Spam Latitude! Breaking the law 2.7m times and getting away with it
Latitude Financial broke the law 2.7 million times and was fined $1.50 per violation, totaling a whopping $3.98 million. What is fraud?
The fraud isn’t about how financial company executives got away with it while shareholders foot the bill; Latitude has been pinged for the second time in four years for spamming and ignoring regulations. The fine for similar violations in 2022 was $1.5 million. (At the time, Latitude was run by Aussie Post’s former boss, Ahmed Fahour, and was overshadowed by spam, hacking of customer records and how it was handled.)
Shareholders (ASX:LFS) don’t seem too worried, but CEO Bob Belan took home $3.6 million last year while the share price fell just 1% upon the announcement of the penalty imposed by ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority); This was a steady 18% increase over the previous spam year.
The $3.98 million fine is dwarfed by the $700 million fine the Commonwealth Bank received in 2018 for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws 53,750 times. At least it wasn’t just $1.50 but $13,000 per violation.
But rest assured, Latitude has learned its lesson, announcing to the ASX that it will “work with an independent expert to verify that its hardened spam processes are working compliantly”.
How about not entering spam at all?
Financial giant criticized once again for sending unstoppable spam
Kim Wingerei is a businessman turned author and commentator. He is passionate about freedom of expression, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Originally from Norway, Kim has lived in Australia for 30 years. Author of ‘Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change’.
