FP SCANDAL: Illegal transfers hidden from superintendency

MAYTE PELLEGRINI, former employee of Financial Pacific (FP) one of 12 people charged with financial offenses against the brokerage, admitted that she used $3.5 million of customer accounts to cover an overdraft account for Zbeda Ori.

She made her statement to the Fourteenth Circuit Prosecutor during questioning October 31 and once again the name of former president Ricardo Martinelli surfaced.
According to Pellegrini, Zbeda, FP partner had an account named Jay Investments that was linked directly to Penson Financial Services with a position at Nomura.
The FP exdirectors “Ivan Valdes and West Clare authorized the transfer of $1.2 million to Penson Financial Services, and opened a line of credit at Morgan Stanley, backed by the positions of other customers,” he explained.
She said that after Morgan Stanley sent $2.3 million to Penson Financial Services to help cover the overdraft.
According to Pellegrini, that information- using money from clients in other FP accounts- was hidden from the Superintendency of Securities.
Sheadded that the account of Jay Investments took $695,000 from clients to invest in Facebook.
“With this I demonstrate once again that. Ivan Valdes and West Clare used money from clients without authorization for investment, andwithout being approved by customers,” said the defendant.
Expanding the Pellegrini investigation took a year and seven months after it was requested by order of the Second Court.
In the first investigation, on November 22, 2012, Pellegrini stated that Zbeda, in partnership with his nephew Jonathan Binder, former President Ricardo Martinelli, Valdes, Clare and an Arab person had the intention of opening a bank called Bank FP.