According to the report in Harinvest case, last year, the brokerage firm’s broker Maria Voinea allegedly sold the shares of 48 clients to cover losses resulted from trading high risk structured products. The company’s broker was supported by Banca Comerciala Romana and brokerage firm SSIF Broker in performing fraudulent deals.
Voinea allegedly used false documents showing that her clients agreed on carrying out special sell-out transactions.
By March 12, ASF received 48 petitions from former Harinvest clients.
At the end of March, ASF decided that clients subject to Harinvest fraud will get back maximum EUR20,000 each from Investors’ Compensation Fund.
According to certain estimations, Harinvest clients lost approximately RON10 million.
According to the law, clients should get part of the money back via Investors’ Compensation Fund, which has a threshold of EUR 20,000 for each person, while those who lost more than EUR20,000 will have to recover their money in court.
ASF also decided to notify the organized crime investigation unit DIICOT on market manipulation by a former BCR broker and on suspicions related to three employees of the bank, and gave a RON10,000 fine to the general manager of the Central Depository and a RON7,000 fine to four SSIF Broker employees, in Harinvest case.
At mid-December, Harinvest was fined and closed down by the financial regulators, while the people involved in the transaction were also fined and not allowed to work on this market segment for three to five years.
In 2013, Harinvest brokered RON325.5 million transactions, ranking 13th among Bucharest stock exchange brokers, with a 1.2% market share.