Opes Prime: What transpired?

This article goes through the lead up to Opes Prime collapse and gives a good summary of why it fell over and what questions are still unanswered.

It is a little harsh on ANZ in my opinion, saying:

"Yet, knowing that Opes was dealing internally with highly questionable share transactions, knowing that its financial position was extremely precarious, and knowing that Opes has called in an insolvency specialist to examine its books, ANZ lent it $95 million."

To be fair to ANZ, although it probably did know all of this it most likely came to the conclusion that without further immediate assistance Opes was going to go under. ANZ had Deloitte in there and would have been closely following Opes from the time of its margin call and would have believed that with the extra loan to, and strict controls over, Opes it might trade through, this would be the best result for everyone (including ANZ).

It wasn't until after Opes collapsed that the more dodgy dealings would have become known to ANZ. At the stage it made the further loan of $95 million it was (according the public reporting) aware of margin calls not being made against some of Opes clients, but, almost perversely with the benefit of hindsight, this makes Opes position look slightly stronger. Opes was, to ANZ, in trouble but it had several clients it could make margin calls on, it would have looked like Opes was suffering a liquidity problem (i.e. not being able to pay its debts as they fall due) rather than a solvency problem (i.e. its liabilities exceeding its assets).

A far more serious issue then ANZ's last minute loan is raised in this article. This alleges that Opes was lending money to Tricom (another distressed, although not yet collapsed, finance company) in return for illiquid securities in full knowledge of ANZ and Merrill Lynch and the ASX in order to keep Tricom afloat.