Mayfair 101 Group director James Mawhinney has been barred from promoting or raising funds in connection with financial products for a further 15 years, after the Federal Court imposed final restraint orders and found he had a ‘cavalier attitude to compliance’. The fresh orders extend the total period of injunctions to 20 years, with Mawhinney having been subject to interim restraints since 13 August 2020.
Finding that Mr Mawhinney had a ‘willingness to adopt a reckless approach to the conduct of a financial services business’, Justice Button ordered he be restrained from receiving or soliciting funds and from advertising, promoting or marketing any financial product.
An ASIC spokesperson said, ‘This is the culmination of a matter that has taken many years and considerable resources. ASIC first acted in this matter over five years ago to protect the public. The Court has today found that there is an unacceptable risk that Mr Mawhinney would re-enter the fray and operate in the financial services sector in a financially reckless manner, such that he should be restrained from promoting or raising funds through financial products for a further 15 years. We welcome this decision.’
In her reasons, Justice Button said, ‘the operations established and run by Mr Mawhinney exposed investors to an obvious and substantial risk of loss, which risk materialised, resulting in investors suffering heavy losses’. Justice Button found that Mr Mawhinney gave ‘no proper consideration of how obligations to investors would be met,’ with his only plan being ‘to raise more and more money from investors’. She added, ‘The simple fact is that, in circumstances where the Mayfair Group was in serious financial trouble, Mr Mawhinney made the decision to stop paying investors sums due to them and was prepared to try to get the Mayfair Group out of the hole it was in by raising more money from unsuspecting investors.’
In assessing the need for ongoing restraints, Justice Button found ‘there is an unacceptable risk that, unless restrained’ Mr Mawhinney will conduct a financial services business that ‘adopts a financially reckless approach that exposes the investing public to significant risk of loss’, fails to disclose material risks to potential investors and issues misleading marketing material.
The court declined ASIC’s bid for an order restraining Mr Mawhinney from removing or transferring from Australia any assets acquired directly or indirectly with funds received in connection with financial products.
The injunctions follow the court’s July finding that Mr Mawhinney was associated with or involved in breaches of the law by Mayfair 101 Group companies. At that time, Justice Button noted that ‘Mr Mawhinney’s relentless heaping of blame on others, coupled with his apparently complete lack of introspection, does not stand to his credit when consideration turns to final relief.’
Costs will be determined later following written submissions.
The Mayfair 101 Group offered investments in multiple financial products including M Core Fixed Income Notes, M+ Fixed Income Notes, the IPO Wealth Fund, Australian Property Bonds and IPO Capital. The companies that offered the Core Notes and the IPO Wealth Fund are in liquidation, and redemptions in the remaining products have been suspended since March 2020.
In April 2021 the Federal Court imposed a 20‑year restraint on Mr Mawhinney from promoting and raising funds through financial products, a decision overturned on appeal in September 2022, with the matter remitted for a fresh hearing. The remitted hearing ran between October 2024 and February 2025, and on 9 July 2025 the court found Mr Mawhinney was involved in or associated with multiple contraventions by Mayfair 101 Group companies. Separately, on 22 December 2021, four Mayfair 101 companies were ordered to pay a combined $30 million penalty for misleading or deceptive advertising.
