The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is resisting a subpoena for documents supposedly central to establishing the whereabouts of $123 million in missing Trio Capital funds.
The refusal to hand over documents subpoenaed by Trio Capital's administrators, PPB, has resulted in PPB's public examination of Trio's investment managers, Shawn Richard and Eugene Liu, being postponed from next week until mid-July.
''In the circumstances, we have delayed the examinations until we are able to access this further information,'' the administrator, Neil Singleton, said yesterday. PPB had subpoenaed documents from ASIC in the hope it would help establish the whereabouts and value of $125 million in assets invested through Astarra Strategic Fund.
PPB has previously stated that it has been unable to establish the existence of $123 million in assets invested in the fund and channelled through the British Virgin Islands.
Mr Richard has claimed he has documents that prove the existence of the assets, but he provided copies only to ASIC.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday ASIC refused to release the documents to PPB. An ASIC spokeswoman was unable to comment about the reasons for the refusal.
In an unrelated development, PPB has said it is hopeful of announcing a replacement responsible entity for several Trio Capital funds within seven days.
The switch gives investors in more liquid funds, including the Astarra balanced, conservative and growth funds, the hope of recouping some investments, less the money in impaired assets.
Any move to replace Trio as the responsible entity would require a public meeting with 28 days' notice.
Trio Capital funds with major impairments, including ARP Growth and Astarra Strategic, are being wound up.
