Six thousand Australians who invested hundreds of millions of dollars of their super funds with First Guardian, which collapsed earlier this year, have been told by the fund's liquidator the case will take at least a year to resolve and there may be insufficient funds to pay them back.
00:00So a lot of these investors were looking to reinvest their superannuation and they really
00:09inadvertently got caught up. They got contacted by financial advisors. Those financial advisors
00:15told them to roll their super money, either all of it or part of it, into a Retail Choice Super
00:22Fund and those Retail Choice Super Funds were connected to this First Guardian Master Fund.
00:27Now, a lot of the investors didn't even know their money was going ultimately into this
00:32First Guardian Master Fund. And we're talking massive amounts of people, 6,000 people, and
00:39we're talking massive amounts of money, like at least $500 million worth of their super
00:44money that they may never get back. And it's really important to distinguish between this
00:49just being an investment that people make to this being actually their superannuation savings,
00:55their retirement savings.
00:57Can you explain a bit more why there is a real fear that the investors are not going
01:01to get their money back?
01:02Yeah, so the Liquidators report just came out this week, and that has said while about
01:07$500 million or a bit under that's owed to investors, the money that was being channelled into the
01:14First Guardian Fund was actually, a lot of it was going offshore. So $242 million was being
01:21allegedly channelled offshore by its former director then or then director David Anderson. A lot of the money was being invested or loaned to other entities associated with David Anderson. Now, we've gone to David Anderson for comment. His lawyers have told us that he doesn't want trial by media, and he'll be making appropriate comments at the appropriate time on this matter.
01:46And I guess the people that are stressed and anxious about getting their money back just want a quick resolution, but that doesn't seem likely.
01:52No, and that's something that was their worst fears really came realised with that Liquidators report that's been released that's basically said there is a shortfall in funds, and they may not get their money back. And, you know, they've said it's going to take at least 12 months to kind of go through this and be able to wind up the company. And it could potentially take longer. But in the meantime, you know, we've spoken to a lot of these investors. These are people who really are depending on the company. And it could potentially take longer. But in the meantime, you know, we've spoken to a lot of these investors.
02:22We've spoken to a lot of people who are either at a near retirement or at retirement are really depending on this money. People who've had serious sickness and now can't draw on that money. These are really devastating stories that we're hearing.
02:33We've spoken to a lot of people who are hearing.
