{"id":280871,"date":"2025-11-13T02:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280871\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T02:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:54:11","slug":"bombshell-update-after-thousands-of-aussies-lost-life-savings-when-superannuation-companies-collapsed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280871\/","title":{"rendered":"Bombshell update after thousands of Aussies lost life savings when superannuation companies collapsed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TOM WARK FOR AAP <\/p>\n

Published: 20:25 EST, 12 November 2025 | Updated: 21:12 EST, 12 November 2025 <\/p>\n

Australia’s corporate regulator is accusing a financial planning company of engaging in ‘industrial-scale misconduct’ for exposing nearly 7,000 investors to dodgy super funds.<\/p>\n

InterPrac is accused of failing to ensure representatives they authorised were complying with the law when they recommended 6,843 clients invest around $677million in two now-collapsed funds.<\/p>\n

‘No competent financial adviser could have recommended investment in Shield or First Guardian (Master Funds),’ the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in Federal Court documents lodged on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Both funds allegedly had exorbitant fees, opaque investments and delivered millions of dollars in payments to Venture Egg and its boss Ferras Merhi, one of InterPrac’s former authorised representatives.<\/p>\n

The court documents say Mr Merhi told InterPrac in June 2024 that companies he controlled had received nearly $20million from the two funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Despite this, InterPrac permitted Venture Egg and Merhi to remain as its authorised representatives until 31 May 2025,’ ASIC said.<\/p>\n

InterPrac allegedly relied exclusively on external research before approving Shield and First Guardian for advisers and even when it did institute a temporary hold on new investments, it failed to maintain it.<\/p>\n

Investors may not have even agreed to having their super savings transferred into the dodgy funds after InterPrac allowed Venture Egg to use ‘negative consent’ to alter portfolios.<\/p>\n

\"ASIC <\/p>\n

ASIC Chair Sarah Court (pictured) accused InterPrac of ‘industrial-scale misconduct’\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ferras <\/p>\n

Ferras Merhi (pictured) faces legal action from ASIC alleging ‘unconscionable conduct’<\/p>\n

The practice allows advisers to adjust their client’s investments by issuing a statement saying the client would consent unless they explicitly said otherwise.<\/p>\n

The collapse of Shield and First Guardian has been one of ASIC’s most complex cases, with the regulator saying more than 40 investigators are working full-time to bring those responsible for the losses to justice.<\/p>\n

‘What we are talking about here is an industrial-scale misconduct that involved a range of players,’ ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

‘We are very methodically working through them in order to make sure… we hold those companies and individuals involved to account.’<\/p>\n

The regulator is also initiating legal action against fellow advice licensee MWL and research house SQM for their roles in duping unsuspecting customers.<\/p>\n

ASIC has launched a separate legal case against Mr Merhi alleging he engaged in unconscionable conduct and failed to act in the best interests of clients while receiving millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

People who invested in Shield or First Guardian should contact the respective liquidators for updates on recovering investments and may be entitled to lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.<\/p>\n

The case against InterPrac will return to the Federal Court at a later date.<\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Bombshell update after thousands of Aussies lost life savings when superannuation companies collapsed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TOM WARK FOR AAP Published: 20:25 EST, 12 November 2025 | Updated: 21:12 EST, 12 November 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,100,186,44,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-280871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}