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Social media ‘finfluencer’ Tyson Scholz, widely known as the ‘ASX Wolf’, has been declared bankrupt after failing to pay almost $500,000 in costs incurred last year following court action instigated by the corporate watchdog.
Scholz was ordered to pay the costs by the Federal Court of Australia after it found that he offered financial advice to investors without a financial services licence in proceedings brought by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission in December 2021.
ASIC has applied to the Australian Financial Security Authority to have trustees appointed over Scholz’s assets in an attempt to retrieve its costs.
The court action is the latest in a string of proceedings against Scholz by ASIC, which last year banned him from operating a financial services business or hosting online paid trading advice groups after a permanent injunction was handed down by the Federal Court.
ASIC’s investigation of Scholz’s activities were triggered by the ‘ASX Wolf’ promoting training courses and seminars on trading in ASX-listed securities.
The training program was promoted via Scholz’s Twitter (now X) and Instagram handle ‘@ASXWOLF_TS’.
The court ruled in December 2022 that Scholz had contravened the Corporations Act by carrying on a financial services business between March 2020 and November 2021 without an Australian financial services licence.
At the time, Justice Downes ordered that Scholz pay the costs of the proceedings brought by ASIC. In June last year, these costs were officially assessed to total $456,296.
After failing to pay the costs, ASIC serve a bankruptcy notice on Scholz on 25 July last year, followed up by a creditor’s petition in the Federal Court on 18 October.
After the petition was heard on 22 February this year, the Federal Court made sequestration orders against Scholz, effectively declaring him bankrupt.
Scholz’s promotion of ASX trading on social media platforms and the successful prosecution last year of Gabriel Govinda, known by his online followers as Fibonarchery, on market manipulation charges is part of a crackdown by ASIC on so-called ‘finluencers’.
Govinda, who was involved a ‘pump and dump’ strategy that spruiked 'penny' stocks on the popular HotCopper forum, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.
He was also fined $42,840 after pleading guilty to 23 charges of manipulating the shares, as well as 19 counts of illegal dissemination of information relating to the market manipulation.
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