Mr Ross Jones, APRA’s Deputy Chairman, said that APRA’s primary objective in this case was to prevent the individuals from acting as a trustee of a regulated superannuation entity at any time in the future.

Three of the directors – Terrance Robert James, Jeffrey John James and Henry Anthony Greenrod - have been disqualified from acting as a trustee, investment manager or custodian of an APRA-regulated superannuation entity or as a responsible officer of a trustee, investment manager or custodian of an APRA-regulated superannuation entity, on the grounds that they are not fit and proper persons for the purposes of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (the SIS Act).

A fourth director, John Kenneth Sheilds, was automatically disqualified in December 2003 as a result of a criminal conviction in Queensland’s Southport District Court, after pleading guilty to charges of breaching directors’ duties, brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The fifth director, Gerald Leonard Parker, provided APRA with an enforceable undertaking under the SIS Act that prevents him holding responsible roles in relation to APRA-regulated superannuation funds.

An independent manager, the Trust Company of Australia group, was appointed trustee of the Fund in 1999.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the prudential regulator of the financial services industry.It oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry.APRA is funded largely by the industries that it supervises.It was established on 1 July 1998.APRA currently supervises institutions holding approximately $1.7 trillion in assets for 20 million Australian depositors, policyholders and superannuation fund members.