God knows what really happened with this tangled web of crooks,...

God knows what really happened with this tangled web of crooks, this from the Age, May 8th 2008:-

In a separate case, the Supreme Court of Victoria will hear on Friday an application by Panopus Plc, a company registered in the Malaysian tax haven of Labuan and which is associated with Admiralty Resources director Phillip Thomas.

Mr Thomas wants Opes Prime or ANZ to transfer back to Panopus 23.25 million Admiralty Resources shares which Panopus deposited with Opes last year as collateral for funds borrowed by Mr Thomas.

A writ filed by Panopus claims that on March 20 Mr Thomas transferred $1.2 million to his account at Opes Prime and at the same time asked the company to release 23.25 million Admiralty shares.

At this time, Opes Prime was in tense negotiations with ANZ as it tried to stave off bankruptcy.

It had just uncovered huge discrepancies in its margin-loan accounts.

The stockbroker had also assumed losses of up to $200 million because clients had not been called when their share portfolios sank below critical valuation thresholds.

Mr Thomas claims that on March 25 Opes told ANZ to transfer the shares but nothing happened.

Two days later, the broker was placed in receivership.