From 1 July to 31 December 2024, ASIC disqualified four auditors, placed additional conditions on two, and cancelled the registration of 11 others. These sanctions were related to various breaches, including failure to uphold professional obligations like conforming to auditing standards, maintaining auditor independence, fulfilling continuous professional development, and possessing appropriate professional indemnity insurance, along with non-compliance with annual statements and lacking necessary practical experience.
Specifically, Joseph Badawy, Gareth Evans, Vjekoslav Fak, and Ryan McGrath were disqualified. Meanwhile, Brent Connor and Sam Danieli received additional conditions on their registrations, whereas registrations for Evan Bekiaris, David Bromet, Judy Chu, Denis Ford, Bruce Mackley, Michael Mazza, Geoffrey Page, Anthony Richards, Michel Schoers, Wayne Tilley, and Grace Wong were revoked.
The crackdown was initiated following referrals from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), which had identified the 11 auditors with cancelled registrations as lacking sufficient practical experience. Notably, SMSF auditors oversee assets valued at $1 trillion across more than 638,000 SMSFs, acting as essential guardians of the sector's integrity and trust.
ASIC emphasized that it is authorized to revoke the registration of auditors who refrain from significant audit work for five consecutive years. This recent development follows a similar action in October of the previous year, where ASIC suspended three SMSF auditors for a year each due to a breach of independence by auditing thousands of clients from a single referral source.
