Perth broker CPS Capital’s wild coincidencesMichael...

Perth broker CPS Capital’s wild coincidencesMichael RoddanNational correspondentNov 15, 2022 – 6.14pmSaveShareThere’s nothing quite as icky as wading through the small end of the Australian listed equites market, where cash-desperate hucksters and tight shareholder registers meet HotCopper pump and dump enthusiasts.In this vein, ASX-listed “wellness” penny stock Wellfully was suspended by the exchange on Tuesday until it meets the requirement to have sufficient directors on its board.The job appears to wholly consist of lurking on gruesome online forum HotCopper. Virginia StarCoincidentally, the suspension was granted a day after we explored the company’s inexplicable issuing of shares and options to an entity called Dyamond Trading and Consulting, ostensibly for “investor relation services, including social and business media”. Also known as lurking and posting on gruesome online forum HotCopper.Dyamond’s directors conscripted for the enviable task are Krystal Hatzipapas (a National Australia Bank valuer) and Savva Hatzipapas (a fruiterer), who are the children of George Hatzipapas, a HotCopper aficionado and the bankrupt former chair of delisted ASX minnow Zyber, ground zero for a series of highly irregular payments under his watch.His wife Argiroula Hatzipapas is the remaining director of GAKS Investment Holdings (GAKS is an acronym of the Hatzipapas clan’s names), which fell into liquidation this year owing about $300,000 in legal fees and judgement debts related to a civil lawsuit that accused George of misappropriating investor funds .What’s interesting, however, is that the issuance of shares to Dyamond by Wellfully coincided with a recent $2.3 million placement led by Perth stockbroker CPS Capital, which sloshes around the speculative end of Australia’s small-cap market.It would be mighty strange if CPS Capital, led by managing director Jason Peterson, wasn’t familiar with the Brisbane-based Hatzipapas family, given the wild coincidences on offer. In fact, some may cynically believe CPS Capital has a good reason to snuggle up to Dyamond and GAKS, given the incentives are often neatly aligned.Take, for instance, the ASX-listed pot stock Zelira Therapeutics, where Peterson was a director from 2016 to January this year (he was paid $7000 in capital raising fees in FY21, after CPS Capital led a $4.6 million raising for the company).Curiously, in 2019, GAKS Investment Holdings was issued 2 million options “for investor relations services” to Zelira. The company’s annual report showed that as of August this year, GAKS had 11,429 options left.