New York Attorney General Letitia James is requiring Bitfinex and Tether, two crypto-currency trading platforms, “to end all trading activity with New Yorkers.” Her reason for the exile? Their practices are allegedly “fraudulent and deceptive” and the crypto-traders are “hiding approximately $850 million in losses around the globe,” the New York A.G. says in a… Read More >>
Yellen’s Mission Reaches Beyond the Pandemic
Late last month, Janet L. Yellen was sworn in as the 78th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury by Kamala D. Harris, the newly inaugurated vice president of the U.S. Yellen and Harris are pioneers and it was a breakthrough amid a great deal of turmoil. But this glass-ceiling shattering moment in history… Read More >>
FINRA Alleges Worden Excessively Traded Customer Accounts
FINRA, the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has penalized Worden Capital Management LLC “more than” $1.2 million in restitution, plus a fine of $350,000 on charges that the firm “excessively traded” customer accounts. Worden has agreed to pay. In addition, the firm must also “retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the relevant… Read More >>
Executive Shuffles at SEC & CFTC
SEC & CFTC Await New Chairpersons The Trump administration has named an acting chairman for the SEC — Elad L. Roisman, an SEC commissioner — as the now-former Chairman Walter Joseph “Jay” Clayton III stepped down at the end of December, six months before his slated exit in June 2021. Clayton, a Trump team appointee,… Read More >>
BlueCrest & SEC Resolve Charges of Investor Harm
BlueCrest Capital Management has settled charges via the SEC that it failed its investors by assigning its best human traders to a proprietary hedge fund while its external investors were serviced by an allegedly mediocre algorithm. The U.S. regulator reports that the hedge fund “has agreed to pay $170 million to settle charges arising from… Read More >>
DTCC Acquires Sapient’s Compliance Reporting Platform
DTCC to Add Sapient’s CMRS to Report Hub Post-trade systems and services vendor DTCC has acquired a platform for compliance management reporting, dubbed the Compliance Management Reporting System (CMRS), from consultancy Publicis Sapient, and will integrate CMRS with a pre- and post-trade reporting solution, the DTCC Report Hub service, officials say. The combined offerings are… Read More >>
CFTC Enforcers Report Banner Year for 2020
’Tis the season for annual reports, and one of the most instructive is from the regulator Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its Division of Enforcement. When it comes to the CFTC’s mission to “be tough on those who break the rules,” as Division of Enforcement Acting Director Vince McGonagle puts it in a commission… Read More >>
Julius Baer & DoJ Resolve FIFA Case for $79M
Swiss private bank Julius Baer reports that it has reached a $79.7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving a money-laundering probe involving the Zurich-based world soccer group, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The U.S. settlement follows actions by the Swiss financial services regulator to close its case against the bank. Justice… Read More >>
Goldman Sachs Admits Guilt in Foreign Bribery Case
Goldman Sachs is admitting guilt and paying a fine of $2.9 billion for its role in a scandal that saw officials from the firm bribing Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials from 2009 to 2014 in order to secure ongoing business for the multinational investment bank. After much negotiation, the firm has begun to resolve the… Read More >>
Nasdaq & Caspian Take On Automated AML Investigations
Nasdaq Sytem Targets Gap in AML Inquiries Nasdaq just launched a “cloud-deployed” anti-money laundering (AML) system, the Nasdaq Automated Investigator for AML, that is intended to help financial services firms use IT to detect evidence of money laundering. The new system has been designed in partnership with Caspian, a company based in Newcastle upon Tyne,… Read More >>
