ASIC has secured orders from the Federal Court in Melbourne preventing the directors of embattled stock broking firm Opes Prime from leaving the country.
The application for the orders came as a result of a witness interview the regulator conducted regading trading irregularities within Opes Prime.
Under the direction of the court all three directors have now surrendered their passports. Lirim Emini has handed his passport over to ASIC while Anthony Blumberg and Julian Smith have both given their passports to their legal advisers.
Emini will now have to request the return of his passport from ASIC with a 48 hours notice period should he want to travel overseas.
Blumberg and Smith have to lodge a similar request if they intend to leave the country, but with a seven day notice period.
The orders remain valid until October 3, 2008.
The news comes days after reports that Opes Prime investors had launched a class action against the stock broking firm in the Melbourne Federal Court.
The announcement has also been made amidst investor allegations that both ASIC and the Australian Securities Exchange had not done enough to prevent the sale of Opes Prime stocks while the ownership of the shares were in dispute.
