5 days ago
ACBF funeral fund fined $3.5m for misrepresenting itself as an Aboriginal business
A funeral fund that cost Aboriginal clients thousands of dollars in premiums when it collapsed has been hit with a $3.5 million fine, but will not have to pay it due to being in liquidation.
The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), run by Youpla Group Pty Ltd, marketed itself as an Indigenous business and sold funeral premiums to customers across the country for 30 years.
However, when it went into liquidation in 2022, thousands of Aboriginal Australians lost their invested money, with no guarantee it would be returned.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) took action against ACBF and Youpla, and a Federal Court penalty of $3.5 million was handed to the company on Thursday.
The fine follows on from a $1.2 million penalty decision in 2023.
In handing down Thursday's judgement, Justice Anthony Goodman said ACBF falsely insinuated it was an Aboriginal-owned company.
"The representation was made to a portion of the population likely to be particularly susceptible to acting upon it."
ACBF used colours associated with the Aboriginal community in logos, brochures, flyers, visual presentations and media advertisements.
Justice Goodman said the $3.5 million penalty should act as a deterrent to other companies engaging in misleading or fraudulent behaviour.
However, as ACBF and Youpla have collapsed, the company will not have to pay the fine.
The federal government announced last year it would make $97 million available to impacted customers who held an active policy on or after August 1, 2015.
This was expected to help more than 13,000 people across the country, but concerns were raised for those who were not eligible to access the funding.
At the time, Broome financial counsellor Veronica Johnson said she estimated thousands of people would not benefit from the funding, after being "robbed and misled".
