Trio/Astarra victims angry at jail release
Victims of the collapse of Trio/Astarra, represented by the Victims of Financial Fraud (VOFF) organisation, have lamented the release of the only person jailed over the multi-million failure — Shawn Richard.
In a statement issued late yesterday, VOFF referenced Richard's release from Cooma jail and said he had served "a pathetic sentence of only two years and six months" with most of the time being spent in minimum security.
The statement cited the sentencing judge's comments that Richard had "for nearly four years between November 2005 and September 2009, whilst a director of Astarra Asset Management Pty Limited, and other companies in the Trio Capital Group, and whilst engaged in the financial services industry...dishonestly operated the business in a way which was designed to, and had the effect of, diverting the staggeringly large sum of $26.6 million which was invested in superannuation funds in Australia, into overseas funds which were located in tax havens in the Caribbean. These overseas funds were of questionable value and were wholly inappropriate superannuation investments."
A spokesman for the VOFF, Paul Matters, said the sentence ultimately served by Richard had been risible and that a dole cheat would have received a longer term.
"A dole cheat in this country gets a heavier sentence than the perpetrator of the worst superannuation fraud in Australia's history," he said. "This sentence provides no deterrent for any further transnational financial crimes against the superannuation system."
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