Three former directors of collapsed funeral fund operator Youpla Group have been disqualified from managing corporations and ordered to pay penalties, after the Federal Court found they breached their duties as directors.
Justice Geoffrey Kennett on Wednesday approved orders proposed jointly by ASIC and the three men. Jonathan Law was disqualified for six years and ordered to pay $50,000. Michael Wilson received a 10-year ban and a $20,000 penalty, and Geoffrey Clayton a five-year ban and a $20,000 penalty. The court found that Law breached his duties in relation to one Youpla Group company. Wilson and Clayton breached theirs in relation to three.
The outcome follows the court’s decisions on October 30 in the cases of two other former directors. Ronald Pattenden was disqualified for 15 years and fined $250,000. Former chief executive Bryn Jones, who contested ASIC’s case, was found to have breached his duties. His penalty will be decided at a separate hearing.
ASIC’s case focused on Youpla’s insurance arrangements between September 2017 and November 2018. The regulator alleged the directors kept the group’s companies insured with Crown Insurance Services, a Vanuatu-based company beneficially owned and controlled by Pattenden and Law. ASIC said the arrangement was not in the companies’ interests and stood to benefit those two directors. It also exposed the group to unaffordable premium increases, which took effect in September 2017.
Members, predominantly First Nations people, continued to pay premiums without knowing the risk to the funds’ viability, ASIC said. The group went into liquidation in March 2022.
ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said the directors’ conduct contributed to serious harm to First Nations consumers.
“Directors have important responsibilities. The failures at Youpla demonstrate the consequences when those responsibilities are not met,” said Kirkland.
The federal government set up the Youpla Support Program in 2024 to compensate affected members. Applications closed on June 30, 2026, and payments will continue to be processed until December 1. SV Partners is managing the liquidation.
The penalties close most of a case ASIC launched in August 2023. They are modest against the scale of the harm, and four of the five directors reached agreed outcomes rather than contesting liability. Jones’s penalty hearing is the last step in the case.
For boards and D&O underwriters, the case shows how a related-party insurance arrangement, left in place after its costs rose sharply, can turn into a breach of directors’ duties.
