About 800 victims of the BitConnect cryptocurrency investment scheme will be getting some of their money back, which may serve as a ray of hope for other crypto-fraud victims left in the cold of a crypto winter full of scandal. But it will be a thin ray as the BitConnect Ponzi scheme claimed 4,154 victims… Read More >>
FIA Wants FCMs Exempt from Repo Clearing Proposal
Walt L. Lukken, president and CEO, of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) has sent a letter to the SEC asking the regulator to exempt futures commission merchants (FCMs) from complying with proposed rules that would set new standards for covered clearing agencies for U.S. Treasury securities. “The SEC has proposed rules that would significantly expand… Read More >>
Coinbase Pays $50M Penalty for Alleged Compliance Failures
Another day, another crypto failure? Seems that way, doesn’t it? Consider Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange. Coinbase, Inc. has agreed to pay a $50 million penalty and shell out another $50 million to bulk up its compliance program. The alleged compliance failures at Coinbase Inc. were wide-ranging and longstanding — so says the New York Department… Read More >>
SEC Denies FTX Meeting Spurred General Counsel’s Exit
The SEC is denying media reports that Dan Berkovitz, general counsel for the regulator, is leaving his post as a result of a meeting he had with controversial crypto exchange FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF) when Berkovitz was a CFTC commissioner. Late last month, as the FTX scandal grew, Bankman-Fried’s past donations to politicians and… Read More >>
CAT Data Helps SEC Build Insider Trading Case
The ambitious, big data, securities transaction monitoring project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) helped SEC officials build a case in an alleged, multi-year, insider trading scheme that yielded $47 million for the accused perpetrators, according to the SEC. “The SEC staff analyzed trading using the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database to uncover [Alan]… Read More >>
STP Investment Services Acquires WealthSite & Other News
STP to Add WealthSite’s Accounting Engine STP Investment Services, an investment-operations service provider, reports the acquisition of WealthSite. WealthSite is a company that “provides a customized accounting, portfolio management, reporting and analytics platform to single and multi-family offices, traditional wealth advisory firms and money managers serving ultra-high-net-worth (UNHW) clients,” STP officials say in a prepared… Read More >>
Danske Bank Pays $2B to Settle Fraud Charges
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that it has filed charges of fraud against Danske Bank, a multinational financial services corporation with headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, “for misleading investors about its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program in its Estonian branch and failing to disclose the risks posed by the program’s significant deficiencies.” Danske Bank… Read More >>
IPC & BXS Partner to Combine Order Analysis & Reporting
Regulatory reporting provider BXS and communications and market connectivity vendor IPC Systems have extended a partnership to target buy- and sell-side firms that want a single solution for routing, executing, and reporting orders across asset classes including crypto markets, officials say. The partnership offers securities firms links between the BXS Trade Surveillance Solution and IPC’s… Read More >>
GSAM Settles ESG Policy Woes Case for $4M
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. for its “policies and procedures failures involving two mutual funds and one separately managed account strategy marketed as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments.” GSAM officials neither admit nor deny the SEC charges. However, to settle the case, it will “consent to… Read More >>
S&P Settles Conflict of Interest Case for $2.5M
While gnawing on that leftover drumstick, you might want to consider whether or not your holiday turkey was glazed with a “calculation error.” The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged S&P Global Ratings (SPGR), a “nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) registered with the Commission, with violating conflict of interest rules designed to prevent… Read More >>
