In what represents a ground-breaking application of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act (SIS Act), the Commonwealth has been repaid more than $240,000 provided in financial assistance to members of a Western Australian superannuation fund affected by fraud.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announced this week that the acting trustee of the Perth-based Australian Independent Superannuation Fund had repaid a $240,347 grant received from the Commonwealth in June 2002 under the terms of the SIS Act.
According to APRA’s deputy chairman, Ross Jones, this represents the first time an amount has been repaid to the Commonwealth under the financial assistance.
Jones pointed out that the SIS Act contains financial compensation provisions under which superannuation funds can be compensated by the Commonwealth for money lost through fraud or theft. Any civil recoveries obtained by the acting trustee are then normally required to be returned to the Commonwealth as repayment of the Government’s Assistance.
APRA said that as a result of the grant and the acting trustee’s actions, fund members had their account balances restored to approximately the levels they had been advised of before the fraud.
It said member benefits had been rolled over to other funds, and the fund had now been wound up.
