Six men who unlawfully used their superannuation to prop up failed business interests have been banned from ever running another super fund.
The former directors of Firezone Protection Services (now in liquidation) tried to inject finance into their business using money from their company’s super fund.
They failed to act honestly or in the best interests of the fund’s beneficiaries and breached the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said.
The men are: Thomas John Brown, George Burnside Long, Paul James Provan, Allan Kenneth Silsby, Malcolm John Spinks and Emmanuel Henry Ungaro.
The Firezone Protection Services super fund had $1 million in assets, most of which was a single property that was sold off to meet the business’s trading liabilities.
It had 15 members, the majority of whom were the current directors and their wives and the former directors of Firezone Protection Services.
The business went into liquidation in April 2006 after running into financial problems.
By that stage the super fund had lost $423,000 in an unpaid loan and a mortgage.
During 2005, Firezone obtained a loan from the fund for $64,000, which was incorrectly reported as the payment of member benefits.
“The directors had failed to exercise…the same degree of care, skill and diligence as an ordinary prudent person would exercise in dealing with property of another for whom the person felt morally bound to provide,” APRA said.
Last July APRA removed the trustees and appointed an acting trustee, Sims Partners, to wind the fund up.
