80 people filed complaints against the former head of the Deva branch of brokerage firm "Broker Cluj"

80 people filed complaints against the former manager of the Deva branch of brokerage firm "Broker Cluj", Adriana Constantin. The Police said in a communiqué that they seized documents from the company"s offices and heard several people in this case.

"Officers of the Fraud Investigation Division continued their research in the case which involves Constantin Adriana, 41 years old, of Deva, manager of the Deva branch of the brokerage company, who, between 2005 - and December 2008, cashed amounts intended for making trades on the stock and commodities exchange from several natural and legal persons", the communiqué issued on Tuesday says.

According to the same communiqué, the woman issued forged receipts for the amounts received, and she took some of the money herself, while using the rest for making trades on her own behalf. All throughout the period in question, in order to fool the customers who had entrusted their funds to her for trading shares, she issued forged portfolio reports, which contained fake information about customer"s stock holdings in various companies listed on the Stock Exchange, said the Hunedoara Police. So far 80 plaintiffs of Hunedoara and all over Romania have filed lawsuits against the defendant, claiming over 4 million RON in damages. Policemen seized writs for analysis from the company"s central office in Cluj and from the offices of the Deva branch and heard several persons.

The director is being investigated for forgery, use of forgery and embezzlement, under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor"s Office attached to the Court of Hunedoara and has been forbidden from leaving the city without permission from the criminal investigators.

At the request of the Hunedoara office of the Department to Counter International Organized Criminality and Terrorism ((DIICOT). -, the case has been assigned to them, as the case seems to be a capital market infraction, as per the provisions of the law 297/2004, the press release says.

The securities market regulator (CNVM) claimed on January 28th, that Broker Cluj did not notify it about the fraud in Deva, and that the latter was uncovered following an investigation by the former. On January 29, Broker Cluj (BRK) denied the allegations of the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM) and said it had notified both the investigative body of the CNVM and the police on the fraud in question perpetrated by the head of the brokerage company"s office in Deva.

The chairman of Broker Cluj, Petru Prunea, had stated for NewsIn, on January 28th, that the fraud in his company"s office in Deva could amount to as much as several billion old lei (1 RON=10000 lei), and that his company had notified the police after it had discovered withdrawals made using forged receipts. He also added that the Deva police seized the headquarters of the Deva branch, in order to avoid any leaks of the documents which are to be sent over to the main headquarters of "Broker" in Cluj. Prunea explained that he began investigating after having someone come, at the end of December 2008, to see their portfolio, only to find that the person in question didn"t actually figure as a customer of the brokerage firm. The investigation uncovered that various amounts were withdrawn using forged receipts, without any records of sales or purchases being made.