Morrogh investors unhappy at 'shameless' treatment

Investors in failed stockbroker Morrogh claim they have been let down by the receiver and by the regulators.

The Morrogh Action Group says that money that many of its members relied on "for their ordinary needs" has been withheld for no reason and that the 2,500 out-of-pocket investors have been treated "shamelessly".

In an open letter to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, the governor of the Central Bank, Mr John Hurley, and the Irish Stock Exchange, the group has called for more openness in how the fallout of the collapse is being handled.

It also accuses all three of not doing enough to ensure the protection of defrauded investors and the integrity of the State's investment industry.

"A receiver was appointed as what we believed to be our representative," said Mr Liam Shorten and Mr David Beechinor, writing on behalf of the group.

They expressed concern that the High Court had made an order allowing the receiver recourse to the assets of the firm, which includes their shares held in nominee accounts, to pay his fees and expenses.

The group is still considering appealing the decision to the Supreme Court.

The group maintains that shareholdings of the 2,500 investors whose funds and investments were held electronically in nominee accounts had been reconciled and the owners identified "a good year before the High Court application".

They want to know why those shareholdings were not then returned to the owners when investments held by way of paper share certificates were returned to those who owned them.

"For two-and-a-half years we have been denied access to what was left of our shareholdings," the group says in the letter.

The Morrogh Action Group is understood to be particularly concerned at its inability to get the receiver, Mr Tom Grace of PricewaterhouseCoopers, to give them a confirmed valuation of the assets in the frozen nominee accounts.

At the time of the High Court action that sanctioned Mr Grace using funds held by the broker at the time of the collapse to help pay the costs of the receivership, it was stated that the frozen funds were valued at around €5 million.

That estimate is understood to have risen considerably since as stock markets recovered. The frozen funds are now understood to be worth around €15 million.

However, Mr Grace has not produced any written update on the valuation, according to the Morrogh Action Group.

A spokeswoman for Mr Grace last night said he would not comment on client matters.

Morrogh's closed in May 2001 when it emerged that junior partner Mr Stephen Pearson had been using client funds to trade on his own account as he racked up losses in futures trading.