The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court and obtained interim injunctions against a Perth-based business and its sole director in relation to an SMSF property scheme.
Superfunded encouraged people to set-up SMSFs to invest in the Superfunded Loan Investment Trust, which then lent money to homebuyers for their house deposits.
Neither Superfunded, its sole director, Max David Goldenberg of Currambine, nor its sole shareholder, Mark Travis Goldenberg of Claremont, held an Australian financial services licence.
ASIC alleged Superfunded and the Goldenbergs therefore were unlawfully operating a financial services business.
On 9 November, the Federal Court restrained Superfunded and the Goldenbergs from providing financial services and from having access to client or investor assets, and prohibited advertising, promoting or marketing financial services or products in relation to the investors and potential investors of the Superfunded Loan Investment Trust.
The court also made orders for the preservation of assets and financial disclosure.
The interim orders will remain in force until further orders.
The matter has otherwise been adjourned to a date to be fixed with liberty to any party to apply to the court on 24 hours’ notice.
Mark Goldenberg is the trustee of the Superfunded Loan Investment Trust and was permanently banned from providing financial services in May 2009.
He was also sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in 2011 following an ASIC prosecution for misusing $1.5 million of investor funds for his own benefit.
