Daniel Farook Ali, a former director of DanFX Trade Pty Ltd, was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court to seven years and three months in prison for fraud following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
On May 23, 2024, Mr. Ali pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud totaling $771,303 involving the misuse of funds invested for business and investment purposes.
Mr Ali was a director of DanFX Trade Pty Ltd, which operated an unlicensed Forex trading business. Between May 2016 and November 2017, Mr Ali fraudulently used funds provided by investors to buy a BMW car for a personal partner and real estate for himself and his wife, to pay personal expenses and pay back other investors.
The Court sentenced Mr Ali to seven years and three months in prison, with the possibility of parole from 5 July 2024. The Court took into account the time Mr Ali had already served from November 2021 when imposing the sentence .
In sentencing Mr Ali, Judge Heaton KC said that Mr Ali’s offending involved a level of sophistication, over a period of time, of exploiting the trust of his victims, and that his dishonesty contributed to particularly devastating financial positions for them the victims.
Mr Ali departed Australia on 8 May 2018, amid ongoing civil proceedings brought against him by ASIC and an ongoing ASIC investigation into his conduct. Following an application by ASIC in 2019, a Queensland judge issued a warrant for Mr Ali’s arrest and in November 2021 he was arrested in Poland. In August 2022, Mr Ali was extradited to Australia to face the charges and has since been remanded in custody.