ASIC has secured further travel restraints against adviser Ferras Merhi and the head of a telemarketing scheme caught up in the failed Shield and First Guardian master funds.
Federal Court heard on Thursday afternoon that Merhi and Osama Saad will continue to be banned from leaving the country for the next six months as ASIC continues its investigations.
Merhi heads Venture Egg and Financial Services Group Australia. Venture Egg and Merhi are authorised representatives of Interprac Financial Planning, while FSGA also holds an AFSL.
Saad was the former director of two marketing/lead generation companies, Aus Super Compare and Atlas Marketing, which both went into liquidation in late 2024.
ASIC took action due to concerns lead generators were aggressively pursuing consumers and handing them to advisers who would put them in high-risk products against their best interests.
The regulator sought orders for Merhi and Saad to hand over passports, visas or any other documentation permitting international travel and for the court to prohibit them from leaving Australia until 12 December 2025.
ASIC’s affidavit said both parties are central to the ongoing investigations which are expected to take another six months, if not longer.
The Federal Court had frozen the assets of financial adviser Merhi and Saad in February.
ASIC said these firms had advised clients to invest into either Shield or First Guardian, when these consumers instead believed they were being invested in products of more reputable brands.
Merhi and Saad have been subject to a travel restraint since 13 June 2025 and ASIC has requested a further timeframe of six months as both parties will be required for further examination.
The court heard that despite some overseas family and business ties, there was no clear evidence of Merhi or Saad being flight risks. But because of the seriousness of the allegations and the weight of impact to the alleged victims, it was in the best interest of the criminal proceedings for them to remain in the country.
Both Merhi and Saad will be allowed to apply for an exemption to travel to the court, should there be a pressing need for either party to do.
While ASIC said there is no clear evidence Saad is a flight risk, it contends that Saad did not comply with asset preservation orders and alleged failure to disclose certain assets.
ASIC announced earlier this month that more resources have been dedicated to its ongoing investigation into the failures of Shield and First Guardian.
ASIC is investigating Merhi, Interprac, Venture Egg, FSGA and Reilly Financial.
FSGA’s licence was banned by ASIC in June and Merhi was removed from the ASIC Financial Adviser Register by Interprac in late May.
An InterPrac spokesperson told Professional Planner in June Merhi and Venture Egg had been placed under very stringent compliance requirements from December 2023 that saw all new business from that point in time under the InterPrac AFSL cease entirety.
The responsible entities (REs) for the funds, Keystone Asset Management and Falcon Capital, for Shield and First Guardian respectively, are also being investigated by ASIC and both are in liquidation.
Keystone directors Paul Chiodo and Ilya Frolov, and Falcon Capital directors David Anderson and Simon Selimaj are all under investigation.
Anderson and Selimaj have both had assets frozen and been restricted from leaving Australia until 27 February 2026 after the court granted ASIC’s request for travel restraints.
According to the Falcon Capital liquidators report released this month, Selimaj was in the possession of a Lamborghini Urus, a high-performance luxury SUV purchased in January 2023 for $548,000 via a bank account controlled by the company.
The car will be auctioned off in the near future with the liquidators expecting to receive $350,000 to $400,000.
The regulator is investigating the platforms that hosted these products, including Macquarie and Equity Trustees.
