Source: Radio New Zealand
David McEwen. Screenshot / YouTube
A former financial adviser has been convicted and fined $15,000 for breaching a banning order by the financial markets regulator, but investors remain out of pocket.
David McEwen was convicted of four charges of breaching a 2023 Financial Markets Authority stop order at the Auckland District Court.
He left the country in 2023, criminal charges were filed in March 2025, and was sentenced in absentia on Wednesday.
The convictions came after McEwen pleaded guilty in November 2025.
He has also been banned from being a director or promoter, or being involved in the management of a New Zealand company and providing financial advice services for seven years.
His application for a discharge without conviction was dismissed.
The FMA said he breached the stop order in three ways, including offering and issuing financial products relating to an entity McEwen incorporated in Singapore.
It said investors made $173,000 in payments in response to the offers.
What happened to that money remains unclear, as McEwen remains out of the country and out of the FMA’s jurisdiction, with investors losing thousands of dollars.
He also issued units in an investment vehicle called International Opportunities Partnership, which was created after the stop order was made.
The FMA said the units replaced – without investor consent – financial products that investors held relating to other entities associated with McEwen.
In return, he asked investors for an administration fee. The FMA said investors paid $17,000 to McEwen for the fee.
McEwen also offered and issued financial products, and restricted communications, related to a company called Agtech 3, which fell under the stop order.
“We were concerned about the substance of the representations he was making about the offer of the financial products to clients,” FMA head of enforcement Margot Gatland said.
“We focus our enforcement actions on preventing and addressing significant harm to consumers, markets and our financial system,” Gatland said.
“Mr McEwen breached our Stop Order in various ways almost immediately after it was made, after he had left New Zealand.”
McEwen was a business journalist prior to his investment career, and worked for well-known publications, including the Financial Times, National Business Review and Reuters.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand