The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has suspended the licence of LM Investment Management, in which New Zealanders invested tens of millions of dollars.
Gold Coast-based LM headed by mortgage broker Peter Drake, a New Zealander, is responsible for a number of managed investment schemes and is in voluntary administration.
The commission says the suspension will last two years and it will continue to liaise with the voluntary administrators and monitor the current status of the funds LM operates.
LM Investment Management and its directors are facing the prospect of a number of lawsuits on behalf of investors.
Australian and New Zealand retail investors, many of them elderly retirees or near retirees, have had their investments in LM's First Mortgage Income Fund written down and their remaining monies frozen in the funds for more than four years.
