Two shareholders of Allco Finance Group have failed in their Federal Court application to obtain documents relating to an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission into the collapse of the former investment bank. In dismissing the application, the judge was critical of the attempt to access ASIC documents to assess the chances of a class action.Allco was put into receivership by Westpac in November 2008 on behalf of the group's senior lending syndicate, with debts owed to the secured creditors in excess of A$700 million. By early 2013, the liquidators were convinced that there would not be sufficient net assets recovered to discharge all of those debts in full.Shareholders Alan and Patricia Hewson took on Peter Gothard and Steven Sherman, the receivers of Allco, seeking to gain access to transcripts and related documentation of examinations conducted by ASIC of former officers and directors of the failed investment bank. ASIC interviewed key managers of Allco, in particular Gordon Fell and David Coe, for several days each in 2009. (Coe died from a suspected heart attack in January 2013).In all, ASIC's investigation into Allco's affairs ran from February 2008 until "late 2010". The ASIC transcripts and documents were obtained by the receivers in 2010 in the course of their examination of Allco under the Corporations Act. They gave strict undertakings to maintain the confidentiality of the information.In January 2012, the receivers sought court approval to be released from these confidentiality undertakings as, at the time, one course of action being considered was action against Fell and Coe for contraventions of the duties owed by them to Allco in relation to what Justice Foster called "the Rubicon transaction". This concession was granted by the Federal Court to the receivers.The Rubicon transaction saw Allco enter into an agreement, in October 2007, with companies associated with Fell, Coe and Matthew Cooper to acquire the 79.6 per cent of the issued shares in RHL which Allco did not already own, subject to the approval of Allco's shareholders. At that time, Coe and Fell were directors of RHL, which was the holding company of the Rubicon Group, a financial services group with expertise in funds origination and management, especially for international real estate assets.Allco's shareholders voted to approve the Rubicon transaction on 12 December 2007 and the transaction was completed on 19 December 2007. The total cash paid by Allco for the Rubicon transaction was $63.7 million. The balance was to be paid by issuing nearly 24 million new ordinary shares in Allco.In 2008 and 2009, Fell produced thousands of documents to ASIC relating to Allco, including documents relating to the Rubicon transaction. He was also questioned by ASIC for five days over this transaction, during which Fell made claims of privilege against self-incrimination and exposure to a civil penalty.Coe was also questioned in 2009 by ASIC about this transaction, Allco's compliance with its banking covenants and Allco's continuing disclosure obligations. Coe also made claims for privilege against self-incrimination and exposure to a civil penalty