A former director of Opes Prime, Laurie Emini, has been charged with additional offences arising from an ASIC investigation into the company's collapse.
Emini has been charged with 22 offences of breaching his duties as a director of Opes Prime and another company of which he was a director, Leveraged Capital.
ASIC alleges that on a number of occasions between July 2006 and February 2008, Emini caused the false recording of securities in the records of Opes Prime and Leveraged Capital so that securities were recorded as being held by more than one client at the same time.
The result of this false recording was that the records of Opes Prime and Leveraged Capital were not a true reflection of the state of those companies' securities holdings and consequently, their respective financial positions. The value of these securities was in excess of $50 million.
ASIC alleges that in causing the false recordings to be made, Emini was intentionally dishonest and failed to exercise and discharge his duties in good faith in the best interests of Opes Prime and Leveraged Capital.
In January this year, Emini was charged with four separate offences of breaching his duties as a director of Opes Prime and associated companies. His co-directors, Julian Smith and Anthony Blumberg, were also charged with those offences.
In March 2008, Opes Prime was placed in administration and receivers and managers were appointed. Opes Prime had more than 650 active client accounts and creditors were owed approximately $630 million when the company collapsed.
