Jefferies Fires Miami Advisors over “Impermissible” Money Transfers

A team of Miami-based representatives of Jefferies Financial Group were fired in connection with allegations of “impermissible money-transfer wires” and “deleted off-channel business communications,” according to news reports and filings with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The representatives in question are Pablo Gherardi (CRD# 4602689), Guillermo Guerra (CRD# 4907302), Marcelo Poliak (CRD# 2465622), and Rodrigo Soto (CRD# 4813707).

A fifth representative, Nicholas Coubrough, was also terminated in connection with allegations that he “sought improper payments” in exchange for not disclosing that other representatives “were engaging in off-channel business communications.”

As a Bloomberg News report noted, the firings came on the heels of a 2022 Securities and Exchange inquiry in which Jefferies joined a number of firms that paid $50 million “in penalties related to their monitoring of employee communications.” It also comes amidst a broader pattern of enforcement against banks over their alleged failures to prevent the use of unauthorized communication channels by their staff. “From managing directors to senior supervisors at the large US firms, regulators cracked down on the use of services such as WhatsApp or personal email for work-related communication,” the report observes.

BrokerCheck reports for some of the fired representatives show customer complaints against them. A complaint filed against Mr. Poliak in 2022, for example, alleged that as a representative of Jefferies, he recommended a hedge fund investment that did not meet the client’s investment objective, and that he convinced the customer not to liquidate their holdings when the fund’s “performance began to falter.” In 2021 the complaint reached a settlement of $30,000.

A complaint filed against Mr. Soto in 2014, meanwhile, alleged that as a Wells Fargo Advisors representative, he made transactions that were not in line with the customer’s objectives. The complaint reached a settlement of $4,000.

Mr. Gherardi, additionally, was also terminated by a former broker-dealer firm, according to his BrokerCheck report. A filing made in 2016 states that Wells Fargo Advisors fired him in connection with allegations “related to sale of offshore investment product and inconsistencies on associated paperwork.” In a statement included with the termination’s disclosure, he defended himself against the allegations. “I did nothing wrong in connection with the allegations,” he wrote, “and did my very best to work with WFA and the client to address the issue when I became aware of it.”

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