The critical first step has been taken in restoring some of the $160 million that hundreds of Australians lost in a collapsed Queensland-based fund.

Australian Fiduciaries Ltd fell into liquidation less than a year ago, after launching in February 2020 with a promise of 10 per cent annual returns.

Almost all its 600 investors were locked out of the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort as APT Strategy – the company behind Australian Fiduciaries – was deregistered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in January last year.

This follows APT Strategy falling into liquidation in March 2024.

Financial Dispute Legal director Callun Blurton has spearheaded a case to re-register APT so investors can recoup some of their funds.

Mr Blurton said ASIC will not oppose the application to re-register APT and Financial Dispute Legal has secured a liquidator for the company.

He noted that Queensland Supreme Court Justice Doyle gave the firm’s application the green light on Monday.

“His Honour made the orders to re-register the company,” Mr Blurton told SkyNews.com.au.

Re-registering APT is crucial because it held an Australian Financial Services Licence and was a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

AFCA cannot consider complaints against a company that has been de-registered and investors can only receive compensation from the CSLR with AFCA’s approval.

Mr Blurton said now that the court has ordered that APT can be re-registered, ASIC will go through a process of re-registering the company and a liquidator will be appointed.

The liquidator will apply with AFCA to re-register the company and it will be up to the authority to determine whether individual investors can claim the maximum $150,000 compensation.

“That’s probably the last and most important decision because all of our efforts could be in vain if AFCA doesn’t agree to have the company re-registered as an AFCA member,” Mr Blurton said.

He stressed that investors were grateful this massive first hurdle had been overcome, but remained uncertain about the future.

“They’re in a very difficult position but they’re hopeful that they’ll at least be able to go down that process,” Mr Blurton said.

“(I’ve received) great feedback from clients but they’re understandably a little bit uncertain in terms of what the next steps look like.

“Until that, AFCA has a chance to review the application once it’s made and hopefully re-registered as an AFCA member.”

Out of pocket investors looking to receive compensation would have needed to have lodged a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority before January 2025.

However, only 16 did.

SkyNews.com.au has approached ASIC and AFCA for comment.

The legal bid comes after the $1.2b collapse of First Guardian and Shield.

Shield and First Guardian were both wound up in April last year, while the Australian Securities and Investments Commission blocked new investments into Shield from early 2024 and into First Guardian in February 2025.

The two funds promised high returns for investors with stable and diversified products but ultimately left thousands of victims panicking over their nest egg.

First Guardian victims were dealt a blow in December when it was revealed just $1.6 million had been recovered from the $450 million invested in the collapsed fund.

A victim of the First Guardian collapse, Melinda Kee, lost about $400,000 and runs the advocacy group SOS SaveOurSuper.

Ms Kee said there was a “moral responsibility” to recover these funds for victims after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission received warnings before the funds collapsed.

“First Guardian was established nine years ago. There (have) been warnings throughout those nine years. There were very significant and strong warnings going back to 2021-22, and I believe even 2019,” Ms Kee told SkyNews.com.au.

“As I said to ASIC in my first meeting with them, if you had have acted on those emails and those warnings, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”