- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jeff Dale2023-03-06T20:16:00
A Utah-based broker-dealer agreed to pay $100,000, hire an independent anti-money laundering (AML) consultant, and be censured for allegedly failing to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) on certain transactions over a two-year period.
From March 2017 through May 2019, Cambria Capital “failed to properly investigate certain suspicious conduct, failed to investigate certain red flags, and ultimately failed to file SARs when required,” the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in its order filed Thursday.
During the relevant period, Cambria specialized in the liquidation of microcap securities. With many of these transactions, the pattern of liquidations often occurred in combination with red flags including “unusually large deposits, suspicious wire activity, or multiple accounts simultaneously trading in the same microcap security,” per the SEC.
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New York-based broker-dealer OTC Link will pay a $1.2 million fine to settle charges levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegedly failing to implement a system to monitor and report potential suspicious activities on its platforms.
Archipelago Trading Services agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly failing to file nearly 500 suspicious activity reports largely related to microcap or penny stock securities transactions.
Merrill Lynch was assessed penalties totaling $12 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for allegedly failing to file nearly 1,500 required suspicious activity reports over the course of a decade.
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.
