Halifax Investment Services’ Jeffrey Worboys and Matthew Barnett banned from financial services

Gold Coast men behind failed $211m firm Halifax Investment Services have been banned from the industry for six years. But it’s their involvement with another massive failure that’s got them in trouble this time.

THE Gold Coast men behind failed $211m firm Halifax Investment Services have been banned from the industry for six years.

Jeffrey Worboys and Matthew Barnett were banned after an ASIC investigation into another of their companies, Australian Mutual Holdings Limited, which was tied to what has been described as “Australia’s biggest Ponzi scheme”.

Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett were, until February 2018, joint chief executive officers of AMH, which was the entity responsible for managing the Courtenay House Capital Investment Fund.

Courtenay House took $209 million from 780 investors, including the Mayor of Sydney’s Sutherland Shire.

Courtenay House was set up in 2015, with Halifax Investment Services as a broker.

Mr Worboys is current sole director, while Mr Barnett is a former director, of failed Halifax Investment Services which was placed into voluntary administration in November, freezing $211 million in investments belonging to 10,000 people.

Mr Worboys remains as the sole chief executive officer of AMH.

Jeff and Pat Worboys in The Dome VIP at Magic Millions, weeks after the collapse of Halifax Investment Services left 10,000 investors’ funds frozen.

ADMINISTRATORS SHUT DOWN HALIFAX INVESTMENT ASIA

In a statement this morning, ASIC said that when establishing the Courtenay House Capital Investment Fund, Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett did not exercise the degree of care and diligence required and failed to act in the best interest of the members of the fund.

“This included a failure to ensure that the persons responsible for trading funds had the requisite qualifications and experience to manage a foreign exchange and derivatives fund,” the statement said.

.Photos from Pat Worboys' Facebook page of the Worboys family cruise on Cunard's Queen Mary 2

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“In summary, they had not maintained the high standards expected of a financial services adviser; demonstrated a lack of integrity, judgment and professionalism; could not be relied upon to discharge the duties and obligations imposed on a provider of financial services; and

were not competent to provide a financial service, and were likely to contravene a financial services law,” ASIC said.

Mr Worboys and Mr Barnett both have a right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decisions.

Nest eggs belonging to more than 10,000 people have been affected by the adminisatration of Halifax Investment Services.

Pat Worboys' Facebook page of the Worboys family cruise on Cunard's Queen Mary 2.

ASIC suspended Halifax’s financial services licence on January 8, four days before he and wife Patricia were photographed enjoying the exclusive luxury of The Dome at the Gold Coast Magic Millions.

Liquidators have been combing the company’s books looking for almost $20 million in missing funds.

They found Mr Worboys still has possession of a Bentley paid for by the company.

The trouble hasn’t stopped him from renting a luxury home in prestigious Paradise Waters and from taking his family on a round-the-world luxury cruise earlier this month.

Originally published as Halifax Investment Services’ Jeffrey Worboys and Matthew Barnett banned from financial services