Super fund collapse costs Murraylands engineer his life savings

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A Murraylands electrical engineer is among 12,000 Australians to have lost their retirement savings in the collapse of two master fund investment schemes.

The First Guardian Master Fund (First Guardian) and Shield Master Fund (Shield) were managed investment schemes promising high returns and claiming to be low risk.

Their collapse has resulted in more than $1 billion being lost.

Rob Ahrens has lost almost half of his retirement savings, built up across more than 30 years of work.

Around $140,000 from his super fund had been frozen, Mr Ahrens said.

“It’s gut wrenching,” he said.

Both funds and the executives responsible for their management are under investigation from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

ASIC alleges that company directors misdirected millions of investor funds offshore and used them to invest in personal companies and projects.

ASIC blocked investment in Shield in February 2024 and, following further investigation, froze First Guardian's assets in February 2025.

More than 6000 people had invested money in First Guardian, and 5800 had invested in Shield.

Mr Ahrens is an electrical engineer for Oz Minerals at Prominent Hill, employed on a fly-in, fly-out basis.

He said he had been cold-called a couple of years ago, and persuaded to entrust a financial advisory company called Venture Egg with a decision about where to invest his superannuation.

Venture Egg recommended one of the funds now under investigation, on the promise of better returns.

Mr Ahrens said he had trusted Venture Egg to know what was best.

“I'm an engineer, I wouldn't know [about super], so you trust,” he said.

“You're hoping that they're doing the right thing.”

Venture Egg has since come under investigation from ASIC for allegedly engaging in unconscionable conduct, giving conflicted advice and failing to act in clients’ best interests.

Because of his work schedule, Mr Ahrens said, he did not initially pay close attention to the legal letters telling him his super fund had been frozen.

“I thought, well, the financial advisor Venture Egg will sort that out,” he said.

Investigation has been among the most complex in ASIC's history

In February 2025, the Federal Court granted an order to freeze the assets of former Venture Egg boss Ferras Merhi.

ASIC also has an ongoing proceeding in the Federal Court against Mr Merhi, the outcome of which may see liquidators appointed to Venture Egg.

ASIC is currently seeking to expand its action to allege that Mr Merhi used marketing companies to direct clients to his financial advice company, then had his advisors recommend clients invest in the First Guardian and Shield funds.

In return, he allegedly received millions in upfront fees and more than $19 million for marketing First Guardian to clients.

First Guardian was managed by Falcon Capital Limited; that company's former director, David Anderson, has had travel restrictions imposed on him, and Falcon Capital’s assets have been frozen.

ASIC alleges Mr Anderson misdirected investor funds to offshore companies and used investors’ money for his own businesses and a mortgage payment on his Melbourne home.

Shield was managed by Keystone Asset Management (Keystone); its former director, Paul Chiodo, has had travel restrictions imposed and has had to surrender his passport; Keystone has had its assets frozen.

ASIC alleges Mr Chiodo used investor money to pay commissions for marketing groups and host events.

Keystone was also a trustee of the Advantage Diversified Property Fund.

ASIC alleges Shield’s assets were invested in the property fund and used for luxury property development projects.

ASIC stated that the investigations into First Guardian and Shield were “among the most complex and resource-intensive investigations in ASIC’s history”.

To date, it has led to more than 45 court appearances, multiple search warrants, frozen assets, the appointment of receivers and liquidators, and imposition of travel restrictions against individuals.

Financial services licences have been cancelled, and financial advisors have been banned from practising.

ASIC is looking into the conduct of 140 licenced financial advisors; 20 have been taken to court, 50 are under investigation and 70 are on a follow-up list.

What it means for the people affected

Mr Ahrens hopes that by sharing his story he will be able to help others.

“You learn from it, and if I go under, hopefully someone else won’t,” he said.

Mr Ahrens said he was grateful for the support and advocacy he had received from federal Member for Barker Tony Pasin.

As the investigations are still ongoing, it remains unclear how much money Mr Ahrens will get back, if any.

Whatever assets have been seized by ASIC will be divided among the investors as part of the liquidation process.

A petition has been started and a trust with a corporate trustee has been formed to advocate for victims and pursue legal action on their behalf.

The petition demands that the federal government compensate victims by funding the trust with $5 million to cover the costs of any legal actions.

The victim's trust primarily seeks to take action against the trustees of superannuation platforms who allowed First Guardian and Shield fund to offer products which were allegedly "misleading, speculative, and highly likely to fail".

"The Commonwealth government must accept responsibility for the regulatory failures of ASIC and APRA," the petition said.

"Accordingly, it should provide seed funding to ensure victims are not forced to pay twice for systemic failure."

At the time of publication, the petition had more than 1000 signatures.

From his experience, Mr Ahrens said he advised people to take a close look at their super funds.

“Do your research, don't rush into anything," he said.

"If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

"Get independent advice.”

• More information: If you are one of the 12,000 people affected, you can sign the Save our Super petition, visit the victims' discussion page to connect with others, and get updates on ASIC's investigations into First Guardian and Shield.