The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has won its case at the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal to ban the former chief executive of General Resubsidy Alternative Applications (AltSol).
At a hearing in London, the tribunal ruled that between August 1997 and October 2002, Milan Vukelic had overseen three transactions designed to help client insurance companies hide “very significant” losses in their accounts.
He had been aware that the deals were not genuine reinsurance transactions and was “reckless as to whether they were intended to mislead auditors and others”, says the tribunal.
According to the FSA, two of the three client companies involved in the transactions subsequently collapsed with “wide-ranging consequences”.
FSA director of enforcement Margaret Cole says the tribunal had “rightly criticized” Vukelic’s refusal to recognize his failures in the case.
“There is no place in financial services for the sort of behavior demonstrated by Vukelic,” says Cole. “AltSol was part of the General Re group, which has operations in 45 locations worldwide.”
L.D.