Yesterday afternoon, the corporate regulator announced it seeks from the court the appointment of Jason Tracy of Deloitte as liquidator of West Australia-based firm, Superfunded.
ASIC has already obtained a range of interim injunctions in the Perth Federal Court against Superfunded and its sole director, Max David Goldenberg and its sole shareholder Mark Travis Goldenberg.
ASIC is alleging that Superfunded, in encouraging customers to set up SMSFs, may have breached the Corporations Act and the SIS Act in relation to promoters of schemes that encourage illegal early release of super.
Further, ASIC alleges that in encouraging SMSF setups to its customers, Superfunded is not ensuring that the investment loans are being serviced and has what appears to be inadequate books, records and financial accounts.
ASIC’s application has been listed for hearing in the Federal Court of Australia at Perth in early April.
Advice relating to SMSF establishment has been a compliance focus area of both ASIC and the ATO in recent years.
ASIC recently conducted a major shadow shopping investigation, on the hunt for unlicensed or inappropriate SMSF advice in relation to SMSF establishment.
This involved, among other tactics, selecting several hundred funds for random investigation that were set up in September 2016, and contacting tax agents associated with the funds. You can read more about this here, via our sister publication SMSF Adviser.
At the trustee level, the ATO is actively contacting individuals who have applied to establish an SMSF, to check prospective SMSF trustees are aware of their obligations.
Further, the ATO is also looking at tax agents’ and accountants records that are tied to these prospective SMSF members. You can read more about this here.
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