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Further orders have been made to preserve assets linked to an NSW accountant and former solicitor following ASIC’s successful application for provisional liquidators.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) acted quickly to preserve and protect assets held through Deckchair Trust, which is associated with NSW accountant and former solicitor, Christopher Malcolm Edwards.
Edwards was accused of providing financial services to a sample of clients over four years, “with sufficient system, repetition and continuity” despite not holding an Australian Financial Services License or authorisation from an AFS licensee.
Last September, he received a 10-year ban from providing financial services and controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business, either alone or with others.
ASIC’s investigation remains ongoing.
The Council of the Law Society of NSW refused to renew his practising certificate earlier this year, having determined he was “not a fit and proper person” to hold one.
A week later, ASIC applied to the NSW Supreme Court to wind up 12 of his companies over management concerns.
Justice Scott Nixon agreed to the appointment of provisional liquidators from FTI Consulting, having found the affairs of the 12 companies “have been carried on casually and without due regard to legal requirements, and that there are significant deficiencies in the companies’ financial records”.
His orders allowed for the provisional liquidators to be appointed as interim receivers and managers of assets held by Great Northern Morayfield, as trustee for Deckchair Trust, pending final determination of ASIC’s proceedings.
Shortly afterwards, ASIC learned Edwards purportedly changed the trustee for the Deckchair Trust from Great Northern Morayfield to himself on 23 July 2026.
It urgently applied to the Supreme Court to preserve its assets.
On Wednesday, 9 September, Justice Nixon appointed the provisional liquidators to Deckchair Trust and ordered that Edwards provide a handover of the trusts’ books and records.
Edwards was also joined as a party to the proceedings.
ASIC explained that his joinder was “presently limited to obtaining orders with respect to the Deckchair Trust”.
