More aggressive than ever: ASIC defends First Guardian investigation

ASIC was pulled up by the Senate Economics Committee over the time it has taken to act against Falcon Capital, the responsible entity for the collapsed First Guardian Master Fund.

ASIC chair Sarah Court, attending the first parliamentary committee after taking over the role, said the investigation is continuing and the regulator's first focus has been on protecting investor funds and taking freezing actions.

Early last year, ASIC froze the assets of the First Guardian Master Fund and its responsible entity Falcon Capital nearly one year after investors were locked out from accessing their funds. ASIC first started its investigation into First Guardian in early 2024.

"We've taken a more interventionist and aggressive stance on these collapses than I think we've done in any other matter. We've stood up around 50-60 people who are working almost around the clock on these issues, and investigations of this nature that involve the dispersion of funds and monies both internationally and to various places domestically, they do take time," Court said.

"As I said, our first priority here was to make sure that we recovered money for investors. I appreciate, investors will very much want to see people behind this held to account. What we were conscious about doing was making sure that we returned money to them, and we have made progress in that. We would absolutely like to do more."

ASIC currently has 14 proceedings in the Federal Court against 26 defendants relating to these issues. This includes recent action against Equity Trustees for allegedly failing to meet its trustee obligations and not act in members' best financial interests when onboarding the First Guardian Master Fund.

"This is the second action we have taken against Equity Trustees and the fifth against a super trustee as part of our investigations. It means that ASIC has now commenced proceedings against every super trustee that made Shield or First Guardian available on its platform. This work to date has resulted in the return to investors of more than $400 million," Court said.