The Naughty List
The SEC and FINRA handed out over $4 billion in fines and disgorgement penalties in what was a record 2016. Here we look back at some of the largest and most significant cases from the past year.
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Deutsche Bank Securities $14bil. The German bank was fined $14 billion by the Department of Justice, the largest fine a foreign bank has ever received in the US. The fine relates to the bank's role in the 2008 financial crisis were it is alleged to have miss-sold mortgage-backed securities. Deutsche has since appealed the record fine and expects to pay somewhere more in the region of $5 billion. It was a tough year for the German bank, which saw shares plummet on more than one occasion. FINRA also fined it a total of $24 million across 7 different actions. (source)
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Vimpelcom ltd $795mil. The Russian mobile group was fined $795 million by the SEC, DOJ and Dutch authorities for admitting to bribing a government official to gain entry into the Uzbekistan telecom market. (source)
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Merrill Lynch $415mil. The fine was levied against Merrill Lynch in response to findings that the bank was using up to $58 billion of customers cash a day to finance its own trading. (source)
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JP Morgan $267mil. Specifically, the subsidiaries JP Morgan Securities and JP Morgan Chase Bank. The sanctions were brought forward as a result of allegedly failing to disclose conflicts of interest. (source)
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Och-Ziff $200mil. The capital management group agreed to pay $200 million for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The investigation is still underway. It alleges bribes to foreign high level government officials to secure mining rights among other motives. (source)
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Wells Fargo $185mil. The bank was fined the record $185 million by the CFPB for fraudulently opening bank accounts without customer’s consent to boost sales targets. (source)
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Monsanto $80 mil. The agribusiness was fined for misstating company earnings relating to under counted rebate payments. (source)
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Metlife Securities $25mil. FINRA issued a $20 million fine and ordered Metlife to pay $5 million to customers in restitution for misconduct related to misrepresenting and switching customers’ variable annuities. (source)
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Raymond James & Associates $17mil. The $17 million fine was levied by FINRA for widespread failures relating to the firms’ anti money laundering programs. FINRA deemed the firm failed to adequately establish and implement AML procedures. (source)
Tomorrow we will cover the more positive events of the year with "The Nice List". Subscribe to our blog to be notified.
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