Lorreston Bailey decision in weeks
Investors in securities dealer Lorreston Bailey (LB) will have to wait another two weeks to find out how much, if any of their investments will be returned to them following the outcome of the temporary management to which the entity was subjected by the Financial Services Commission (FSC).
Executive director of the FSC Rohan Barnett was reticent on providing details on the findings of the investigation into the activities of the dealer.
“We are going to be issuing a formal statement in that regard, regarding exactly what our conclusions are, what our findings are and what we foresee as the next step,” Barnett told Sunday Finance last week.
LB was placed under temporary management in July following an FSC assessment which revealed that the dealer was not complying with regulations and was found to be making untrue claims in its reports to the regulating body. Among the offences the FSC said prompted the issue of the cease and desist order and the eventual appointment of Tomlinson, are LB’s failure to provide clients with statements of accounts, to maintain the capital adequacy ratio required, to comply with the FSC’s request for specified information and to produce documents regarding the true state of its affairs. The FSC claims that the company has also misrepresented to it the total of its funds under management and its corresponding liabilities. In July, liquidator Ken Tomlinson was assigned as the temporary manager.
Tomlinson’s appointment came almost a month after the cease and desist order was issued to the traders on June 30, 2010. The regulatory body, however, said the lag time between the order being issued and the TM being appointed is part of a process which requires time and must be executed in “an appropriate and legally sound manner”. However, up to last week, no further details of the investigations had been forthcoming. At stake is the $151.4 million funds under management (FUM) that LB managed on behalf of its 64 clients reported by the dealer.
“The purpose of the temporary management was to allow us to do that to get in and do all of that and to conduct our investigations and draw our conclusions,” Barnett said, adding “We are not quite there yet. Once we get there, there will actually be statement.” “We are not far. Certainly within the next couple of weeks we would be in a position to identify exactly where we are.”