Jefferies ousts wealth advisors over improper cash transfers

Jefferies Financial Group has ousted a team of advisers in Miami who oversee the fortunes of wealthy clients after discovering allegedly improper money transfers and off-channel communications to cover it up. 

The firm fired Marcelo Poliak, Rodrigo Soto, Guillermo Guerra and Pablo Gherardi last month along with four others after discovering "impermissible money-wire transfers" and "off-channel" and "deleted" communications, according to filings with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. 

Nicholas Coubrough was also fired for allegedly seeking "improper payments" from colleagues in exchange for not disclosing inappropriate communication methods, the filings show.

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The Wall Street bank, led by CEO Richard Handler, added the Miami-based team of wealth advisers from Wells Fargo in 2017, when they reportedly managed more than $1.5 billion of client assets. Most of them were listed as part of the Sky Blue Investment Group, a unit of wealth advisers working on Jefferies's wealth-management platform, according to an archived version of the firm's website. 

A representative of New York-based Jefferies declined to comment. Poliak and Coubrough didn't respond to requests for comment, while Guerra couldn't be reached. Soto declined to comment, and Gherardi had no immediate comment.

Wall Street banks have been hit with billions in fines for failing to stop staff from using unauthorized devices to communicate. 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.

In a 2022 probe with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jefferies was among a group of firms that agreed to pay $50 million in penalties related to their monitoring of employee communications, and a further $30 million from a similar probe by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.