In the fading light of autumn, the 32-foot yacht is hard to miss: from any vantage point across Gulf Harbor Marina, north of Auckland, the Dream Catcher is easily the largest boat in the world. end of its dock.
Key points:
- ACBF was a funeral insurance company that was marketed to Aboriginal people since the 1990s.
- ASIC corporate regulator is investigating current and former ACBF directors for violations of the law
- The company, which changed its name to Youpla in 2019, went into liquidation in March
“When it first appeared I thought,‘ Wow, that’s too big out there, ’” said a 29-year-old fisherman who has been operating in the area.
The Dream Catcher is registered with a private company in the Cook Islands and was advertised for $ 3.95 million ($ 5.55 million) in 2018.
Along with a more than $ 2 million ($ 1.82 million) recently listed seaside residence, Dream Catcher is owned by the co-founder of the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), the entrepreneur born in United Kingdom Ron Pattenden.
Ron Pattenden’s Dream Catcher yacht is moored at the end of the dock for its size. (ABC News: Amy Bainbridge)
At the age of 74, after a long career in insurance, hospitality and tourism, he told the ABC that he was expecting a quiet life.
Instead, serious questions have been raised about his decades with ACBF and the treatment of his indigenous clients.
Thousands of Indigenous Australians have been hit by the collapse of the company, also known as Youpla, in March this year.
Many had paid thousands of dollars to the ACBF for decades, having taken out funeral insurance policies with the mistaken belief that it was an aboriginal-owned and managed funeral savings fund.
Ron Pattenden, whose business interests also included tourism and hospitality, was a director of ACBF companies. (ABC: 7.30)
Knowing the yacht and the beachfront property, former Gomeroi client and man Donald “Uncle Duck” Craigie said he could only “dream” of such a lifestyle.
“We don’t dare to contemplate living a life of luxury like Ron Pattenden,” he said.
“That being said, you don’t have to worry about funeral expenses.
“I should go back here to answer questions about the disappearance of the ACBF and Youpla funeral funds.”
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has confirmed that it is investigating current and past directors for breaches of both company law and ASIC law.
It is understood that Mr. Pattenden is one of the main attractions.
“All those people who were ACBF directors need to step up and explain themselves,” Craigie said.
Donald Craigie and Cheryl Fernando say “virtually everyone” in their Moree community signed up for the ACBF in the early days. (ABC News: Amy Bainbridge)
Although he declined a formal interview, Pattenden told the ABC that he was not to blame for the company’s collapse.
Pattenden, who splits his time between Vanuatu and New Zealand, sold ACBF in 2018, after new CEO Bryn Jones was criticized for the company’s exploitation of Indigenous customers by the royal commission in the UK. bank.
But while Mr. Pattenden sold the business and resigned as a director, he remained tied to the company until 2020.
The money “returns” to the community
The history of the ACBF dates back to the early 1990s, when an article in the indigenous national newspaper, the Koori Mail, called it an “innovative solution.”
An article published in the Koori Mail in 1992 explained to potential clients the high goals of the ACBF. (Provided by: Koori Mail)
Indigenous Australians could donate a few dollars every fortnight, and when they died, their families quickly received thousands of dollars to cover their funeral.
The article explained that two Aboriginal health workers at Armidale had the idea: Dudley Duncan and Richard Widders.
The ACBF published ads in the Koori Mail looking for Indigenous Australians to promote the fund in New South Wales, offering a “good commission”. (Provided by: Koori Mail)
Co-founder Ron Pattenden was not mentioned even though he was a director and business secretary and owned 40 percent of the shares.
The company was recruiting many customers, and Richard Widders told Koori Mail that the “nature and affordability” of the funeral fund meant that parents could insure children under the age of 10 for $ 2 a week.
“The ACBF expects to have more than 2,000 members by Christmas, and in that sense, any surplus funds available will be returned directly to the communities to help with health areas,” Widders said in the document.
But the New South Wales government briefly closed the fund with a precautionary order in December 1992 while the court considered whether the fund was properly registered.
NSW then-Consumer Minister Kerry Chikarovski said the funds were unsafe and it appears that “the company has been telling its members that the benefits of the program would be used for the welfare of Aboriginal people, although the agreements have not been detailed “.
“It was confusing for everyone”
A second fund was launched in 1993: The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund 2 (ACBF 2).
Court documents show that Fund 1 was reopened in December 1993.
In just three years, 9,000 First Nations people took out funeral insurance on both funds.
Mr. Craigie remembers the day a tall man with a British accent knocked on his door.
“This non-Aboriginal person came up the entrance, introduced himself as Ron Pattenden and said he worked for the Aboriginal Community Benefits Fund which was wholly owned and managed by the aborigines,” he said.
Donald “Uncle Duck” Craigie joined the ACBF in the 1990’s, when he started. (ABC News: Amy Bainbridge)
“He was a good speaker. He was very persuasive.”
Mr. Craigie and his partner, Cheryl Fernando, Mrs. Gomeroi, were living in Moree at the time and said the cost of the funeral had become a huge burden on the community.
“We were thinking,‘ Oh, that’s good, that’s a great idea, ’because every time there was a death in the family or community, we would knock on doors, do raffles, do 100 clubs,” he said. .
“People were giving every little dollar of help for these funerals because the families were suffering.”
But while the names and brochures of the companies gave Mr. Craigie the impression that they were owned and operated by Aboriginal people, that was not the case.
Ron Pattenden was a director and owned 90% of Fund 2.
Ms. Fernando said she believed it was wholly owned by the aborigines.
“When they said it was ACBF – Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund … when someone says it’s Aboriginal, we naturally think it’s black, so we all jumped at it,” said Ms. Fernando.
Cheryl Fernando’s ACBF certificates as she paid more money into the fund over the years. The average certificate is signed by Ron Pattenden. (ABC News: Amy Bainbridge)
In 1997, Aboriginal health workers, Mr. Widders and Mr. Dudley, they were no longer directors of ACBF 1 and were never appointed directors or shareholders of ACBF 2.
In 1999, ASIC sounded the alarm that ACBF vendors were visiting indigenous communities without proper permission and using the Aboriginal flag to give false representations about the nature of the business.
The regulator initiated legal action, alleging that the ACBF had been “unconscious, misleading and misleading” to indigenous customers.
The case was settled out of court and the company was ordered to change its marketing material, offer refunds in certain communities and establish a compliance program, but was not forced to change its name or logo.
“They were still marketed as [Aboriginal]they went to community events, they also had members of the community marketing the material sometimes, “said Siobhan Doyle, a lawyer with Victoria’s Aboriginal Legal Service.
“I think it was confusing for everyone.”
‘I trusted it’
Barkindji’s wife, Kathy Herold, was one of those knocking on the door by an ACBF salesman.
The single mother of six had struggled to find a stable job when she was approached in 2002.
“The word on the street was that they had an Aboriginal funeral fund and I thought,‘ great, ’” Ms Herold said.
“I knocked on my door and told me [he] He was a classmate I went to school with in high school, so I trusted him. “
Mrs. Herold wanted to make sure her children would not be left with a financial burden if she died.
Mrs. Herold told the salesperson that she could not read well, but said she could help her fill out the forms.
Kathy Herold complained to the ACBF AFCA and won. But he never saw his payment. (ABC News: Amy Bainbridge)
“The man told me I should deduct money from my bank account, so I gave them all these details,” Ms Herold said.
He targeted five of his sons, and the following year he targeted his daughter.
“No, they didn’t tell me it was an insurance fund, they just told me it was a funeral fund,” Ms. Herold said.
He later realized that it was not owned or run by Aboriginal people, after hearing rumors from the local community.
With the help of Siobhan Doyle at the Victoria Aboriginal Legal Service, he filed a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) in 2020.
The AFCA ordered the ACBF to pay Mrs. Herold a refund of her premiums last September, in the amount of $ 15,768.
Ms. Herold is among the 178 people who have won AFCA cases against the ACBF. Of those claims, 61 have not yet been paid by the company, amounting to $ 500,000.
“I had a broken heart. I’m thinking all the money I paid for and I won’t get it back a bit, you know?” she said.
“I’m devastated.”
The ACBF takes the podium
In total, the ACBF has faced three ASIC challenges: first in 1999 for deceptive and deceptive conduct, again in 2003 for violating federal street vending laws, and finally in 2020 for its conduct from 2015 to 2015. in November 2018.
Following the 2003 challenge, the two existing funds were banned from accepting new members.
An ad in the Koori Mail with a disclaimer, written in blank on an image, that the ACBF was not an Aboriginal company. (Supplied: …