Financial Pacific linked to state bank scandal

FINES totaling $4 million have been levied against former Financial Pacific (FP) partners Ivan Clare and West Valdes, and former employee Mayte Pellegrini.

The fines have been imposed  since 2012, when the firm began having difficulties that uncovered a number of irregularities, including the disappearance of millions of dollars in client funds and the auditor who uncovered the problems.

His family and others believe he has been murdered.

The amount includes fines announced Wednesday by the Superintendency Securities in the Government Gazette.

They include $1 million against Clare and $800,000 against Valdes for failing to protect client funds.

Pellegrini, who handled the firm’s operations, was fined $500,000.

The sanctions were imposed due to the findings that the employees altered records to justify monthly cash movements and misused client funds.

The firm’s founders have been fined on a number of other occasions since 2012. One of these involved the illegal trading of shares of the social media site Facebook, which resulted in a penalty of $380,000 for Valdes and $330,000 for Clare.

Valdes and Clare were also fined $200,000 for irregularities related to a money market account.

The partners were also fined $800,000 for failing to report an alleged embezzlement of $12 million from the firm that was attributed to Pellegrini in 2012.

While the defunct firm was sold in 2012, the scandals surrounding it have continued to grow including alleged stock exchange manipulation through an account  named High Spirit  linked to then president Ricardo Martinelli. A highly placed executive in the Waked family conglomerate  has also been linked.

The latest fine  is its connection to irregularities in a loan granted by state-owned bank Caja de Ahorros to the consortium building the Amador convention center.

Some of those funds ended up in an account owned by a shell company at Financial Pacific, opening the door for a further investigation into the firm’s activities, reports La Prensa which was first to lift the lid on irregularities at the bank.