The FSA has fined the director of a West Midlands financial adviser firm £75,000 for lying repeatedly to the regulator, and banned him from the industry.
Simon Kuun ran MFP Group Plc, a financial planning firm in Bromsgrove, but an FSA investigation in 2008 found that he lacked the honesty and integrity expected of an approved person and he was fined £50,000.
The fine has now been increased to £75,000 as Kuun lied to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal when giving evidence.
Kuun first came to the FSA’s attention during a supervisory visit to MFP in 2005. He told the FSA that his business had stopped using unapproved and unqualified staff to visit customers.
This was found to be untrue, and the FSA discovered that Kuun had simply transferred their contracts to a company called Membership Services Limited, which was registered in the West Indies.
Kuun denied any involvement with the firm, maintaining that MSL was owned and run in Switzerland by an acquaintance called John Graham.
However, an investigation found that Kuun himself was the subscriber who paid for MSL’s mailbox address in Switzerland, and that any post addressed to MSL was forwarded back to MFP’s office in Bromsgrove.
