Charges mount against Nelson adviser

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Nelson financial adviser Tony Mount is facing 527 charges of fraud totaling $1.4 million in a case Nelson police say is one of the largest and most complicated they have ever handled.

Wednesday, October 5th 2011, 5:05AM 4 Comments

by Benn Bathgate

Mount - one of the finalists in the 1999 Financial Planner of the Year Awards - was already facing 137 charges of fraud before appearing yesterday before Nelson District Court on 390 new fraud charges.

Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne McCoy of Nelson police said the case was complicated by the fact the Serious Fraud Office was unable to help.

"We had to get accountants because the SFO couldn't help us, they didn't have enough staff, they were too busy doing multi-million dollar frauds," he said.

Mount was originally charged with one count of fraud back in September 2010 which prompted other clients to come forward to police.

In October 2010 further charges were laid and police said at that time that more charges were likely.

The new offences include theft and theft by a person in a special relationship and involve the under-reporting of the sale price of shares and the over-reporting of share purchase prices.

In a 1999 interview with Good Returns Mount said his job was made easier by having a more knowledgeable client base who accepted "they have a part to play and a responsibility for the investment decisions that are made."

The case against Mount was originally launched after a client complaint.

Benn Bathgate is a business reporter for ASSET and Good Returns, email story ideas to benn@goodreturns.co.nz

Tags: financial advisers Tony Mount

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