Jailed director's parents pay $340,000

The parents of disgraced Opes Prime director Anthony Blumberg pay the failed stock lender.

By InvestSMART · 8 Sep 2011

By InvestSMART ·
8 Sep 2011

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The parents of disgraced Opes Prime director Anthony Blumberg pay the failed stock lender.

THE parents of disgraced, jailed Opes Prime director Anthony Blumberg have paid the failed stock lender $340,000, part of $4.5 million recovered by the company's administrator earlier this year.

Accounts filed by Opes Prime's administrator, John Lindholm, of Ferrier Hodgson, show the single biggest payment collected in the six months between February and July was about $3.5 million - a payout from Opes Prime's investment in power management company Energy Response.

Former Opes Prime staff also made payments, totalling about $5000.

Mr Lindholm filed the accounts in his role as administrator of a scheme of arrangement under which Opes Prime's bankers, ANZ and Merrill Lynch, have so far paid 37? in the dollar to former customers owed about $610 million.

The accounts list the $340,200 received from Basil and Carole Blumberg on June 10 as ''accounts receivable (pre-appointment)''.

It is believed the money is the proceeds of the sale of an apartment at the Brighton on Bay Retirement Village bought by the couple in March 2008, just before Opes Prime's collapse.

Ferrier Hodgson and the Blumbergs had been locked in a dispute over the apartment, with the insolvency firm insisting the apartment was bought using money from a company in the Opes Prime group, Leveraged Capital.

A receptionist at the Brighton on Bay Retirement Village said the couple had bought the apartment but never moved in.

A $3.5 million payment from Energy Response was the proceeds of the sale of the company to US group EnerNOC in early July, Energy Response executive director Ross Fraser said.

He said Opes Prime's private equity arm, Hawkswood, ''invested in Energy Response a number of years ago''.

''They therefore received a payment for those shares when EnerNOC took over the company,'' he said. Energy Response is a middleman between power companies and big power users.

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Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…

Who paid money back to Opes Prime in the recent recovery?

According to the article, Basil and Carole Blumberg — the parents of jailed Opes Prime director Anthony Blumberg — paid $340,200 to the failed stock lender. The administrator, John Lindholm of Ferrier Hodgson, also collected other payments including a large payout from the sale of Energy Response.

How much money has Opes Prime’s administrator recovered so far?

The article says the company's administrator recovered about $4.5 million earlier in the year and filed accounts showing further collections, including a roughly $3.5 million payout tied to the sale of Energy Response.

What was the single biggest payment collected by Opes Prime’s administrator?

The single biggest payment reported for the six months between February and July was about $3.5 million, which came from Opes Prime’s investment in power-management company Energy Response after its sale to US group EnerNOC.

Why did Basil and Carole Blumberg pay $340,200 to Opes Prime?

The accounts show $340,200 was received from Basil and Carole Blumberg on June 10 as 'accounts receivable (pre-appointment)'. The article says it’s believed the money came from the sale of an apartment the couple bought at Brighton on Bay Retirement Village in March 2008, and there had been a dispute between Ferrier Hodgson and the Blumbergs about whether the apartment was bought using funds from an Opes Prime group company, Leveraged Capital.

Who is administering the Opes Prime recovery and what is their role?

John Lindholm of insolvency firm Ferrier Hodgson is the administrator who filed the accounts. He is administering a scheme of arrangement under which the company’s bankers have been making repayments to former customers.

Have Opes Prime’s bankers made any repayments to customers?

Yes. The article states that Opes Prime’s bankers, ANZ and Merrill Lynch, have made repayments under the scheme of arrangement to former customers who were owed about $610 million.

What is Energy Response and why did its sale matter to Opes Prime recovery?

Energy Response is described in the article as a middleman between power companies and large power users. Opes Prime’s private equity arm, Hawkswood, had invested in Energy Response years earlier, and when US group EnerNOC bought Energy Response, Opes Prime (via those shares) received a payout that produced the roughly $3.5 million recovery.

Did former Opes Prime staff contribute to the recovery efforts?

Yes. The article says former Opes Prime staff made payments totaling about $5,000 as part of the amounts collected by the administrator.