Dealerweb Inc.
Dealerweb was fined $250,000 for not correctly calculating its volume thresholds as a percentage of the overall National Market System market average daily dollar volume and, as a result, did not recognize that it was required to be in compliance with Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Reg SCI) under the Exchange Act.
Maxim Group LLC
Maxim Group LLC was fined $65,000 for trading for its own account on the same side of the market at prices that would have satisfied outstanding customer orders, without immediately thereafter executing the customer orders up to the size and/or at the same or better price as it traded for its own account.
CODA Markets, Inc. (fka PDQ ATS)
CODA Markets, Inc. fka PDQ ATS was fined $1,250,000 - and required to retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the adequacy of its compliance with Rule 15c3-5 of the Exchange Act and FINRA Rules 3110, 3120 and 3310 - for failing to establish, document and maintain a supervisory system, including WSPs, and regulatory risk management controls reasonably designed to monitor for potentially manipulative trading, such as potential layering, spoofing, wash trades, prearranged trades, marking the close and odd-lot manipulation, by its subscribers and their customers.
Precision Securities, LLC
Precision Securities, LLC fined $350,000 and required to retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the reasonableness of the firm’s policies, systems, procedures (written and otherwise) and training relating to compliance with FINRA Rule 3310 and the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder related to monitoring for, identifying, investigating, documenting and responding to red flags of suspicious activity.
Wilson-Davis & Co., Inc.
Wilson-Davis & Co., Inc. was fined $500,000, ordered to retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the adequacy of its compliance with its supervisory and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance obligations in connection with its market making activities in low-priced securities and sale of low-priced securities for firm customer accounts and subjected to a business line restriction that it shall not accept for deposit for any firm customer account any low-priced security until it certifies to FINRA that it has implemented the recommendations of the independent consultant.
StockCross Financial Services, Inc.
StockCross Financial Services, Inc. was fined $250,000 and required to retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of its compliance with FINRA’s suitability rules and the Exchange Act’s possession-or-control requirements in connection with the firm’s solicited equity and options transactions and stock loan business.
Laidlaw & Company (UK) Ltd.
Laidlaw & Company (UK) Ltd. was fined $1,500,000 for failing to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system, including WSPs, reasonably designed to achieve compliance with federal securities laws and FINRA rules prohibiting market manipulation in that it did not provide branch managers with reasonable training or guidance regarding how to identify prohibited transactions.
Neovest, Inc.
The SEC has ordered Neovest Inc., a provider of an order and execution management system (OEMS), to pay a $2.75M penalty for its failure to register as a broker-dealer as the company was participating in the order-taking and order-routing process, soliciting customers and destination brokers, and receiving transaction-based compensation. This is the SEC’s first case charging an OEMS provider for operating as an unregistered broker-dealer.
Clearpool Execution Services
Clearpool Execution Services was fined $300,000 for failing to comply with Rule 203(b)(1) of Regulation SHO in that it did not obtain locates to facilitate client short sale orders on a riskless principal basis.
Cantor Fitzgerald
Cantor Fitzgerald was fined $50,000 for failing to implement policies and procedures that reasonably avoid displaying, or engaging in a pattern or practice of displaying, locking or crossing quotations in OTC equity securities.
G1 Execution Services
G1 Execution Services was fined $575,000 and ordered to pay $816,618.75 in restitution for failing to provide best execution to orders from its clients on behalf of their customers in over-the-counter (OTC) securities by failing to use reasonable diligence to ascertain the best market for the subject securities and by failing to buy or sell in such a market so that the resultant prices to the customers were as favorable as possible under prevailing market conditions.
Wolverine Execution Services, LLC
Wolverine Execution Services, LLC was fined $170,000 by FINRA and various exchanges for sell orders inaccurately marked as long rather than short, inaccurate TRF and OATS reporting and inadequate disclosures of payment for order flow arrangement.
SpeedRoute LLC
SpeedRoute LLC was fined a total of $310,000 by FINRA and the IEX exchange for failing to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system, including WSPs, reasonably designed to achieve compliance with rules prohibiting manipulative trading activity, such as wash and pre-arranged trades, layering and spoofing.
Score Priority Corp.
Score Priority Corp. was fined $250,000 and required to retain an independent consultant for failing to establish and implement an AML program that could reasonably be expected to detect and cause the reporting of suspicious transactions through surveillance of potentially suspicious trading and money movements in customer accounts.
Three Brothers Trading, LLC (dba Alternative Execution Group)
Three Brothers Trading, LLC (dba Alternative Execution Group) was censured and fined $100,000 and one of its Principals was fined $15,000 and suspended. The firm and the Principal were deemed to having failed to establish and implement an AML compliance program reasonably designed to detect sales of unregistered securities and cause the reporting of potentially suspicious transactions in microcap securities.
ITG, Inc. (NKA Virtu ITG LLC)
ITG, Inc. (now known as Virtu ITG LLC ) was fined $450,000 and required to remediate the issues identified in the AWC relating to the establishment and implementation of AML policies and procedures reasonably designed to detect and cause the reporting of suspicious low-priced securities trading.
TradeStation Securities
TradeStation Securities was fined $850,000 for failing to exercise reasonable diligence to ascertain whether the venues where it routed certain equity and option customer orders provided the best market for the subject securities as compared to the execution quality that was being provided at competing markets.
Precision Securities
Precision Securities was fined a total of $70,000 by FINRA and NYSE Arca for failing to implement market access controls to limit its financial exposure pursuant to SEC Rule 15c3-5(b), (c) and (e).
Network 1 Financial Securities
Network 1 Financial Securities was fined $25,000 for failing to provide customers complete annual notifications required under Rule 606(b)(2) of Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS) under the Exchange Act.
Citigroup Global Markets
Citigroup Global Markets was censured and fined $175,000 for failing to maintain written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent trade-throughs of protected quotations in NMS stocks that resulted from outdated quotation data.