All articles by Aaron Nicodemus – Page 23
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SEC fines four in pay-to-play enforcement sweep
Four investment advisers were fined between $45,000 and $95,000 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the agency’s pay-to-play rule.
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DOJ to emphasize individual accountability, prior misconduct in corporate crime probes
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced sweeping changes to the Department of Justice’s efforts to fight corporate crime, including new guidance regarding individual accountability, voluntary self-disclosure, compliance monitors, and ways to strengthen compliance culture.
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How effective beneficial ownership searches leverage technology
Determining the ultimate beneficial owner of individuals and companies your firm does business with can be a tricky thing. The most efficient investigations require an understanding of your firm’s risk appetite and appropriate technology to automate searches.
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Loop Capital fined $100K over municipal adviser registration violations
The Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time punished a broker-dealer—Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets—for providing advice to a municipal entity without registering with the agency as a municipal adviser.
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Prosperity Bank to pay $19K in first PPP lender false claims settlement
Houston-based Prosperity Bank will pay approximately $18,700 to resolve allegations it processed a Paycheck Protection Program loan for an ineligible recipient in what is believed to be a landmark False Claims Act settlement.
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Hay & Watson loses PCAOB registration over altered audit docs
Canadian public accounting firm Hay & Watson had its registration permanently revoked and must jointly pay a fine of $50,000 along with its owner for violating Public Company Accounting Oversight Board rules and standards and failing to cooperate with an inspection.
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DOJ gets guilty plea in first crypto insider trading case
Nikhil Wahi, brother of former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy as part of the Department of Justice’s first case regarding the insider trading of cryptocurrency assets.
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BNY Mellon, 2 others settle with SEC in landmark municipal bonds cases
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged four underwriters with failing to satisfy exemption requirements related to limited offerings of municipal bonds—the first time the agency has taken such an action.
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In person or remote? Best practices for navigating tension of hybrid work model
Remote workers enjoy the flexibility. In-person employees love they’ve got the office to themselves. But there is a risk these two types of employees will begin to resent each other, creating a corporate culture clash, labor and compliance professionals say.
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Former Contech exec imprisoned 18 months for bid-rigging scheme
Brent Brewbaker, a former executive for civil engineering firm Contech Engineered Solutions, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a long-running bid-rigging scheme in North Carolina.
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Aventura Capital to pay nearly $1M over conflict disclosure lapses
Florida-based investment firm Aventura Capital Management agreed to return more than $700,000 to harmed investors and pay a $225,000 fine for failing to disclose conflicts of interest regarding its mutual fund share class selection process.
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SEC warns auditors of risks in taking on Chinese clients
U.S.-based audit firms seeking new public company clients in China should ensure they have full access to previous audits and work papers before taking the job or risk potential enforcement, the acting chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission warned.
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Natixis agrees to $2.8M CFTC fine for oversight failures
Natixis, a Paris-based global bank and swap dealer, will pay a $2.8 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to settle charges it failed to prevent rogue traders from submitting false and misleading entries on trades over five years.
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Details murky in Samsung’s second data breach this year
Samsung revealed a hacker accessed the personal data of an unspecified number of its U.S.-based customers, even after improving its cybersecurity systems following a previous breach earlier this year.
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CHS avoids fine in SEC accounting fraud case
Minnesota-based agricultural cooperative CHS settled charges levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company violated federal securities laws when it filed materially false financial statements with the agency over five years.
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Wells Fargo ordered to pay ex-manager $22M in SOX whistleblower case
Wells Fargo must pay more than $22 million to a former senior banking executive who alleged to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration they were retaliated against for blowing the whistle on financial misconduct.
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KPMG South Africa, two partners fined $275K for using unregistered firm
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board fined KPMG South Africa and two of its partners a total of $275,000 for supervisory failures and violation of accounting rules related to the use of an unregistered accounting firm.
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FTC sues Kochava for collecting, selling mobile phone user data
Data broker Kochava has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission for selling geolocation data on hundreds of millions of mobile phone customers that could unveil sensitive personal information without their knowledge or consent.
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SEC reverses Clayton-era whistleblower rule changes
The Securities and Exchange Commission amended its rules to provide further incentives to whistleblowers, particularly in cases involving large payouts or multiple federal agencies.
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Lawsuit: HSBC Bank exec alleges discrimination, unauthorized WhatsApp use
Monique Thacker, a current HSBC Bank USA executive, claimed in a federal lawsuit she was discriminated and retaliated against for raising regulatory violations involving unauthorized communications by bank employees that were downplayed or ignored by management.