In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- Not independently verified
- Birthplace
- Not independently verified
- Country
- Australia
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Co-founding Finder after digital-agency work and developing a comparison business with international operations
- Early partnership
- Freestyle Media with Frank Restuccia
- Agency transition
- Sale in 2007; departure in October 2009
- US expansion
- Finder launch in July 2015
- Reviewed Finder office
- Founder and executive chair, not the current CEO
Why this life matters
His career illustrates how a business directing customers towards other providers can expand into new services with different commercial and regulatory responsibilities.
Timeline
Key moments
Finance studies and a digital agency
Studies finance at Macquarie and builds Freestyle Media with Restuccia.
Comparison enterprise begins
Finder’s current leadership account dates the founders’ start to this year; Cabral joins later.
Agency sale and handover
Sells Freestyle Media, then remains until the earn-out period ends in October 2009.
US launch
Finder’s historical profile dates expansion to the United States to July.
Finder Earn and enforcement
The separate Finder Wallet product is withdrawn; ASIC begins civil proceedings.
Dismissal and appeal
The Federal Court dismisses the case; the Full Court dismisses ASIC’s appeal.
Executive chair and reported closure
Finder lists Schebesta as executive chair and reports in September that the case’s costs have been paid.
An agency supplied the first sustained enterprise experience
Schebesta’s early work was in digital marketing rather than banking. Finder’s biographical account says he formed Freestyle Media with Frank Restuccia while studying finance at Macquarie University. It records study, not proof of a completed degree. The partnership brought together a business education in progress and the practical work of attracting customers online.
The agency was sold in 2007, but that was not his immediate departure. A SmartCompany interview first published in June 2010 describes him continuing to work there until October 2009, when the earn-out period ended. This distinction between sale and handover helps explain how one enterprise overlapped with the development of another.
Separate comparison sites developed into the Finder business
By the 2010 interview, Schebesta was working with sites comparing credit cards, home loans and savings accounts. Instead of selling agency services to a client, these businesses attracted people looking for information about a purchasing decision. That altered the relationship between audience, advertiser and the company operating the website.
Finder’s current leadership account dates Schebesta and Restuccia’s beginning to 2006 and identifies Jeremy Cabral as a later-joining co-founder. Those compressed founding descriptions should not obscure the period of parallel work or the contribution of several people. Schebesta’s role was central, but neither the comparison concept nor every subsequent business function was his alone.
International expansion retained an intermediary business model
Finder’s historical profile dates its US launch to July 2015. Taking the brand into another market extended a business already operating across several product categories. It did not make the comparison site the lender, insurer or telecommunications provider behind everything it displayed. The distinction between a referral business and a product issuer remained important.
Its current disclosure describes income from referrals, sponsored placements and advertising, and says commercial arrangements can affect default table order. It also says the service does not compare every provider. These are substantive limits to an intermediary’s offering. Describing the enterprise only as helping consumers would omit the arrangements through which that help is commercially financed.
Finder Earn introduced a different product and a contested legal boundary
The later Finder Earn service was operated by Finder Wallet Pty Ltd, not simply by the comparison pages as an abstract brand. ASIC challenged the product’s licensing and disclosure position through civil proceedings begun in 2022. The case turned on whether it was a debenture under the Corporations Act; the regulator’s allegations were not findings of personal guilt against Schebesta.
Justice Markovic dismissed the proceeding with costs on 14 March 2024 because the required classification was not established. The Full Court dismissed ASIC’s appeal on 24 July 2025. By then the respondent was named Wallet Ventures Pty Ltd. The two decisions concern the particular pleaded product and transactions, not a general ruling that all crypto-related services are unregulated.
The reviewed leadership role is executive chair, not chief executive
As reviewed on 24 October 2026, Finder listed Schebesta as founder and executive chair, Restuccia as CEO, and Cabral as co-founder and special adviser. Calling Schebesta the current CEO would collapse different offices into a founder’s identity. A September 2026 company update also reported that ASIC had paid the case and appeal costs and described the case as closed.
That update is the company’s attributed account of the concluded dispute, not evidence that Finder itself closed or that every conceivable legal question had been decided. Schebesta’s career connects digital promotion, comparison publishing and product development. Its important lesson is the change in responsibilities as an enterprise moves between those activities, rather than a simple story of disruption overcoming every constraint.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Fred Schebesta
- Is Fred Schebesta Finder’s current CEO?
- The reviewed leadership page lists him as founder and executive chair. Frank Restuccia is CEO.
- Did he leave Freestyle Media immediately after its sale?
- No. The historical interview records the 2007 sale and his continued work there until October 2009.
- Was the Finder Earn proceeding against Schebesta personally?
- The defendant was Finder Wallet Pty Ltd, later named Wallet Ventures Pty Ltd. This was not a personal prosecution of Schebesta.
- Did the appeal approve every cryptocurrency product?
- No. It upheld dismissal of a case based on the pleaded classification of Finder Earn. ASIC expressly warned that other crypto-related offerings may be financial products.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Matt Barrie
Compare two digital enterprises whose founders faced distinct questions about corporate obligations and accountability.
- Mark Bouris
Explore the difference between an intermediary’s brand, its distribution arrangements and the entity supplying a financial product.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. FinderFounder biography: finance studies, Freestyle Media partnership and July 2015 US launch; historical profile, not a current CEO designation
Historical company biography supplies studies and early partnership, not a verified graduation, birthday, birthplace or unchanged current title. Nationality is not inferred from an Australian business association.
- 2. James Thomson / SmartCompanyInterview first published 2 June 2010, republished January 2011: opening account of the 2007 agency sale and October 2009 departure
- 3. FinderCurrent leadership entries: Schebesta executive chair, Restuccia CEO, Cabral special adviser and shared founding chronology
Current offices reviewed on 24 October 2026; several founders and different leadership responsibilities are preserved.
- 4. Taylor Blackburn / Finder24 July 2025 company response, 11 September 2026 costs/closure update and actual commercial-disclosure passages
September 2026 costs/closure statement attributed to Finder. Broader promotional assertions of complete legal compliance are not adopted; the update does not prove corporate winding-up or extinction of every possible future legal avenue.
- 5. Federal Court of Australia[2024] FCA 228: orders, opening issue and selected reasons/conclusion, especially paragraphs 94–105
- 6. Full Federal Court of Australia[2025] FCAFC 93, 24 July 2025: orders and selected product/characterisation reasons, paragraphs 1–7 and 30–44
Actual court orders and selected reasons read, not an exhaustive docket. The 2025 product classification and respondent’s changed company name are kept distinct from any personal liability claim.
- 7. Australian Securities and Investments Commission10 April 2024 appeal announcement and historical product/withdrawal background
- 8. Australian Securities and Investments Commission24 July 2025: appeal dismissed and regulator’s warning that other crypto-related products may be financial products
- 9. Timmy Shen / The Block14 March 2024: independent report of dismissal, costs and the then-available appeal period
- 10. LouiseFerguson / Wikimedia CommonsComplete Sydney portrait: 28 July 2015 first upload, photographer-declared own work and self CC BY-SA 4.0 grant, sole file version
Exact first-upload own-work/self commercial grant and current record agree. The complete already-black-and-white published photograph is retained; no new monochrome conversion or retouching was applied.
- 11. Creative CommonsAttribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
