{"id":496253,"date":"2026-06-26T08:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/496253\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:08:10","slug":"asic-sues-directors-of-530-million-shield-fund-after-thousands-lost-superannuation-in-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/496253\/","title":{"rendered":"ASIC sues directors of $530 million Shield fund after thousands lost superannuation in collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s financial watchdog is suing the former directors of Shield Master Fund after its collapse resulted in thousands of investors losing their retirement savings.<\/a><\/p>\n

It marks the most drastic action taken by the\u00a0Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) since nearly 6000 people had their superannuation funds frozen or drained in the 2024 super wipeout.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Thousands<\/p>\n

Thousands of Australians lost $530 million in retirement savings following the collapse.\u00a0Louie Douvis<\/p>\n

ASIC alleges former Keystone Asset Management directors Paul Chiodo, Ilya Frolov and Mark Yorston and compliance committee member Jeremy Danon\u00a0put millions in superannuation<\/a> at risk by \u201cinvesting scheme funds in related entities and third parties without proper safeguards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Over $530 million in retirement savings<\/a> from 5800 people which flowed into Keystone-managed Shield Master Fund was lost in the failed scheme.<\/p>\n

ASIC alleges around $305 million was transferred to a property development fund controlled by Keystone Asset Management, before it being transferred to entities linked to Chiodo and Frolov.<\/p>\n

The watchdog has accused the fund of multiple failures to ensure compliance and manage conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

It will also allege in Federal Court that investor money was used for \u201cunauthorised purposes\u201d without a sufficient connection to the intended property development projects.<\/p>\n

ASIC Chair Sarah Court said investors should expect their funds to be \u201ccarefully managed\u201d but instead millions of dollars were transferred without basic safeguards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, ASIC alleges investors were exposed to conflicted arrangements and poor oversight,\u201d Court said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018These proceedings are about holding those we allege to be involved to account and sending a clear message that directors operating schemes of this kind must act in investors\u2019 best interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

ASIC Chair Sarah Court (pictured) said investors should expect their funds to be \u201ccarefully managed\u201d.\u00a0Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

It will seek civil penalties, disqualification orders against the former directors and costs.<\/p>\n

The action taken on Friday comes as a wave of \u201crenewed hope\u201d to investors who lost everything in the fund collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person who played a role in what happened needs to be held accountable,\u201d investor and advocate Melinda Kee told nine.com.au.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this action won\u2019t immediately return peoples retirement savings, every action ASIC takes helps uncover the truth, identifies where investors\u2019 money went, and it increases the opportunity to recover funds. <\/p>\n

\u201cVictims have waited far too long for the truth, and the action today gives people renewed hope that justice continues to move in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

ASIC has been undertaking action against Shield and First Guardian Master Fund<\/a>, which collapsed in similarly catastrophic circumstances and resulted in another 6000 people losing money.<\/p>\n

This is the first time the watchdog has launched legal action directly against the directors of the failed funds.<\/p>\n

\"ASIC<\/p>\n

ASIC will seek civil penalties, disqualification orders against the former directors and costs.\u00a0Darrian Traynor<\/p>\n

Macquarie Investment Management Ltd oversaw about $321 million in super investments into Shield by about 3000 of its members between 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

In September, Macquarie was undertaken to repay members<\/a> 100 per cent of the amounts they invested in Shield less any amounts withdrawn.<\/p>\n

ASX-listed financial firm Netwealth alsol agreed to repay a total of $100 million to some victims of the First Guardian collapse.<\/a><\/p>\n

Netwealth struck a deal with ASIC to refund 100 per cent of the amount, less any money withdrawn, that was invested in First Guardian to 1000 of its members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s financial watchdog is suing the former directors of Shield Master Fund after its collapse resulted in thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-496253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}