Federal Court justice Michelle Gordon, who was last week promoted to the High Court, made a series of damning findings about the role of four former directors of the Bunurong Land Council, banning them from running an Indigenous corporation in Australia for between three and seven years. But Fairfax Media revealed last year the Victorian government has registered a new Indigenous organisation associated with some of the four banned figures, cloaking them in fresh legitimacy. The newly formed Bunurong Land and Sea Association has launched a major claim to a vast tract of Victoria, from Melton in Melbourne's north and across the south-east growth corridor to Wilsons Promontory. Meanwhile, Bunurong Land Council's new managers, led by an impressive and passionate young Bunurong man, Dan Turnbull, have been left to clean up the legacy of those outed in court this week. Justice Gordon singled out Sonia Murray for the harshest criticism. Between 2009 and 2014, Ms Murray managed the Bunurong Land Council which, under Victorian law, must be consulted by major developers and government agencies wanting to build on Bunurong land. The process involves hiring Bunurong cultural heritage officers, whose job it is to identify and survey land to identify important indigenous sites. It not only preserves Victoria's indigenous history and artefacts, but employs Bunurong people in jobs that allow them to empower their culture and connection to the land.

One heritage officer who spoke to Fairfax Media (but who asked not to be named for fear of retribution), spoke passionately of the pride at having such a role. But this officer also revealed that for every job Ms Murray assigned to the cultural heritage officers, they had to deposit $200 to $250 into a bank account controlled by her. Justice Gordon identified five Bunurong cultural officers who regularly deposited what Ms Murray described as "administration fees" into her bank accounts. Between 2009 and 2013, Justice Gordon found that "at least $151,690 that should have been paid [by cultural heritage workers] to the corporation [Bunurong land council] was instead paid into accounts controlled by Ms Murray." Justice Gordon also found that between September 2008 and January 2014, Ms Murray withdrew $731,380 from the land council's bank accounts by way of cash cheques. Ms Murray claimed to the court these funds were used to make legitimate payments to herself and other workers, but Justice Gordon found that "as no such record of any such payments was made or kept, it is impossible to know how much of the withdrawn money went to Ms Murray and how much went to the corporation's expenses". Murray's failure to "keep even the most rudimentary of financial records" made it "impossible" to know how this cash, and other funds, were used. Some, though, made its way into Ms Murray's own pockets.

In a damning finding, Justice Gordon said Ms Murray had been "improperly using her position to gain an advantage for herself, namely the personal use of money belonging to the" land council. Ms Murray's failure to ensure the land council paid tax provided more evidence of "the lack of oversight and care" shown by her and the other land council directors. On Thursday, Justice Gordon banned Ms Murray for seven years from managing an Indigenous corporation and ordered her to pay a $25,000 fine to the federal government and pay $7700 to the land council. Justice Gordon also banned three of Ms Murray's fellow directors, Mervyn Brown, Verna Nichols and Leonie Dickson, for three years and fined them between $5000 and $10,000 for their abysmal corporate governance. (One of them, Mr Brown, described the court case as "all a beat-up" involving "white man's law" as he defended his failure to perform his duty as director.). However, the Federal Court ban may have little effect in Victoria.

In a move that has infuriated Australia's land council watchdog, Anthony Bevan, who brought the legal action, Ms Murray and some of her supporters last year incorporated a new body, the Bunurong Land and Sea Association. Despite its close links with the former regime, the new association has been registered by the Victorian government, which is now considering its claim for rights over a vast tract of Victorian land. "They have now set up in a less regulated environment," Mr Bevan, the head of the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, told Fairfax Media. "It is very disappointing. The last thing we want is them [the banned directors] managing another corporation." Prominent community elder Carolyn Briggs, who also chairs the Boon Wurrung (another name for Bunurong) Foundation and is a former National Aboriginal Elder of the Year, says she too is concerned at the new association. She was "not surprised by the appalling mismanagement" and serious misconduct exposed in the Federal Court case and said that it had been allowed to fester due to inaction by Victorian officials. "For the past 12 years, there have been numerous complaints made to Aboriginal Affairs Victoria about the actions of this [Sonia Murray-linked] group ... all of these complaints have been ignored."

Ms Briggs called on the new Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Natalie Hutchins, to act. Ms Hutchins said she was reviewing the Federal Court judgment and wanted to ensure that all Victorian Indigenous groups acted with integrity. It is understood the Department of Consumer affairs is also examining the creation of the new Bunurong association in light of the damning court finding. In comments to Justice Gordon, Ms Murray appeared contrite, saying she realised "the seriousness of the charges against me and will never be able to say just how sorry I am". Her actions were "never intentionally done to jeopardise my elders and community", she said. But to questions from Fairfax Media, Ms Murray has told a different story. One text message stated: "No fraud… no misappropriation… no comment." Another read: "Can't you write about something worthwhile like the closure of aboriginal communities." The Bunurong Land Council's new managers and directors have spent more than a year cleaning up the mess left by Ms Murray. One of them told Fairfax Media the only secrets left were those hidden under the soil.