ASIC permanently bans WA financial adviser

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned Western Australia-based former financial adviser Dashiel Benjo Vee, also known as Dash Vee, from providing financial services.

Vee is also prohibited from controlling or being involved in any financial services business, after the regulator determined that he engaged in dishonest conduct, lacking integrity, sound judgement, trustworthiness, and professionalism.

According to ASIC, Vee acted dishonestly by submitting a falsified Financial Adviser Exam certificate to his employer, Cojag Pty Ltd, and falsely claiming to colleagues and an education provider that he had passed the exam. He also misled 24 clients of Cojag by asserting he met the required education and training standards while providing them with personal advice.

In permanently banning Vee, ASIC also found he was unfit, inadequately trained, and incompetent to provide financial services, and likely to breach financial services laws in the future.

Vee’s ban is recorded in ASIC’s banned and disqualified register. He retains the right to appeal ASIC’s decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Since January 2019, financial advisers in Australia have been required to pass the Financial Advisers Exam to provide personal advice on financial products. Advisers were required to pass the exam by Jan. 1, 2022.

Vee was employed by Cojag from Oct. 4, 2021 to Dec. 29, 2021, and from March 27, 2022 to March 2, 2023. Cojag, which updated the Financial Adviser Register to reflect Vee’s ineligibility after discovering he had not passed the exam, has notified ASIC of its client review and remediation measures in response to Vee’s actions and has cooperated with ASIC’s inquiries.  

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