Perth accountant banned for six years

The corporate regulator has banned a Perth accountant from providing financial services for six years after an investigation found he bought and sold shares for clients so companies could meet the minimum requirement to be listed on the stock exchange.

Keith Bowker was investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission between November 2016 and March 2017 after a probe into the provision of shareholder spread through artificial means.

ASIC found Mr Bowker applied for and sold shares on behalf of other people without their knowledge or consent and provided false information to the companies, which was then given to the ASX so the companies could meet the ASX minimum-spread requirement for admission to the exchange.

He was also found to have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct relating to a financial product, contravened a financial services law and was judged to be likely to contravene financial services law.

The ASX minimum-spread requirement means a company must have at least 300 shareholders to demonstrate there is sufficient investor interest in the company.

Mr Bowker is a company secretary at Moko Resources and NKWE Platinum and a director of KBH Corporate.

He previously worked at Somerville Accountants.

Mr Bowker may apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to review ASIC’s decision.