- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2024-02-09T17:05:00
The ongoing off-channel communications sweep by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) netted 16 more broker-dealers and investment advisers, with the latest wave of fines totaling more than $81 million.
The firms each admitted they violated the recordkeeping provisions of federal securities laws when their employees communicated about company business on nonauthorized channels that were not supervised, monitored, recorded, or archived. In addition to paying fines, which ranged from $16.5 million to $1.25 million, the firms each took steps to remediate the issues, the SEC said Friday in a press release.
The firms and the amounts fined were:
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Registered investment adviser Senvest Management agreed to pay $6.5 million as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission addressing admitted off-channel communications violations and separate code of ethics failures.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced settlements with U.S. Bank and Oppenheimer & Co. for admitted recordkeeping and supervision failures regarding employee use of off-channel communications for conducting business.
Ameriprise Financial disclosed it recorded a $50 million accrual related to the resolution of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into use of off-channel communications by its employees for conducting business.
Purported “testimonial and review” service Rytr agreed to stop selling its program that used artificial intelligence to create fake content as part of a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission.
Bank of America avoided a monetary penalty in agreeing to settle charges with the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency but was ordered to shore up previously disclosed deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) and sanctions compliance programs.
Aviation maintenance services provider AAR Corp. will pay nearly $56 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when it paid bribes to government officials in Nepal and South Africa.
