The Wolf of Cavill Avenue: Gold Coast’s ‘finfluencer’ hit by Federal Court rulings
The Federal Court has made rulings that Gold Coast “finfluencer” Tyson Robert Scholz, known as ASX Wolf, contravened the Corporations Act by providing financial product advice without a licence.
Among Scholz’s activities was promoting courses and seminars on Twitter and Instagram. The courses were about ASX-listed securities in which he made recommendations about share purchases, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which brought the case against him.
Scholz, 37, also made share purchase recommendations on private online forums.
In her judgement, Justice Kylie Downes said: “A likely consequence of his conduct was that it would influence viewers of his stories to acquire shares and his shareholding would increase in value when that occurred.
“He knew this, admitting … in June 2020 that he used his Instragram to engage in a clever way of pumping (that is increasing the price of shares).”
Justice Downes said Scholz told others “we should get positions and let the word out’, also saying “only thing is I can’t charge them and “that’s why I can get away with it’.
The matter will move to case management in the new year to determine remaining issues including restraining orders against Scholz.
In handing down judgment, her Honour Justice Downes said, ‘…the financial product advice given by Mr Scholz formed an integral part of this business. The advice which was given by him was not a one off but formed part of the continuous and systemic business operations by which Mr Scholz derived profit.
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‘…through his lifestyle posts and ‘life story’ posts on the Instagram account, Mr Scholz had established a reputation as a successful share trader who had the ability to identify worthwhile “companies in which an investment should be made.
“It did not matter that the stories did not contain any overt recommendation to acquire the shares: it was enough that Mr Scholz referred to a company or its share in the stories, which was usually done in a way which indicated that he liked that company.”
ASIC said Scholz’s business to paying subscribers included: subscription/membership fees of $500, $1,000 or $1,500; offers of various levels of share trading training, referred to as ‘Stage 1’, and ‘Stage 3’ packages, which were marketed as introductory or advanced seminars; offers of individual one-off share trading suggestions, or tips for a fee, and the Stage 2 package providing one year’s access to a private chat site, named ‘Black Wolf Pit’, using the online communications platform Discord.
