“He indicated to me that his point was that Australia needed to remain vigilant to ensure Australia does not become a paradise for white collar criminals.”

ASIC Chairman  Greg Medcraft said:

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman, Greg Medcraft, told journalists at a Walkley Foundation function that “Australia is a paradise for white collar crime.”

“Often [in] Australia it’s actually worthwhile breaking the law to do the trade. You can’t have that.”

penalties for corporate crimes are too weak compared to other countries such as the United States.

“You’ve got to lift the fear to suppress greed in the white collar area.”

He said that in the US corporate tax cheats go to jail, but that does not happen in Australia.

Despite financial planning scandals at the Commonwealth Bank and Macquarie Group, Mr Medcraft said the corporate regulator had just 25 officers to regulate 30,000 financial planners.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said

ASIC needed to competently enforce the current laws and the Government would toughen penalties for white collar criminals if there was persuasive evidence of a problem.

“I asked Greg Medcraft whether he believed Australia was a paradise for white collar criminals and his direct response to me was a clear and unambiguous ‘no’,”

“He indicated to me that his point was that Australia needed to remain vigilant to ensure Australia does not become a paradise for white collar criminals.”