Trustee seeks to explain $123m SSL ‘discrepancy’

The scandal-stained investment firm Stocks & Securities Limited (SSL) has been served with a reimbursement claim for $123 million by the regulatory body that temporarily controlled its affairs in the first months after it collapsed under alleged multibillion-dollar fraud.

The “proof of claim” was submitted by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) on July 29 this year, and comprises $112.8 million in temporary management and special auditor’s fees, as well as $10.5 million in legal fees, the trustee overseeing the court-supervised winding-up of SSL has disclosed.

The FSC is the regulatory body for non-deposit-taking institutions such as insurance companies, pension funds, and brokerage firms.

SSL was under the management of the FSC during the 16-month period between January last year, when the alleged fraud became public, and May this year. Kenneth Tomlinson of Business Recovery Services Limited (BRSL) was installed as temporary manager during the period.

The disclosure by Caydion Campbell, the SSL trustee, was in response to a suggestion by the FSC that there is a $120-million discrepancy in the reported costs that were incurred over the 16-month period to administer the estate of the collapsed investment firm.

Campbell first indicated in a court-ordered report shared with SSL clients and claimants that it cost nearly $500 million to administer the firm’s affairs over the period it was under the temporary management of the FSC and BRSL.

This included temporary manager’s fees of $160 million.

But, responding to the trustee’s findings, the FSC pointed to financial records included in Campbell’s own report, which show that the total operating expense for SSL during the period was $376.5 million and not $500 million.

The fee paid to BRSL for temporary management services was approximately $48 million and not $160 million, as suggested by the trustee, the FSC said in a statement to The Sunday Gleaner dated October 23, citing the cash flow movement records appended to the SSL trustee’s report.

Campbell fired back at the regulatory body last week, explaining that the $376.5 million bill cited in his report as the cost to administer the affairs of SSL over the 16-month period only reflected payments made directly from the proprietary bank accounts of the collapsed investment firm.

Payments made “directly” by the FSC – $112.8 million to BRSL and $10.5 million in legal fees – are not captured in the outflow reports, he explained.

“An additional $123.3 million was paid directly by the Financial Services Commission and it is the basis upon which they have submitted a proof of claim to the trustee of SSL,” Campbell said last Wednesday in a statement to The Sunday Gleaner.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the FSC’s submission of a claim on SSL for $123.3 million confirms that the FSC is recognising this amount as an expense of SSL which the FSC had paid and is now seeking reimbursement from SSL.”

The FSC’s payment to BRSL, along with the $48 million payment made from SSL’s account, pushed the temporary manager and special audit fees to $160.9 million, Campbell said, confirming the figure in his report.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com