a "test" trading platform, has had his sentence handed down.

Mark Francis McCabe was sentenced to four years and three months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and six months for three fraud offences.

Between January 2015 and April 2021, McCabe misled the investors by providing them with specific funds and access to foreign exchange trading accounts on a third-party platform.

But in reality, investors were provided "test" trading accounts that "were not capable of placing real foreign exchange trades."

"Investors used these 'test' accounts to conduct what they believed to be genuine trading; however, no actual trading took place," ASIC said.

From that, McCabe dishonestly obtained a total of $940,350 from eight victims, seven of whom were clients of Guevara Capital Access and/or Online Trading Capital (both deregistered). McCabe was sole director of both companies.

He used the stolen funds for his own benefit for business and personal expenses.

He entered a guilty plea in September 2024 to three offences of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception in contrary to s192E(1)(b) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), with a further four offences taken into account for sentencing.

Commenting, ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the sentence demonstrates the seriousness of the misconduct and will deter others from committing in similar conduct.

"When handing down the sentence, her Honour Judge David found the offending serious, characterising Mr McCabe's conduct as 'highly deceptive'," Court said.

"Her Honour noted the offending was 'more than simply enticing people' and that it was a 'sophisticated scheme that created the illusion of genuine trading."

Judge David added that McCabe had misled the investors to "feel their money was safe" with his reputation.

"Further, Mr McCabe had engaged in 'a form of psychological bullying', engaged in manipulative and threatening behaviour [to cause his victims to] 'take on illusory deals' and encouraged his victims to trade 'in a completely futile endeavour," David said.

Handing down the sentence, Judge David said the level of sophistication and the impact on victims have elevated the objective seriousness of the offending, reiterating the impact was "significant" and "life changing", while causing emotional and financial devastation.

The maximum penalty for an offence of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception under s192E(1)(b) of the Crimes Act is 10 years' imprisonment and/or a fine of $110,000 (being 1000 penalty units at the current value of $110).