Sitting across from investigators, Mark Swanepoel is unimpressed with how his compulsory interrogation is going.

The 20th floor offices of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in Brisbane may seem an unlikely setting for the former professional rugby player — but he’s a key man in one of Australia’s most persecuted payday lending operations.

It’s just after 10am on May 30, 2023. ASIC’s records show the corporate regulator is investigating a “new model” of payday lending and fees — the latest in an almost decade-long battle between regulators and Gold Coast-based loan ventures.

The ASIC officers ask Mr Swanepoel which banks his company, Cigno Australia, has used.

In transcripts obtained exclusively by the ABC, Mr Swanepoel questions the relevancy to ASIC’s probe.

“I’ll tell you why,” he tells ASIC’s officers. “In the past, if — if ASIC goes and harasses the people that I — the institutions that I bank with, there’s a chance that I lose those bank accounts.

“Forgive me if I don’t see that it’s relevant and that I don’t want to lose my banking facilities because of [ASIC] pressure.”

Despite the risk of banks cutting access, court documents reveal multiple accounts used in the payday lending operation came from one of Australia’s big four institutions: ANZ.

The documents also detail how big businesses — including national law firm Piper Alderman and debt collectors Milton Graham — provided services to an operation the Federal Court would later determine had breached credit laws.

Targeting ‘any consumer and every consumer’

It’s nearing 4pm during Mr Swanepoel’s interrogation and the answers are getting short.

ASIC has been probing Cigno Australia and its referrals of customers to associated lender BSF Solutions. 

BSF’s director is Brenton Harrison — whom Mr Swanepoel describes as a “friend” — and who has been involved in loan ventures with the Swanepoel family for more than a decade.

This investigation is focused on 2022 and 2023. Cigno Australia then offered access to loans from $50 to $1,000 — Centrelink loans and payday loans, among others. Its website screamed: “EMERGENCY cash when you need it”.

Mr Swanepoel denies the company was marketing to consumers needing “last resort” loans. So, who was the target?

“Any consumer, and every consumer,” he tells ASIC.

Mr Swanepoel does not do media interviews, but the interrogation — filed in the Federal Court — offers an unscripted glimpse into his views.

It’s part of a system long scrutinised by consumer advocates.

The model could charge excessive fees and engage in practices “harmful to people who are already experiencing financial difficulty”, she says.

Those customers include people borrowing for food or energy bills, she adds.

‘ASIC and the mainstream media claim we prey on the vulnerable’

Cigno Australia’s registered offices are on a scruffy street in Southport, near a tattoo parlour and Asian supermarket. 

Mr Swanepoel’s residence, by comparison, is a Gold Coast hinterland estate with seven bedrooms, a cinema room and even a stable.

He has previously rejected slurs against money lending operations, accusing “ASIC and the mainstream media” of claiming they “prey on the vulnerable”.

The reality was the operations never hid charges from customers and fees could be waived, he wrote to customers of one earlier lending operation in 2020.

“Our clients are good people who … would suffer greatly if we did not exist — nobody else would help them,” he wrote.

Staggering amounts flowed through the latest operation — nearly 100,600 customers between July 2022 and June 2023. They borrowed $34.7 million. More than $70 million was charged in fees.

Finance industry sources think default rates could potentially be high, so do such systems make money?

An earlier lending operation was “very successful”, notes an affidavit from a former chief financial officer at a Swanepoel family business. 

Its pre-tax profits were almost $50 million in 2019, according to the affidavit, filed in a Queensland Supreme Court dispute with family members.

A $250 loan accumulated more than $800 in fees

Cigno Australia and BSF always maintained their finance structure was legal.

Regulations restrict loan charges, but in theory, this operation was designed not to breach laws.

Lender BSF would not charge interest and only $20 late fees if customers defaulted – but nearly every BSF customer came from Cigno Australia.

Cigno Australia would not charge for the loan, instead lugging other charges such as a $31.01 weekly account keeping fee.

Those costs could mount: one $250 loan accumulated $828.63 in fees.

A dispute centred on whether some fees were for providing credit, and the Federal Court in May this year ruled for ASIC. 

Cigno Australia and BSF had engaged in credit activity without holding relevant licences, the court found, adding Mr Swanepoel and BSF director Mr Harrison were involved in the breaches.

They’ve appealed in what have been long-running regulatory fights.

The Swanepoels, originally from South Africa, arrived on the Gold Coast over two decades ago, when Mark was 11. His rugby union career included stints with the ACT Brumbies and Western Force, before he joined family businesses.

An early loan business involved his father Jan “John” Swanepoel helping find funding for another licensed lending firm, whose director was Mark’s brother, Ryan. It worked with a loan application business whose director was Mr Harrison.

ASIC unsuccessfully took that venture to court in 2014 and has tried a product banning order and lawsuits against subsequent systems since.

In June 2022, the Full Court found for ASIC in one dispute involving Cigno Pty Ltd, run by Mark and lender BHF Solutions, also headed by Mr Harrison.

Three weeks after that 2022 court decision, a new loan model with Cigno Australia and lender BSF was running, the latest judgement from May this year says.

“I don’t talk to the media, mate,” Mr Harrison said, when approached by the ABC.

An opportunity for ‘large businesses with good reputations’ to look at associations

Back in ASIC’s offices, Mark Swanepoel has been drinking water, and he’s asked when he sought legal advice about a loan management facilitation agreement.

He doesn’t recall but believes Cigno Australia paid for law firm Piper Alderman’s advice.

“They don’t generally do things for free,” he quips.

The firm’s name also appears when ASIC questions lender BSF director Mr Harrison.

The room is stifling hot — six people are inside — but just before taking a break, Mr Harrison says Piper Alderman came up with the idea for a no upfront charge model.

Piper Alderman, which declined to comment, labels itself a premier commercial law firm.

“Our lawyers understand and contribute to Australia’s legal framework in ways that give our clients a special edge,” its blurb states.

The tens of millions of dollars flowing through Cigno Australia and BSF used five ANZ accounts and two from small bank Goldfields Money.

Goldfields and ANZ, whose social governance statement highlights work helping lower-income adults, declined to comment.

Debt collectors from agency Milton Graham also chased fees for Cigno Australia. Milton Graham has now merged with Recoveriescorp, which did not answer queries.

There’s no suggestion the businesses were acting illegally in providing these services.

But Ms Tonkin says following the ASIC action against the Cigno-linked models, it was a “good opportunity for large businesses with good reputations to take a look at the association”.

‘I’ve pretty much had enough of you’

Compulsory interrogations are part of powers ASIC can wield, where not answering certain questions is an offence.

Such testimony can’t be used in certain proceedings against interviewees if they say “privilege” before each response. 

Witnesses therefore tend to say privilege to everything — but on long days, it’s easily forgotten. 

“This f***ing privilege thing,” Mr Swanepoel utters at one stage.

Such inquisitions can be tense. They exploded on day four in ASIC’s office, when an information technology specialist who worked with Cigno Australia was represented by the same barrister and solicitors as Swanepoel.

The barrister accuses one ASIC officer of having not “properly prepared questions”.

ASIC’s officer returns fire to the barrister: 

“I’ve pretty much had enough of you …

“I’m tired of the eye rolling, I’m tired of the heavy sighing, I’m tired of the unprofessional conduct that I’ve witnessed over the course of … days.”

The barrister responds he hasn’t stopped questions being asked and helped ensure proceedings are “on track”. 

“If you personally are … offended, I want you to try and rise above it, just remember you’re – you’re – you’re an employee of the Australian government exercising extraordinary statutory power,” he says.

‘You don’t know how much I want these services buried’

A new Gold Coast funding venture has emerged with authorised credit representatives and credit licences.

Ryan Swanepoel is director of some entities involved, one of which trades by the name of Quickle and advertises access to loans of up to $75,000.

Credit licences mean better protections, say consumer advocates.

Yet past processes left bitter recollections for some former customers of Cigno Australia.

One client, who declined to be named, had grappled with a gambling addiction.

In three months alone she borrowed and repaid $750, accumulating $643.01 in fees.

She acknowledges the temptation to use payday lenders again, despite bad memories.