In the last 10 years there are several antecedents where the regulator intervened other companies after situations of fraud or non-compliance with different regulations were verified. In all cases, the process ended some time later with the bank’s Board of Directors canceling the authorizations that these brokers had to operate. This note mentions the main events and their outcome.
Pampa Brokers
The company Pampa Brokers Stock Exchange Society was registered as broker in the BCU register between June 2004 and January 2018.
In 2013, as a consequence of the Withdrawal of funds from company customer accounts without authorization by its director, the Argentine Juan Carlos Velázquez, the regulator ordered the suspension of activityis, the preventive displacement of Velázquez, the revocation of his powers of administration of the accounts of the company and of third parties, the immobilization of all his own and client assets, and the notification of the proceedings to the Criminal Justice.
The stock firm had received claims from clients for some US$ 430,000.
According to a resolution of the BCU of 2019, the accounts in which the shortages occurred were managed exclusively by the summary, as well as the accounting registration of the transactions of those clients that were carried out based on what they declared, without counting on the proper documentary support.
Five years later, in January 2018, the BCU sanctioned the company with the cancellation of its activities and the Withdrawal of authorization to function as a stockbroker. Also, disqualified Velázquez for 9 years from holding senior staff positions in financial institutions supervised by the BCU.
“Pampa Brokers’ clients were served by the company during the suspension period” and “the clients received their funds,” El País reported at the time based on information provided by the bank.
Intervalores Stock Exchange Company
This company functioned as a stockbroker between November 2003 and November 2011, when the BCU withdrew the authorization to operate after a previous intervention. One of its owners, Julio Savio, was banned for 10 years.
Savio had 51% of the shares and had the qualities of president and compliance officer of the firm. According to the BCU, this person did not inform the bank of the fact that the entity’s shares had been subject to an embargo.
It also failed to maintain the company’s information systems in a position to know its true financial situation, and “unduly appropriated securities belonging to its clients, using them for their benefit.” There were client positions for more than US$1.6 million that “could not be honored”.
In July 2016, the 6th Criminal Court of First Instance convicted Savio as the criminally responsible perpetrator of a continued crime of misappropriation, due to the use of a client’s securities, as well as for the sale of the same to meet company obligations.
Interbaltic Stock Exchange Company
In July 2015, the BCU decided to intervene preventively with the suspension of activities and total substitution of authorities at the firm. Interbaltic Sociedad de Bolsa SA.
The resolution was adopted after the Superintendence of Financial Services detected various breaches of the legal and regulatory provisions applicable to this type of financial institution, as well as of weaknesses found in the system to prevent it from being used for money laundering and terrorist financingsay public bank documents.
100% of the shares of the company belonged to the Brazilian Jorge Davies, which was investigated by the Securities Commission of the Federative Republic of Brazil. According to the BCU, in the aforementioned actions, the existence of a suspicious operation was detected involving the client Forbal Investment Inc. and its final beneficiary Néstor Cuñat Cerveró, who served as director of the International Area of Petrobras and was the subject of a judicial investigation related to with the Lavajato.
Openworld Stock Exchange Society
In 2014 the firm OpenWorld Stock Exchange Society was sanctioned with the cancellation of its activities and the withdrawal of the authorization to function as a securities broker that it had had since 2005, after prior intervention by the BCU.
OpenWorld carried out securities brokerage operations through the purchase of Swiss Group products. These operations were not included in the records that the company was required to keep. The holders of these securities filed complaints demanding the return of their investments by virtue of having learned of the default of Swiss Group Corporationaccording to BCU documents.
Some thirty people denounced the owners of the brokerage company Pedro and Agustina Magentíes and the Uruguayan company Ivvone Teleche Urruti, for defrauding them of around US$20 million. In addition, a Brazilian citizen and another Uruguayan were denounced.
The group also worked in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Chile, Paraguay and Peru, and is linked to the theft of US$80 million in its activity in all those countries and Uruguay. The associates already had an extradition request from Interpol, so the Uruguayan request stalled.
The Rampla Juniors club was involved in the maneuver suffered by the Uruguayans, which the company used to re-enter the money it took out of the country to place in various financial entities it owned. “That management had nothing. They were Colombian capitals that laundered that ill-gotten money in sports clubs, in this case in Rampla. Everything ended up being criminally denounced ”, recalled former president José Luis Corbo in an interview with Referí carried out in 2020.
