Manny Rosenthal seeks up to 10 times the value of ‘lost’ deposit made in 1982
A Sydney man has reached a settlement with AMP over a supposedly missing deposit taken out in 1982. “Right was done,” his lawyer said after the agreement was struck over the claim for as much as $200,000.
NSW
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A Sydney man has reached a settlement with AMP over a missing deposit taken out in 1982.
As The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday, Manny Rosenthal, 94, had been seeking as much as $200,000 in the NSW District Court after the funds management giant said it transferred the deposit to its joint venture Chase AMP, which the US bank bought out three years later.
The original deposit was $20,000, with an initial interest rate of 17.5 per cent.
Mr Rosenthal, of Maroubra, put the deposit certificate in his safe and forgot about it until he discovered it last year.
Under the terms of the settlement reached on Friday afternoon, the payout size was kept confidential.
However, Mr Rosenthal’s lawyer John Kambas of JFK Legal said “I can tell you Manny was happy with the result.”
It was a “David and Goliath battle and in the end right was done,” Mr Kambas said.
The $20,000 came from the sale of a piece of land.
The Holocaust survivor placed the investment certificate in his safe and forgot about it, according to a statement of claim filed with the NSW District Court.
Mr Rosenthal, now 94, only discovered the certificate late last year when he was looking for an important document in the safe and found the certificate at the bottom of the pile.
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In the statement of claim, Mr Rosenthal had alleged that when he contacted AMP it said it had no record of his investment.
The claim accuses AMP of having “unlawfully closed” the account or having “negligently misplaced/lost” the funds.
However, Mr Kambas said that after proceedings commenced AMP conceded that in 1988 the money was transferred to its joint venture Chase AMP, which the US bank bought out three years later.
“This was done without Manny’s consent and knowledge,” Mr Kambas, who was once an in-house lawyer at AMP, said on Thursday.
“The fact that AMP took 32 years to tell Manny that they transferred his money – and only after he pushed them for answers – shows the hypocrisy of AMP and why there has been such a public backlash against them.
The court claim alleged AMP failed in its duty of care to provide statements to Mr Rosenthal or to keep proper records of his investment.
Mr Kambas, who also played first grade rugby league for the Rabbitohs, Eels and Sharks in the 1980s, said that after compound interest was factored in, the amount owing to his client could have been between $150,000 and $200,000.
That calculation was not based on the original sum growing at 17.5 per cent.
On Thursday an AMP spokesman had said the matter “was first raised in late 2019 as part of a process with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority”.
“Due to little information being available from investments held in the 1980s a decision by AFCA could not be made,” the spokesman said.
AMP had agreed to mediation “to help resolve the matter as quickly as possible,” he said.
Originally published as Manny Rosenthal seeks up to 10 times the value of ‘lost’ deposit made in 1982
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