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* Opes unravels

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* Mark Hawthorne
* April 5, 2008
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THERE are plenty of people hurting this weekend and licking their wounds after the collapse of Opes Prime.

This week, BusinessDay has tracked the varying fortunes of company directors, GT Ford collectors, nightclub owners, partners of Truth Media and group of gentlemen who like to regard themselves as "good fellas".

At the centre of Full Disclosure's probing has been the fortunes of Leo Khouri, a day trader known as "The Gun" with a string of stakes in small-cap listed companies.

According to a source, the ASX-listed companies Range Resources, Solagran, BioProspect and Boss Energy are all known around town as "Khouri companies" due to the size of his shareholdings and the influence he seems to have on management.

Indeed, many have pondered how Khouri and these companies have not shown up on substantial shareholder notices for Range Resources, Solagran and BioProspect.

"Many people see Leo pop up on their share register after their IPO and are happy to take his money to begin with," a Melbourne-based broker told BusinessDay. "But they aren't so happy if he sticks around on their share register for a long period of time."

By his own admission, Khouri has done $12 million of his own cash amid the Opes Prime crash. He says another $38 million from business associates has been caught up in the mess.

Khouri spent the better part of the week shopping around for a solicitor willing to take on a class action against ANZ, which has seized his shares.

After Clayton Utz knocked him back, lawyers Logie-Smith Lanyon took on the class action. Khouri is apparently asking Opes Prime victims to put up $6000 each to fund the action.

While the losses will hurt Khouri, many peers say it won't wipe him out. On the trading website hotcopper.com.au, some regard "The Gun" as a trading legend.

Indeed, such is Khouri's success that he and close friend and associate Steve Dellidis own 16 rare GT Fords and GTHO Falcons that are well known around the country.

While Deloitte's forensic investigators sift through the wreckage of Opes Prime, others are looking into the relationship between Khouri and Perth solicitor Peter Landau, and a string of coincidences.

Landau, now apparently in London, is executive director and company secretary of Range Resources, a Perth-based oil and mineral explorer that is drilling for oil in Puntland, Somalia.

Khouri is share owner and a consultant to the company, and has travelled to Puntland as part of a Range Resources delegation.

The company even took a happy snap of directors presenting local "government officials" with a cheque for $US250,000. Word is, Puntland is a place where the terms "government official" and "warlord" are almost interchangeable.

Landau, formerly of Melbourne, is also a director of listed small-cap biotech and "Khouri company" BioProspect.

Landau was rewarded with the issue of 10 million shares in BioProspect last month. That was for his "consulting services" after BioProspect signed a commercial agreement with Solagran — another "Khouri company".

There should be plenty to keep investigators busy next week.