analysis
Disgraced financial advisor Kris Ridgway faces 15 years jail if found guilty. His wife Kerrilyn says his scams left her with a life sentence
Former senior financial adviser at wealth management firm Shaw and Partners, Kristofer Ridgway, was charged on November 18. (Supplied)
When self-confessed con man and disgraced financial adviser Kristofer Ridgway was charged with 26 counts of dishonest conduct related to financial services, it took his wife Kerrilyn's breath away.
"I was truly shocked when I saw the new charges," says Kerrilyn Ridgway, who is estranged from her husband.
"This was a man that I trusted for 36 years of my life. But everything was a lie and he was not the person I thought I knew."
Ridgway, a former senior financial adviser at the investment and wealth management firm Shaw and Partners, was charged on November 18 for allegedly putting his clients into two unlisted financial products — Steppes Alternative Asset Management and Trinus Impact Capital — between 2016 and 2020 and failing to disclose to his clients that he was taking secret commissions, which is illegal.
The charges carried a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment prior to March 2019. From March 2019, those penalties were increased to a maximum 15 years in jail.
Kristofer Ridgway making deals before he was uncovered as a conman (Supplied)
Ridgway was released on bail and the matter was adjourned for mention on February 3 next year.
These are not the only charges Ridgway will face.
During a compulsory examination of his activities by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), which showed he had been recommending unlisted shares to clients, Ridgway also allegedly provided false or misleading information to ASIC. He has been charged on two counts, which carry a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
Last year, Ridgway was banned for life as an adviser after ASIC determined he was not a fit and proper person to provide financial services and wasn't adequately trained or competent to provide financial services.
An investment scheme that never eventuated
Ridgway's life unravelled in early 2022 when he was sacked from Shaw and Partners shortly after one of his clients sent a letter of complaint about an investment he had signed up for that had failed to deliver on any of its promises — for years.
The client said he believed a sit-down meeting was "absolutely necessary to fully resolve this nightmare investment with your firm that has devastated my family mentally, financially and physically".
The client outlined a complex global investment scheme, supposedly backed by billions of dollars in assets, in an email to Shaw and Partners dated February 21, 2022. Ridgway had spruiked the scheme as being ready to list on an international exchange, enabling them to sell their shares easily and reap the gains.
He invested in the shares in 2015 and "in 2016 the company renamed themselves to Steppes Alternative Asset Management BVI registered, and the start of a long and convoluted process of various company structure changes, separation of private equity and numerous attempts to list in various countries … by 2018 we were asked to vote on a share exchange which would result in a listing in Germany."
In reality, the scheme did not list in Germany, nor anywhere else.
Shaw and Partners hadn't heard of the investment Ridgway was promoting. The firm launched an investigation that revealed Ridgway had secretly put millions of dollars of clients' money into three investment products that weren't on Shaw's approved products list, in breach of its rules.
Shaw notified ASIC and emailed all its clients to alert them of the breach and to find out whether any other clients had been put into these unauthorised products.
Kristofer Ridgway at Shaw and Partners office when he heard he was to be sacked from the firm. (Supplied)
The investigation confirmed that Ridgway had also been taking secret commissions of 17 per cent, well above the typical rate of 1 per cent.
In April 2023, Ridgway confessed to me on national television that he now believed the investments were "100 per cent a scam" and that he had taken the secret commissions.
"I figured, 'Well bugger it, I'm going to do something for myself', and it was a wrong decision to make," Ridgway said in the on-camera interview.
He also confessed to forging his wife's signature hundreds of times on loan documents and share transfers and added her to company boards without her knowledge or consent.
"I don't want to think of myself as a crook but some of my actions in recent times have been terribly unlawful. I'm ashamed and sorry," he told 60 Minutes.
'A terrible journey'
Ridgway's wife, their three children and clients, have had a torrid time.
"This has been a terrible journey for myself and my children," Kerrilyn told the ABC after seeing the ASIC release that Ridgway had been charged last week.
"We have now moved to another city to try and start again but this has been incredibly difficult," she said.
"We were left with nothing. In the early days, we relied on help from friends and the kindness and generosity of strangers. People made us food and brought groceries to our door."
Kerrilyn, estranged wife of Kris Ridgway, says she was left with nothing. (Supplied)
Kerrilyn was referring to Ridgway's abrupt departure from Shaw and Partners without explanation after he was sacked in the first quarter of 2022. He didn't tell his wife that he had been sacked, instead he left the home, got in his black Porsche, with the number plate "Ridgy's", and didn't contact them for months.
His explanation afterwards was that he was embarrassed.
Kris Ridgway's car with the number plate "RIDGYS". (Supplied)
Kerrilyn said at the time she had no idea he was living a double life. Before the sacking, the couple had got on well and had lived a good life that included private school fees and expensive suits. They travelled overseas on family holidays. Pictures of these trips showed them riding camels, skiing and eating at top restaurants.
When Ridgway left, his wife was financially devastated. She had a credit card bill in her name that she struggled to pay.
"I had not worked in 22 years, so while I tried to find employment we lived off handouts and we sold our possessions to buy food and pay bills," she said.
"The first job I could find was in an industrial kitchen for minimum wage. Two of my children have suffered major health crises and we are still very much taking it day by day. I don't think any of us will truly recover."
Darren Walker was one of Ridgway's clients. He blew hundreds of thousands of dollars on the products Ridgway recommended. The financial stress ended his marriage. He told the ABC he couldn't believe it took so long for charges to be laid.
Earl Evans, the co-CEO of Shaw and Partners, said Ridgway caused devastation to many people on many levels.
"There's the damage he caused his family, then the clients, who lived for years with the falsehood that their investments were going up, then suffered the grief of knowing it was untrue, the damage to Shaw and Partners and even the insurance company that had to compensate the clients," Evans said.
He said he hadn't seen anything like it in his 35-year history.
Loading'I lost my past and my future'
Ridgway was contacted for comment but did not respond.
ASIC was sent a series of questions including whether it was pursuing the forged signatures. In a statement, it said: "Matters related to Mr Ridgway remain ongoing."
For Kerrilyn, the charges aren't the end of this chapter.
She has been trying to get a divorce but Ridgway is yet to sign the papers.
"The grief and shame continues," she said. "The children have lost a father and I have lost the only man I ever loved. I never imagined being alone or without Kris by my side.
"This was a man I trusted for 36 years of my life. But everything was a lie and he was not the person I thought I knew. Too much has come out now that I can no longer trust anything that I once thought to be true. I have lost both my past and my future."