A reality star is facing the harsh truths of the world of cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and the consequences of a busy regulator who is closely watching celebrities endorsing a garden variety of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and other digital assets as securities. The SEC has just settled with reality star Kim Kardashian “for touting on social… Read More >>
Deloitte-China & SEC Settle Auditing Woes Case for $20M
Who audits the auditors? The clients being audited? That doesn’t seem quite right, does it? In any case, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Certified Public Accountants LLP, better known as Deloitte-China, the Chinese affiliate of Deloitte’s network of accounting firms, with “failing to comply with fundamental U.S…. Read More >>
Wall Street Slammed for Not Tracking Off-Channel Communication
The SEC and the CFTC have taken on major Wall Street firms and penalized them for alleged “widespread recordkeeping failures” and have gotten the firms to acknowledge their shortcomings and to pay penalties in the millions. The SEC alone has racked up $1.1 billion in penalties from 16 firms and the CFTC has settled charges… Read More >>
Data Disposal Case Spurs $35M Penalty for MSSB
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports settling charges against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (MSSB) “stemming from the firm’s extensive failures, over a five-year period, to protect the personal identifying information, or PII, of approximately 15 million customers.” MSSB neither admits nor denies the charges. However, it has agreed to pay a $35 million… Read More >>
Nasdaq Launches a Digital Assets Business & Other News
Nasdaq Establishes a Custody Solution for Digital Assets Nasdaq reports the launch of a new business that it says will “power the digital asset ecosystem.” The new business “underpins Nasdaq’s ambition to advance and help facilitate broader institutional participation in digital assets by providing trusted and institutional-grade solutions, focused on enhanced custody, liquidity and integrity,”… Read More >>
BofA Securities Fined $5M via OTC Reporting Case
“Oops, I did it again” might work as an excuse once, maybe even twice, especially if accompanied by a twinkly smile. But 7.4 million times? It’s not that innocent, as Britney might say. Let’s all sing along with the verse: FINRA, the self-regulating authority for U.S. broker-dealers, which is overseen by the Securities and Exchange… Read More >>
Guilty Plea Reached in Crypto-Based Ponzi Scheme
Maybe someday putting your hard-earned bucks into cryptocurrencies will be as safe as putting them into a bank. That day has not yet arrived. Last week, though, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler indicated that he was in favor of Congress “handing more authority to the SEC’s sister markets regulator to oversee certain… Read More >>
Fines Drop 25% in First Half of 2022: Report
You don’t think it’s good news, do you? A study reports that, at mid-year, global enforcement penalties against financial institutions (and their employees) for not complying with anti-money laundering (AML), environmental, social and governance (ESG) and data-privacy regulations have fallen by a whopping 25 percent, compared to the same period last year. They’re down this… Read More >>
Bankrupt Firm Wins $57M Arbitration Against Alleged Fraudster
A liquidation trust for IFS Securities, Inc., a bankrupt broker-dealer based in Atlanta, Ga., has won an arbitration award of $57 million against a former IFS trader, Keith A. Wakefield, an alleged fraudster who held the post of managing director and head of fixed income trading at the firm, officials say. A key aspect of… Read More >>
Two Ex-JPMorgan Traders Convicted for Market Manipulation
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois recently found two former precious metals traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co., guilty of fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing via a precious metals futures contracts scheme that occurred over an eight-year period and encompassed “thousands of unlawful trading sequences,” authorities say. The two, now-convicted, ex-traders… Read More >>
