ADVERTISEMENT

Rio Crime Wave Hits Unexpected Target: a Truck Full of CFA Exams

There’s bad news for those who took CFA tests last weekend in Rio de Janeiro to become financial analysts.

Rio Crime Wave Hits Unexpected Target: a Truck Full of CFA Exams
A cruise liner departs Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- There’s bad news for those who took CFA tests last weekend in Rio de Janeiro to become financial analysts.

A truck carrying their exams was hijacked and all the cargo was stolen on Monday, the Brazilian branch of the CFA Institute said in a document obtained by Bloomberg, adding that chances of recovering the material are slim. The robbery affected 140 candidates who paid about $1,000 for the test, Mauro Miranda, the president of CFA Society Brazil, said in an interview.

Crime has been on the rise in Rio as a deep fiscal and economic crisis saps its security budget, leaving the government struggling to pay police salaries on time. Rio’s police department has lost about 3,000 officers to attrition since 2012, although the government was able to temporarily curb crime in the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games with the help from the army.

CFA is offering candidates a full refund or a chance to retake the test in January or June. It will also speed up their scoring, while waiving fees for those who want to take the next level of the exam.

"I’m very sorry that this happened in Brazil," Miranda said. "This was the first time the test was offered at the new test center, which will remain in use."

--With assistance from Peter Millard

To contact the reporters on this story: Kariny Leal in Rio de Janeiro at kdeoliveira1@bloomberg.net, Julia Leite in Sao Paulo at jleite3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net.

©2017 Bloomberg L.P.