Revealed: Trio's links with Michael McGurk

In one of several links, the yellow Mazda 626 was owned by Zoe Viellaris, a former marketing employee of the forerunner of Trio Capital, and the partner of Mr Terreiro.

Mr McGurk was murdered in the driveway of his Cremorne home on September 3 last year after acting as a loan shark and standover man.

Mr Terreiro, 45, is a two-times bankrupt who had built up close links to Trio Capital figures through his financial planning business interests, although by early last year his business fortunes had waned.

The Herald has previously reported Mr McGurk was pursuing Mr Terreiro for alleged debts of $500,000. Men armed with sledgehammers acting on Mr McGurk's behalf attacked the car last June as Mr Terreiro drove across a Redfern park to escape.

Mr McGurk's murder remains an open investigation.

Trio Capital is the Albury fund manager at the centre of what evidence from a public examination last week suggested was the largest theft of superannuation money in Australian history.

Prior to his bankruptcy Mr Terreiro had a majority interest in a company called Solutions Wealth Strategies, which had several close links to Trio Capital figures.

In the first link Solutions Wealth Strategies, when Mr Terreiro was a director, authorised Shawn Richard to act as a representative between 2006 and 2008. In the same period Mr Richard was the investment manager of Astarra Strategic, a Trio Capital fund now suspected of channelling $123 million in investors' money offshore.

Ms Viellaris said yesterday Mr Richard was one of up to 50 financial planners authorised by Solutions Wealth Strategies over several years. "I think that the previous director [Mr Terreiro] had a business relationship with Shawn," she said.

In a second link between Mr Terreiro's business interests and Trio Capital figures, Mr Richard gave evidence he had personally made loans of about $500,000 to another Solutions Wealth Strategies representative, Ronald Jeffery Caines. Mr Caines, a representative between 2005 and 2008, was banned by ASIC for life in 2008 for receiving separate undisclosed payments from an unnamed Trio Capital director.

In a third link between Mr Terreiro's business interests and Trio Capital figures, a one-time friend and former business partner of Mr Terreiro, Mark Schroeder, was the chief executive of the forerunner of Trio Capital in 2005.

Mr Schroeder's relation with the Trio Capital businesses continued until earlier this year, when he was a director of the Trio-related Wright Global Investments.

Mr Richard, 35, gave evidence last week he was a "mere puppet" of a Hong Kong businessman, Jack Flader, who owned Trio and several related companies, including Wright Global Investments.

Mr Schroeder and Mr Terreiro were involved in an unsuccessful push to market a financial product called Keys to other financial planners through a second financial planning business where they both served as directors, Financial Wealth.

It has been reported debts in relation to Mr Terreiro's financial planning businesses were the subject of a $150,000 covering loan with an exorbitant interest rate from Mr McGurk. Mr Terreiro filed for bankruptcy in March last year.