ASIC/Trio dealings should be public

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) dealings with Trio Capital, the Astarra Strategic Fund (ASF), and its entities have remained a secret seven years after discovering the funds were a fraudulent scheme, according to the Victims of Financial Fraud (VOFF) group.

The group issued a statement, which noted that ASIC’s interactions with Trio were specified in a document called Appendix 4 in ASIC’s submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) Inquiry into the Collapse of Trio Capital Limited in 2011. The corporate regulator had said this document was provided on a confidential basis because disclosure of the information could influence ASIC’s ongoing investigations on Trio.

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ASIC had said Appendix 4 would be made public once ASIC’s investigations into the Trio fraud were concluded.

“About two years have passed since ASIC terminated its investigation of the Trio mastermind but Appendix 4 remains inaccessible,” VOFF said, adding ASIC’s submission to the PJC Inquiry had only 143 words on Trio.

“For the public to understand the regulators’ interactions with Trio, access to Appendix 4 is critical,” it said.

“The parliamentary inquiry noted in its PJC Report (May 2012) that the corporate regulators and the federal police have not done enough to track down and prosecute the people behind the Trio fraud. The report also made recommendations of further investigations, but this never happened.”

The group said its requests to access Appendix 4 through Freedom of Investigation requests over the last two years were refused. It said the victims had now requested Appendix 4 directly from Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, and ASIC chairman, Greg Medcraft, with requests lodged on 2 December, 2016.

“VOFF perceive the refusal to publicly release Appendix 4 is demonstration of a cover-up. Every Australian should be alarmed that investment savings can disappear without explanation, without ASIC pursuing the international mastermind and without evidence of a proper investigation,” the group said.