Financial advisor found guilty of $3.6 million of loan fraud

An ASIC investigation found that Shashi Kanta Prasad of Chipping Norton, New South Wales, had created false loan documents for seven clients to achieve loans totalling more than $3.6 million.

She pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court to making seven false statements, producing 41 fake documents and using those documents to obtain a financial advantage for her employer in the form of commissions.

She was employed by Raj Prasad & Co Pty Ltd, trading as Premium Financial & Retirement Solutions.

She faces a maximum imprisonment of five years for one offence of obtaining a financial advantage by false or misleading statements, a maximum penalty of five years for one offence of intention to defraud by false or misleading statement, a 10 year maximum penalty for one offence of using false instruments, and  a maximum penalty of 10 years for one offence of using false documents.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the case, with sentencing at the Sydney District Court on 18 July 2014.

A previous July 2012 MFAA notice said: "The MFAA Tribunal has expelled Mrs Shashi Prasad from MFAA membership on the basis that she engaged in, or was vicariously liable for conduct of a misleading, deceptive, dishonest or fraudulent nature. The Tribunal had before it four allegations of such conduct."