its sickening, page-39

It appears that the plot is thickening.

Have aread at this one. Opes prime and Admiralty.

"Opes gave lawyer a car Ben Butler
August 17, 2011
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Sydney lawyer Chris Murphy, who was Opes Prime's biggest customer, says he was offered a luxury Maserati.

SYDNEY lawyer Chris Murphy, Opes Prime's biggest customer, met Julian Smith at a lunch during the sharemarket boom and was offered a luxury Maserati for being the stockbroker's most treasured client.

''I had lunch with him once at [Sydney restaurant] Wildfire and they gave me a car, and I think I said, 'Thank you','' Mr Murphy told the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday.

But the Maserati soon developed a $6000 fault in its oil sump, and he never drove it again, he said. ''I thought it was a spiv's car,'' he said. ''I traded it in for a Corolla.''

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A Maserati GanCabrio Sport, the same brand of car Chris Murphy was offered.
Mr Murphy was appearing by videolink from Sydney with his counsel, Charles Waterstreet, by his side, to tell the Melbourne courtroom about his relationship with Opes Prime and its executives.

His evidence was part of a preliminary Supreme Court hearing ahead of the trial next April of Smith, an Opes Prime director who has pleaded not guilty to four charges over his role in the March 2008 collapse of the share-lending firm.

The court also heard from former Opes Prime executive Anthony Blumberg, who was brought to the hearing from jail, and mining figure Norm Seckold, whose request for the return of his Admiralty Resources shares that month caused panic inside Opes Prime.

On Monday, former chief executive Laurie Emini told the court he considered Mr Murphy a friend up until January 2008, but yesterday Mr Murphy attacked his former broker.

In direct contradiction to evidence given by Emini, Mr Murphy told the court Emini promised him he would never face a margin call on his stock loan at Opes Prime.

''I had a much-repeated undertaking from Laurie that he would always cover me,'' he said.

He said that at the time he also did not understand that legal title to his stock, mainly shares in his friend James Packer's Challenger group, had been handed over to Opes Prime's financier ANZ.

''To my way of thinking these were people with my stock in the cupboard and the bank was minding them,'' he told the court.

Mr Seckold told the court he also believed ANZ would be holding his shares on trust. ''Erroneously, as it turned out, I thought they would be holding them as custodian,'' he said. He said there was ''no real catalyst'' for his decision to reclaim his shares in March 2008.

Blumberg told the court Mr Seckold's attempt to reclaim his $95 million share parcel and a $116 million hole in Mr Murphy's account became the two major issues of concern as Opes Prime entered its death spiral in March 2008. But he said the ''unbelievable'' hole in Mr Murphy's account was the greater of the two problems.

The preliminary hearing has finished and Smith's trial is to begin on April 11 next year.