The travel restraints and asset freezing orders imposed on First Guardian directors David Anderson and Simon Selimaj have been extended to 24 April 2026.
The court granted ASIC’s request for the extension on the pair – directors of First Guardian’s responsible entity Falcon Capital – with the orders due to expire on 27 February 2026.
The original orders were granted last February against Falcon Capital, First Guardian and Anderson.
The directors of First Guardian funds have been accused of misappropriating investor money for high-risk investments, pet projects and personal expenses.
Only $1.6 million has so far been recovered from the $480 million First Guardian Master Fund, with the liquidators raising concerns about the amount of assets held outside of Australia.
Falcon Capital suspended the processing of applications and withdrawals from First Guardian on 27 May 2024 and the Federal Court appointed FTI Consulting as liquidators for the fund on 9 April 2025.
Both Anderson and Selimaj have fronted court, with lawyers for the latter asking the court to release some assets to sale to settle legal bills.
Ferras Merhi, the financial adviser ASIC alleges played a central role in distribution of the funds, has also fronted court on several occasions as proceedings continue.
Last November, the court extended Merhi’s travel restraints until 31 March 2026 while asset freezing orders were extended until court proceedings brought by ASIC have concluded.
Merhi is allegedly responsible for signing over 6000 Statements of Advice within a three-year period and has been accused of taking money from the funds to help market them and receiving inflated loans from the fund to help purchase his businesses.
ASIC has cancelled the AFSLs of Financial Services Group Australia (which was run by Merhi), MWL Financial Services and United Global Capital, as well as banning several advisers involved in advising clients to invest in the fund.
Merhi was licensed by InterPrac Financial Planning, the only licensee that hasn’t been cancelled, but is still being sued by the regulator.
The regulator accused InterPrac of failing to step in when misconduct from Merhi became apparent as well as providing template responses that dismissed legitimate complaints about the advice.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority published lead decisions finding that clients of the Shield and First Guardian funds were victims of poor advice.
ASIC’s investigation into First Guardian commenced during an investigation into the Shield Master Fund.
Shield and First Guardian grew due to a sophisticated network of lead generators that contacted people who used online ‘superannuation health check’ advertisements and used high pressure sales tactics to get them into financial advice.
While ASIC has centred its investigation on the advisers, lead generators and managers of the funds, the regulator is also in court against SQM Research, Diversa Trustees and Equity Trustees over allegations all three failed to conduct proper oversight when hosting the funds.
Shield was offered on NQ Super and DASH’s Super Simplifier platforms, for which Equity Trustees was trustee, while First Guardian was offered on NQ Super/Freedom of Choice.
Diversa Trustees was the trustee for the OneVue Your Choice Super, Australian Practical Superannuation and Praemium Super platforms which each offered access to First Guardian.
APRA added licensee conditions to Diversa Trustees, restricting it from onboarding “high-risk” investments and requiring it to undertake an independent review of the investment menus and governance frameworks of the platforms it is responsible for. Similar restrictions were placed on Equity Trustees as well.
Macquarie and Netwealth agreed with ASIC to instead remediate clients back to their original starting position when they were rolled over into the fund, foregoing prolonged court proceedings in exchange.
