Inverlink brokerage declared bankrupt

The stock brokerage arm of failed Chilean financial services group Inverlink has been declared bankrupt and the company's assets will be confiscated by official receiver Cristian Heerwagen, local news service Valor Futuro reported. The bankruptcy of stock brokerage Inverlink Corredores de Bolsa is unusual given that it comes in response to a request from the legal counsel of Inverlink's ex-chairman Eduardo Monasterio, currently facing charges related to the theft of millions of dollars of deposits from state business development agency Corfo and fraud against the country's central bank. The bankruptcy of the brokerage unit is seen by Inverlink trustees as an essential step in ongoing legal action in the country's appeal court targeted to recover US$60mn in funds withdrawn from the company's coffers prior to its collapse. The creditors, led by state development agency Corfo, filed December 24 a lawsuit against 15 former investors from the country's corporate and public sectors in a bid to recover the funds those entities withdrew from Inverlink before it folded last year. The former investors include San Antonio port operator which withdrew 3.5bn pesos (US$5.87mn) from Inverlink, the municipality of Vina del Mar (1.5bn pesos), Constructora Sacyr y Sacyr (20bn pesos), Prospecta, and Comanda e Inversiones Santa Cecilia (8bn pesos). The Inverlink scandal rocked the local financial establishment last year and led to the resignations of central bank chairman Carlos Massad and securities regulator Alvaro Clarke.