ASIC obtains criminal prosecution against SMSF trustee

While the headline may be alarming, the details are that the particular SMSF Trustee simply used his SMSF as the means to operate an early release scheme.

Apparently, the SMSF Trustee permitted up to 192 super benefits (about $4m in total) to be rolled over into his SMSF and then, despite the preservation rules, permitted those rolled-over benefits to be cashed out.  For his trouble the Trustee retained over $600,000 (a modest 15% clip).

This case should not trouble most SMSFs and their trustees as the case concerned a most blatant early release scheme.