The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has expressed concern over the transfer of A$12.6 million ($10.4 million) by failed childcare entrepreneur Eddie Groves to a trust that is allegedly his "alter ego".

Mr Groves, The Australian reports, transferred the ownership of two luxury properties, one at Kangaroo Point and the other at the Currumbin Gold Coast, to his wife Viryan Collins-Rubie and his brother-in-law Frank Zullo, respectively. The ASIC had questioned Mr Groves' generosity at the Federal Court yesterday, claiming that the trust, Perfection Too, was simply the businessman's alter ago.

Secondary to the collapse of his childcare empire, ABC Learning Centres, in November last year, the Federal Court had banned the couple from selling or transfering any assets before 30 June 2010 while ASIC investigations are ongoing. The Court dismissed the ASIC's case against Mr Groves yesterday after he said the move was a gift. However, it prohibited Perfection Too from divesting assets to anybody related to the entrepreneur, says the report.

The report highlights how trusts and other financial structures are coming under increasingly tight scrutiny from public authorities around the world.

Mr Groves' counsel, Justin Gleeson, claimed that his client had been upfront about the trust with the ASIC since last year, but the latter had not raised any question for months, media reports said. An article by the Herald Sun also reveals that Ms Collins-Rubie is no longer a director at Perfection Too, and that two new independent directors had been installed on 16 July.