ASIC Bans Former Adviser Aristotle Papapavlou

ASIC has permanently banned Aristotle Papapavlou from involvement in a financial services business and engaging in credit activities.

ASIC found that Mr Papapavlou engaged in dishonest, misleading and unprofessional conduct, and demonstrated a lack of competence and judgement while operating as a financial adviser. ASIC also found that Mr Papapavlou is not a fit and proper person, is not adequately trained or competent, and is likely to contravene financial services and credit laws in the future.

In making the banning order, ASIC had regard to Mr Papapavlou's involvement in a high volume advice process at Venture Egg, that included unlicensed third party referrers completing the fact finds, and resulted in clients being advised to roll over their superannuation into Shield and First Guardian.

ASIC also found that Mr Papapavlou was complicit in an advice process where he knew that financial advisers were dealing with clients on behalf of other Venture Egg financial advisers and that Statements of Advice (SOA) were being put in his name, or the name of other financial advisers, and were being presented to clients that he or the other financial advisers had not met.

ASIC also found that Mr Papapavlou knew unlicensed third-party referrers were presenting Statement of Advice documents to clients and that he preferred his own interests in receiving remuneration from recommending Shield and First Guardian over the interests of providing independent advice to clients that was in their best interest and appropriate.

ASIC also found that Mr Papapavlou engaged in dishonest, deceptive and unprofessional conduct in relation to the credit industry by completing an assignment for and falsifying a reference for another person.

In permanently banning Mr Papapavlou, ASIC prohibits Mr Papapavlou from:

• engaging in any credit activities;
• controlling, whether alone or with one or more other entities, another person who engages in credit activities;
• performing any function involved in the engaging in of credit activities, including as an officer;
• providing any financial services;
• performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business, including as an officer of an entity carrying on that business; and
• controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business

The banning orders took effect from 1 April 2026.

Mr Papapavlou has the right to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decisions.

Background

Mr Papapavlou was first authorised in September 2012 and was an authorised representative of Interprac Financial Planning Pty Ltd under the corporate authorised representative of Ferras Merhi Pty Ltd & United Financial Advice Pty Ltd (Venture Egg) from 21 October 2021 to 31 July 2023. He was also an authorised representative of Hejaz Financial Advisers Pty Ltd from 5 September 2023 until 31 January 2026.

Mr Papapavlou was a credit representative of BLSSA Pty Ltd under the corporate credit representative of Papacheech Pty Ltd from 15 February 2017. He was also authorised directly by BLSAA Pty Ltd from 28 June 2016 until 15 February 2017.

Around 11,800 people invested their money, including their superannuation retirement savings, into Shield and First Guardian. In many cases, this happened after people were contacted by lead generators and referred to financial advisers. These advisers often told investors to roll over their existing superannuation balances into a choice superannuation fund available on a platform or to set up a self-managed super fund (SMSF) to facilitate investment into Shield and First Guardian products.

ASIC's MoneySmart website has useful information for consumers whose advisers have been banned (see: Problems with a financial adviser).

The banning has been recorded on ASIC's publicly available Financial Advisers Register and the Banned and Disqualified register.

Stay Updated: ASIC will post important updates about the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund on its dedicated webpages: Shield Master Fund, First Guardian Master Fund.

More information

• Super switching advice - complying with your obligations (INFO 182) provides general information and compliance tips for financial advisers who provide super switching advice. This information sheet also provides specific examples of inadequate conduct in some of those areas where we frequently encounter compliance issues.
• ASIC has issued a consumer alert warning amid increasing concerns that people are being enticed to invest their retirement savings into complex and risky schemes: 25-120MR Consumer alert - ASIC warns about pushy sales tactics urging people to make quick superannuation switches. Be super smart, visit ASIC's Moneysmart campaign page.
• ASIC has also commenced a new review of licensees that use lead generation services (see: 26-029MR ASIC commences new review of advice licensees that use lead generation services).