LATEST NEWS FROM CNVM AUDIT CORPS: Another Broker-Cluj Branch In Trouble

Auditors of the National Securities Commission (CNVM) have established that another branch of Broker-Cluj has been conducted some of the undesirable practices previously identified at the Deva branch. "The verbal information I have received so far (i.e. yesterday morning) indicates that, unfortunately, some of the undesirable practices found in Deva have also been identified at a second branch," said CNVM Chairperson Gabriela Anghelache. "This is very serious. I don"t know what the Commission will decide. We will analyze the case," she added.

CNVM"s auditors returned on Wednesday and were going to prepare a preliminary audit report on Thursday, according to Anghelache. "We cannot release any further information before a decision is made," she said. "I wouldn"t want this brokerage firm, who has always been in the lead and who contributed to the establishment of the capital market to be damaged in any way. Nevertheless, what shall we do with the customers who have filed countless complaints with the CNVM and the police? How are we going to solve their problem? Also, we need to solve the problem of the shareholders in this firm because, after all, the shareholders should not suffer because an employee or someone else makes a mistake," Anghelache further said.

The CNVM chairperson explained the decision to suspend SSIF Broker - Cluj for two weeks by CNVM"s desire to freeze the situation "in order to see whether what happened in Deva is just an isolated incident or other branches, too, are affected by these unfortunate incidents that scar the normal operation of the market and the brokerage practice," she said.

"What we had in mind when we decided the suspension - I repeat, it was a suspension, not a penalty, because a penalty cannot be enforced before the audit is finalized - was to make sure that the firm can provide us with all the documents, all the data necessary to determine whether the fraud committed in Deva was an isolated incident," Anghelache explained.

She stressed that she could not release any information at any time because negative effects could appear and be hard to control. "Upon performing an audit, it is not recommended to release even intermediate findings, because you cannot know what actually happens in the end," she explained.

"We believed that we could cooperate more closely with the management of the brokerage firm, and I"m not referring just to Professor Prunea, whom I only spoke with once, here, at the CNVM head office. It was not a constructive conversation, but a conversation that created a wall between us and him. He kept accusing us that we had something against the firm, that we wanted to destroy it, that we were encouraging his competitors and so on," Anghelache said. She stressed that this was not the case and no one wanted to ruin Broker or favour their competitors.