FINRA Fines Three Broker-Dealers Over AML Compliance Failures, Suspends Executives

FINRA Anti-Money Laundering

On May 8, FINRA announced that it fined three firms a combined $900,000 and suspended four executives for allegedly failing to establish and implement adequate anti-money laundering programs.  Specifically, FINRA claims that investigations into the three firms revealed that (i) one firm failed to identify suspicious account activity or did not adequately investigate numerous AML "red flags" and that certain of the firm’s customers' accounts engaged in a pattern of activity consisting of moving millions of dollars through the accounts while conducting minimal-to-no securities transactions, (ii) a second firm that specialized in online trading and catered to the Chinese community failed to implement an AML program adequate to detect and report suspicious transactions, including potential manipulative trading, and (iii) a third firm failed to create and enforce a supervisory system and written procedures to monitor for unlawful transactions in unregistered penny stocks and failed to establish a program reasonably designed to monitor for and report suspicious activity. The suspended executives included two chief compliance officers who failed to fulfill obligations to monitor in accordance with AML requirements, and two owners.  The suspensions range from three to nine months. The firms and the executives did not admit to the allegations, but agreed to pay the fines to resolve the investigation.