People who lost money in the failure of agribusiness Timbercorp believe they are victims of an unscrupulous fraud and shouldn't be forced to pay their debts.
They've made emotional pleas at a Senate inquiry on Wednesday to be spared by its major financier ANZ Bank.
Thousands are facing bankruptcy and the loss their homes because of the failed agribusiness.
Timbercorp went into administration in 2009 and now liquidator KordaMentha is chasing almost 3000 people who took out loans with the group's lending arm.
That money was used to buy investments with Timbercorp, an operation that has been likened to a ponzi scheme.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Many owe double what they borrowed because of a 13 per cent interest rate charged by ANZ and non-payment penalties.
One questioned why victims of a "complete and utter fraud" by unscrupulous financial advisers were being targeted by ANZ and KordaMentha.
"I can't think of any other situation where a fraud victim is actually required to pay one single cent to the people that have ripped them off," an emotional Susan Henry told the hearing in Melbourne.
"A victim of white collar crime or fraud cannot be offered anything but their money back and compensation."
Others called on ANZ to stop the "blood loss" faced by investors, who together owe $490 million.
Kerree Bezencon, who was representing the olive, almond and other growers who lost assets in the collapse, said ANZ was "up to their eyeballs" in the Timbercorp debacle.
"If you fund prostitution then you've got to be complicit in it," the chair of the Timbercorp Growers group told the inquiry.
"The injustice is utterly unimaginable. The sense of powerlessness overwhelming. The despair deep and harrowing, the human cost beyond measure."
Agricultural Growers Action Group chair Neil White said about 50 per cent of investors it had surveyed were facing bankruptcy.
"There is no commercial case for an aggressive liquidated collection," he said.
Timbercorp whistleblowers Andrew Peterson and Michael Bryant accused the company of trading while insolvent, and called for a royal commission into the failure of the agribusiness and other high profile collapses.
"I think it goes beyond just bad management investment schemes," Timbercorp senior executive Mr Bryant said.
"The regulation around how Timbercorp could operate and grow to the size that it did was clearly inadequate."
Before the inquiry, committee chair Sam Dastyari criticised ANZ for failing to send a representative to the hearing.
But ANZ head of corporate affairs Gerard Brown appeared as the last minute witness at the Melbourne Town Hall, saying the bank would make a comprehensive submission to the committee on December 15.
