According to the Southern Florida Business Journal, “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) busted an alleged $66 million Venezuelan bank bond fraud” involving Tomas Clarke, an executive VP at Direct Access Partners in Miami, and two additional Miami residents. The fraud allegedly involved millions of dollars in bribes to high-ranking Venezuelan financial officials and excessive kickbacks to the participants in the alleged fraud.
The SEC alleges that the global markets group at Direct Access Partners “fixed-income trades for customers in foreign sovereign debt, generating more than $66 million in revenue from transaction fees – in the form of markups and markdowns – on riskless principal trade executions in Venezuelan sovereign or state-sponsored bonds.”
Maria de los Angeles Gonzalez, the Venezuelan bank vice president, is accused of using her position at the bank to ensure that its bond trading business would continue with Direct Access Partners.
Brokerage firms have a supervisory responsibility to monitor the activity of their executives. When an executive is accused of executing fraudulent trades, the brokerage firm may be liable for investment losses.
If you have questions about investments you made with Direct Access Partners, the securities attorneys of The White Law Group may be able to help. To speak with a securities attorney, please call (561) 807-6804.
The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida.
For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://www.whitesecuritieslaw.
