InfoBytes Blog
Charges Filed by SEC Allege Bank Secrecy Act Violations
On June 5, the SEC filed charges against a U.S. brokerage firm (firm) for failure to comply with suspicious activity reports (SARs) filing requirements, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the Exchange Act Section 17(a), and Rule 17a-8. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that although the firm had a BSA Compliance Program, the program did not accurately reflect what the firm did in practice. More specifically, the SEC alleges thousands of violations including failure to file SARs, failure to file SARs within the required 30 days after the date the suspicious activity was detected, and filing incomplete SARs that did not include the requisite narratives describing what is “unusual, irregular, or suspicious” about the transaction. According to the SEC press release, “by failing to file SARs, [the firm] deprived regulators and law enforcement of critically important information often related to trades in microcap securities used to investigate potentially serious misconduct.”
The SEC requested relief in the form of permanent injunctions and monetary penalties and interest.