Director faces $250k in penalties, 15-year disqualification for swindling First Nations customers

Former directors of a First Nations funeral insurance provider were found to have breached their directors’ duties by benefiting from insurance arrangements that caused unaffordable premium increases for First Nations customers.

Former chief executive Bryn Jones and former director Ronald Pattenden of Youpla Group companies were found by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to have breached their duties as directors.

Pattenden is liable to pay $250,000 in penalties and be disqualified from managing corporations for 15 years after an agreement was reached with ASIC.

Youpla, formally called the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), operated several funds providing funeral insurance, mostly marketed to Indigenous Australians.

In 2023, ASIC commenced proceedings against Jones and Pattenden and three other directors, Jonathan Law, Michael Wilson and Geoffrey Clayton.

ASIC alleged that between September 2017 and November 2018 the directors and officers “maintained insurance arrangements with Crown Insurance Services Limited (Crown), a Vanuatu-based company which was beneficially owned and controlled by Mr Pattenden and Mr Law”, finding that these arrangements were not in the interest of the ACBF entities and stood to benefit Pattenden and Law.

The commission found that the arrangements with Crown caused unaffordable premium increases starting in September 2027, leaving First Nations people to continue to make payments to ACBF being unaware of the risks to the viability of the funds and their ability to meet their commitments to members.

ACBF entities went into liquidation in March 2022.

With funerals holding great cultural significance for First Nations people, ASIC noted that the collapse of the entities led to significant hardship and trauma for the insured.

This led the government to create the Youpla Support Program in 2024, which accepted its final applications on 30 June 2026, and payments to cease on 1 December 2026.

ASIC chair Sarah Court noted that tackling misconduct with First Nations people as victims is an enforcement priority for the commission.

“ASIC has taken decisive action to ensure those responsible for serious governance failures and director misconduct that harmed First Nations people are held to account,” Court said.

“These breaches went to the heart of trust and responsibility in the First Nations community.”

“ASIC is committed to protecting vulnerable consumers who are put at risk,” she said.