Top chef Scott Pickett faces court grilling over collapse of super fund

Top chef Scott Pickett will be hauled to a public examination over his multimillion-dollar dealings with the boss of notorious collapsed super fund First Guardian.

Pickett will face a grilling from liquidators to the collapsed scheme who are trying to learn more about the fund’s manager, David Anderson, and his oversight of the First Guardian investment scheme.

The former MasterChef guest judge is expected to be peppered with questions over his dealings with Anderson, particularly a decision to waive any repayment of the $13 million of funding First Guardian had provided to Pickett and Anderson’s joint hospitality business, Rogue Traders.

The date of the restaurateur’s examination is yet to be set by the court, but liquidators from FTI Consulting said they expected it to take place by the end of the year.

First Guardian’s liquidators and receivers are continuing to claw back as much of the lost funds as possible, including recently selling Anderson’s Hawthorn mansion.

The scheme collapsed in mid-2025 wiping out $512 million of super savings invested by 6000 people.

In formal court action launched on Friday, the corporate watchdog accused Anderson of mismanaging the fund by spending investor money on his pet projects, including his Rogue Traders business partnership with Pickett.

Anderson is also accused of using tens of millions of dollars of investor money to pay allegedly illegal commissions to people spruiking the scheme, in what the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has described as “industrial-scale misconduct”.

He is expected to vigorously defend the allegations. There is no suggestion that Pickett had any oversight of the fund, and he is not listed as a defendant in the ASIC case or any other legal matter.

Pickett was contacted for comment.

He told this masthead in July that he had also been affected by the collapse of the fund.

“The collapse of First Guardian cost my business its major financial backer and forced the appointment of administrators,” he said.

“I feel deeply for everyone affected, and I’m co-operating fully with the liquidators.”

The examinations of Pickett and others who received First Guardian cash from Anderson are expected to be a new avenue of inquiry for liquidators who are struggling to produce any meaningful return to investors.

Last week, the fund’s liquidators told investors they had recouped only $8 million from selling investments that had been listed on First Guardian’s books as being worth $118.38 million.

This thin return did not include the sale of Anderson’s mansion backing onto the Yarra River, which the fund manager allegedly bought using investor funds for $9.04 million in late 2020. The property was seized by receivers in mid-2025, just days after Anderson and his family moved out.

The architecturally designed property with a pool and extensive grounds sold for a knockdown price of $7.04 million – an 18 per cent discount to its purchase price.

Little of that cash will flow to investors, however, because of the number of large corporate creditors who were also owed money by Anderson and who had registered their security over the designer home.

Liquidators confirmed in the same update that they would be seeking to examine Pickett and others over the fund’s dealings and to see what other recoveries they might still be able to make.

Pickett and Anderson set up the Rogue Traders partnership in June 2020, and Anderson arranged for the business to receive $13 million of investor funds, according to recent court action launched by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The money allowed Pickett to roll out a suite of new venues at a time when the rest of Melbourne’s hospitality industry was under immense financial pressure from pandemic restrictions.

These included buying Thai-inspired fine diner Longrain and its sister bar Longsong, as well as a Little Collins Street venue that would become Pickett’s swanky Chancery Lane bistro.

In early 2022, Smith Street Bistrot – hatted by Good Food – joined Pickett’s portfolio of venues.

Another of Pickett’s restaurants, Matilda on Domain Road in South Yarra, was also wrapped into the Rogue Traders business, along with catering and other companies tied to his restaurant empire.

Anderson was not just a director of Rogue Traders alongside Pickett, he was also a director of each of the venues, according to corporate filings.

Anderson resigned as a director of the companies in early 2025 amid the investigation by the corporate regulator into the management of First Guardian.

Rogue Traders entered administration in September last year owing its creditors $27 million.

The company was in turn owed $21 million by the five Pickett restaurants and other related companies, including the food prep business for Pickett’s venues that it owned.

Despite the collapse of Rogue Traders, none of Pickett’s restaurants closed, and all staff were paid and vouchers honoured during the administration.

Pickett has since restructured his business, closed Matilda and exited his venues within the Continental Hotel complex in Sorrento.

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