Former directors of scandal riddlled brokerage, off the hook.
CRIMINAL complaints against two former directors of Financial Pacific have been archived .
The Sixteenth Criminal Court ordered the permanent archiving of the process following a request from Third Circuit prosecutor Franklin Amaya.
The complaints of the alleged commission of the crimes of fraud, forgery of documents and money laundering were filed November 20, 2012 by the Superintendent of Market Values (SMV) against the then directors of Financial Pacific (FP) and Ivan Valdes and West Clare.
The archiving of the complaints brought a quick response from the SMV which issued a statement saying the actions of the Third Circuit Attorney "represent a dangerous precedent that may affect the legal certainty of the Panamanian market."
The conclusions of the case were sent to court on Feb. 2, Amaya requested the closing of the complaint against Clare and as the SMV filed outside of the two month time allocation
In addition, Amaya based his request on a previous file order issued by the court, after deciding the appeal for annulment filed by the lawyers of the directors of FP.
But SMV opposed that position and on Friday, May 17 said: "The term for filing the complaint begins to run from the time when the institution has reviewed and analyzed the information submitted, and not from the date of its submission by the regulator .”
SV maintained that throughout the process thwy acted "with the greatest respect for the law and for the sole purpose of promoting the implementation of existing legislation and the application of appropriate sanctions on those proved responsible."
Public Ministry sources reported Friday says La Prensa that at in the same resolution that ordered the shelving of the complaint filed in January by Valdes and Clare against Securities Market Superintendent Alejandro Alfaro Abood, Attorney General Ana Belfon, denied the waiver.