The Federal Court of Australia has convicted former Wealth and Risk Management director, Joshua Fuoco, of contempt of court and has sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment to be suspended for two years, after finding he deliberately defied the court’s orders made on 5 February 2018 prohibiting him from conducting or being involved in a financial services business for ten years.
In addition, Mr Fuoco will never be allowed to be involved in financial services or credit activities, following an undertaking he gave to the court.
In 2018 Mr Fuoco was found to have engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and unconscionable conduct, and to have contravened financial services laws.
The Court held in the contempt proceeding that between March 2019 and April 2023 Mr Fuoco deliberately breached the financial services injunctions imposed on him through his involvement in five companies: State Advice, Ansa Finance, AFSL Group, About Advice, and Advice Now. Those businesses operated a similar model as that denounced by the Court in 2018, affecting hundreds of vulnerable consumers, and eroding their superannuation balances. Over A$2.2m in income was generated through the businesses.
In delivering his judgment, Justice Horan said that Mr Fuoco’s conduct was the ‘most serious incident of contempt of court in recent years’ and found Mr Fuoco guilty of all 18 charges of contempt.
The judge found that Mr Fuoco’s conduct “amounted to a premediated, persistent and wilful defiance’ of the Court’s orders, and ‘constitutes an extremely serious contempt with a clear tendency to interfere with the administration of justice and the authority of the Court’.
The seriousness of Mr Fuoco’s conduct warranted a term of imprisonment, but his Honour was persuaded to give Mr Fuoco ‘one last chance’ by suspending his sentence.
Sarah Court, deputy chair of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) said: “Mr Fuoco continued to run a financial business over a prolonged period in deliberate contempt of Federal Court orders. Today’s judgment demonstrates such brazen and intentional disregard of the law will be strongly punished. ASIC will continue to take action to ensure court orders are complied with.”
