A Greek rich man lost the money of 14000 investors

Hundreds clients of the Storm Financial Organization, a company providing financial services had taken legal action against the biggest bank of Australia, the Commonwealth Bank, claiming compensation.

Emmanuel Cassimatis and his wife, Julie, were the jetsetting founders of this firm which had 14.000 clients when it went bankrupt. As a result, the investments of these clients were lost. Among the victims are also many Greeks from Townsville where the couple lives. The two entrepreneurs were a fixture of the Townsville social scene, and they led an inner-circle of devoted investors on opulent junkets around the world.

The Storm investors borrowed money to buy shares but when the worldwide financial crisis bursted, they lost 3 billion dollars in Australia. Many of the investors lost their money but also there were some that lost their houses which have mortgaged in order to borrow money. Apart from Storm, they also put the blame on the Commonwealth Bank. The bank has already accepted part of the responsibility as it accepted to compensate 2000 clients of the Storm Financial Organization. However, about 300 of them were not satisfied by the amount and appealed to Justice.

Little has been seen of the couple since early last year when Cassimatis promised in a media release he would continue a ”crusade” for justice for his clients ”until my dying breath”. Then, he had claimed that part of the responsibility for the loss of money has also the bank that lent money to the investors.

In another rare public foray, Cassimatis wrote to investors in March ”as a concerned friend”, criticising a CBA dispute resolution scheme and recommending a law firm for investors to pursue action against the banks.

According to the newspaper “The Sunday Mail”, the 2000 Greeks of Townsville are split. Half of them support Cassimatis fanatically while the rest of them charged him for their losses.

Two years ago, Cassimatis family was among the 100 most rich families of the Queensland.