On 27 August 2024, the Federal Court made orders appointing Jason Tracy and Lucica Palaghia of Deloitte as receivers and managers of the property of Keystone Asset Management Ltd (Keystone), the responsible entity for the Shield Master Fund (Shield).

The receivers are required to:

secure the property held by Keystone in its capacity as responsible entity of Shield and trustee of certain other funds
identify how Shield investor funds were used by Keystone
recover Shield investor funds, and
provide a report to the Court within 28 days about the solvency of Keystone and the likely return to creditors and investors in the event that Keystone and Shield were to be wound up.
When handing down his reasons in relation to the appointment of receivers, Justice Moshinsky stated:

“The extent of Keystone’s mismanagement confirms that there is a need to protect the interests of investors from what appear to be conflicts of interest and breaches of trusts…On the basis of the material before the Court, I do not have confidence that the SMF [Shield Master Fund] and ADPF [Advantage Diversified Property Fund] are being managed in the best interests of investors, or that Keystone is capable of providing such management…there are real doubts about the status and value of investments in the SMF and ADPF.”

On 28 August 2024, ASIC was notified that the directors of Keystone had appointed Scott Langdon, Michael Korda and John Mouawad of KordaMentha as voluntary administrators of Keystone.

On 5 September 2024, on ASIC’s application, the Federal Court made orders removing Scott Langdon, Michael Korda and John Mouawad of KordaMentha as voluntary administrators and appointed Mr Tracy and Ms Palaghia of Deloitte as voluntary administrators in addition to their role as receivers. ASIC made this application because it was concerned that having two different sets of insolvency practitioners appointed to Keystone would involve unnecessary duplication of work and deplete the funds available to investors and creditors. It was also concerned that there may be disagreements between the different sets of practitioners about their powers and responsibilities.

Investors can contact the receivers and voluntary administrators with any queries by emailing [email protected].

ASIC’s investigation is ongoing.