FEELING "very ripped off", a client of failed broker Opes Prime is wondering what has become of his quarter-of-a-million-dollar house deposit.
The client, who asked to remain anonymous, said he held more than $1 million in shares in an Opes Prime margin lending account, which was about 80% leveraged.
"When I signed the agreement 2½ years ago, I believed it was a straight, vanilla-flavoured margin-lending agreement — not an agreement where I loaned my shares to them to do whatever they wanted to do with them," he said.
"I even showed my lawyer the agreement over the weekend, and it took him a while to work it out, too. It was a few pages long, but it was in very tiny print.
"I'm a bit annoyed that my shares have been sold the way they have been and the main thing is that I was in effect duped into signing them away under false pretences, thinking that it was just a normal margin lending contract."
The client, who said he was familiar with margin lending agreements, said he had planned to use the money to get out of the rental market.
"My wife and myself were going to be using this as a deposit on a home," he said. "And she's pregnant now, as well."
The Opes Prime client said he was referred to the group by an acquaintance and, until last week, had been happy with the service.
But that positive evaluation has been replaced by anger.
"I'll definitely be thinking of legal action if we don't get our funds back through the normal course of affairs," the man said.
"We'll either join a class action, of I'll get my lawyer to draw up proceedings in some way or manner."
