gatto draws a blank pun intended the age now

Surprise...Who's cash was he chasing...3 guesses
The Age now.





Gatto gets bad news: the cash is lost



THE hunt to recover Opes Prime's hidden treasure in Singapore came to a halt last night after nervous directors of companies accused of facilitating cash transfers to the British Virgin Islands met underworld figure Mick Gatto.

Jay Moghe - the man Mr Gatto and Opes Prime administrators believe could lead them to missing millions - told Mr Gatto the cash was gone, lost in bad share deals. But he pointed the finger at Sydney solicitor Chris Murphy and the company's principals.

Mr Moghe, with Australian-born Gordon Browne and Raj Maiden - the key players in the Singapore companies acting for Opes Prime - met Mr Gatto at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Mr Moghe said he provided Mr Gatto with all the information he had.

"We are going back to Melbourne," Mr Gatto said. "Unfortunately, we are not going back with bags of money, but we've got to the bottom of a lot of things. There is nothing in Singapore, or the Virgin Islands, that is of any great benefit to the shareholders."

Mr Gatto went to Singapore seeking to recover funds invested by unspecified clients. He said he was satisfied the Singapore trio had done nothing wrong.

Last night, Mr Gatto's ebullient tone shifted. Instead of saying he was "way ahead" of official investigators in the dash for any remaining cash, he said his Singapore trip had prompted them to act.

Before the meeting, Mr Gatto's offsider, John Khoury, suggested the Singapore trio had large amounts of funds linked to Opes in British Virgin Islands accounts.

Australian administrators have taken control of the Virgin Islands-registered company Riqueza, which owes more than $100 million to Opes Prime following a series of suspect share transactions.

Mr Moghe was the sole director and shareholder of Riqueza, but said he had no knowledge of the transactions and no control over the company. He said he was acting at the behest of Opes' Australian bosses.

After Mr Gatto arrived in Singapore on Tuesday, Mr Moghe said he had resigned from Riqueza and would hand all its details and documents to administrator John Lindholm.

Mr Lindholm says tracking the cash that passed through Riqueza was vital if creditors were to recover even a third of their lost $500 million.

Mr Moghe said there had been "unnecessary attention on the Singapore side of things" and that attention should shift back to Opes' chiefs in Australia. "It's fallacious to suggest there are hidden stashes of money anywhere; the negative figures have been caused by losses in the stockmarket," he said.

Mr Browne said the episode had been an "unmitigated disaster" caused by "sheer stupidity", but that investigators should look more closely at Mr Murphy. "Chris Murphy is not a victim, he is the one who has lost $100 million," he said.

One related company owned by Opes' Australian directors should be examined more closely, Mr Browne said.

Perhaps to avoid accusations of intimidation and raising the ire of local authorities, Mr Gatto abandoned plans to visit businessmen involved with Opes Prime's Singapore operations and invited them to come to him.

Coverage of Mr Gatto's past - he has links to the gangland wars and walked free from charges of murdering hitman Andrew "Benji" Veniamin in a Carlton cafe in 2005, on the grounds of self-defence - served only to attract local clients of Opes Prime seeking to recover some of their cash.

It led to the lobby of the Shangri-La Hotel becoming Mr Gatto's de facto office.

Mr Gatto and his friends will return to Australia today, although they claim they may still travel elsewhere in their hunt for the millions.