Guardian Wealth Management Qatar, which is in liquidation, has not appealed against a large compliance fine in the gulf state, as was reported by International Adviser on 4 September.
IA was informed by a well-placed source in Qatar that an appeal was in progress and the fine levied by the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) remained unpaid.
However, the source was incorrect and, while the fine remains unpaid, there is no appeal through the QFCRA or any other channel.
Background
The QFC Tribunal issued its decision notice with findings against GWMQ on 8 January 2018.
Guardian then had 60 days from that date to lodge an appeal with the Tribunal, and did not do so.
Following the lapse of the 60-days appeal period, the financial penalties imposed by the QFCRA were published.
A financial penalty of QAR2.5m was imposed for contraventions to anti-money laundering/combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules.
An additional QAR1.09m was levied for “general regulatory contraventions”.
In addition to the QAR3.59m (£0.7m, $1m, €0.8m), GWMQ has to pay the costs and expenses of the investigation conducted by the regulatory authority.
Current state of affairs
GWMQ is in liquidation and is now under the control of the liquidator. The liquidator has stated that it has not, and will not, lodge any appeal.
There is no further appeal process for GWMQ, and the fine levied by the QFC Regulatory Authority is due, as well as the costs and expenses of the investigation.
Editor’s note: A well-placed industry source passed information to International Adviser that proved to be incorrect. An attempt was made to contact Guardian Wealth to corroborate the information but no response was received ahead of publication.
International Adviser endeavours to always publish accurate information, and I apologise that, in this instance, we did not.
