The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has formed a special team to investigate whether the activities of Opes Prime Group were in breach of the Corporations Act.
Late last week directors of the financial services firm appointed John Lindholm of Ferrier Hodgson as voluntary administrator.
The administrator was called in when Opes Prime Group directors became aware of a number of cash and stock movement irregularities in relation to a small number of accounts.
As a result of shortfalls in the accounts the directors felt that trading operations should cease.
The company’s secured creditor ANZ has appointed Deloitte Corporate Reorganisation Group members Sal Algeri and Chris Campbell as receivers and managers of Opes Prime Group Ltd, Opes Prime Stockbroking Ltd, Leveraged Capital Pty Ltd and Hawkswood Investments Pty Ltd.
The receivers have taken steps in conjunction with the Australian Securities Exchange to suspend all on market trading activity of both Opes Prime Stockbroking and Leverage Capital.
It will take some time to reconcile the position of all these transactions. The receivers have frozen all client accounts, including client direct trading facilities, for both Opes Prime Stock Broking and Leveraged Capital.
The receivers will communicate directly with Opes Prime’s client network regarding their accounts.
