Investment Cowboys

The disgraced financial adviser tells of how he extracted hundreds of thousands of dollars from dozens of investors all while he made fat — and illegal — commissions that allowed his family to live the high life. Then he turned on them, too.

Kris Ridgway sold unlisted shares not approved by his prestigious firm. It was just the beginning of the unravelling of an elaborate scheme that would leave dozens of investors — many of them retirees and small business owners — with nothing.

Adele Ferguson's investigation, published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in April 2023, drew on Ridgway's own confession, court documents, and interviews with victims who described how they had trusted him with their life savings.

The scheme was sophisticated. Ridgway used his position at a respected financial planning firm to gain the trust of clients, then directed them into investments that generated illegal commissions for him — investments that were not approved by his employer and that carried risks he never disclosed.

When the scheme began to unravel, Ridgway turned on his own clients — using information he had gathered about their financial situations to further exploit them. The betrayal was total.

The investigation raised questions about the adequacy of oversight within financial planning firms, and about the regulatory framework that was supposed to prevent advisers from exploiting the trust of their clients.