Mayfair 101 director James Mawhinney has filed formal complaints against the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in response to a media release the corporate regulator issued last week alleging he was in contempt of court.
The complaints, filed on the grounds Mawhinney’s legal team had not been properly served with proceedings, are seeking a formal apology and disciplinary action against the ASIC lawyers and have been filed with the Legal Services Commission, Office of the Legal Services Commissioner and Legal Services Board.
The regulator’s media release regarding this action was published last Tuesday, with Mawhinney claiming he had not been properly informed of the misconduct allegations before seeing reports in the media about them, thus indicating his legal team had not been properly served prior to the said release being issued.
More specifically it has been alleged his legal team was not given access to over 800 pages of ASIC court filings until a full day after the release. Further, it has been claimed when his lawyers received the court filings, documents contained missing annexures, a situation that was not rectified until another day later.
Legal firm Roberts Gray Lawyers is representing Mawhinney in the proceedings and senior partner Rhys Roberts noted: “It is concerning that a regulator considers it needs to act in this way toward our client when the strength of their case alone ought to be sufficient to achieve their regulatory objectives.”
At the time ASIC made the contempt application, Mawhinney denied the allegations and vowed to vigorously defend the proceedings.
He is also continuing to refute ASIC claims Mayfair 101 investments were not real and were incapable of generating a return for investors.
In April, the Federal Court imposed a 20-year ban on Mawhinney from promoting a number of financial products and from raising any monies through them.
