Securities firms participating in cryptocurrencies, tokenization, decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, and other digital asset realms will have to rely less on external regulatory guardrails and more on their own proactive efforts as the Trump administration charts a new course for the regulation of digital asset environments. The marching orders for this rapid reversal of Biden-era… Read More >>
The CFTC Takes a U-Turn on Digital Assets
Earlier this month, amid a flurry of executive orders, policy shifts, and layoffs of federal workers, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charted a new course for its policies toward digital asset regulation. It is a dramatic change that puts the regulator in a new alignment with the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice,… Read More >>
TD Bank’s AML Woes: a Business Case for Compliance
As has been widely reported, TD Bank last week became “the largest bank in U.S. history” to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) program failures, according to Merrick B. Garland, U.S. Attorney General. TD Bank N.A. and its parent company TD Bank US Holding Company pleaded guilty to resolve the… Read More >>
UBS Settles RMBS Dispute with DOJ for $1.4B
Kumbaya at last? UBS AG and “several” of its United States-based affiliates have agreed to pay the United States Department of Justice $1.435 billion to settle their RMBS dispute, which dates to 2006-2007. In other words, just before the first rumblings of the Great Recession. Which was when we all learned that RMBS stands for… Read More >>
800 BitConnect Victims to Share $17M in Restitution
About 800 victims of the BitConnect cryptocurrency investment scheme will be getting some of their money back, which may serve as a ray of hope for other crypto-fraud victims left in the cold of a crypto winter full of scandal. But it will be a thin ray as the BitConnect Ponzi scheme claimed 4,154 victims… Read More >>
CAT Data Helps SEC Build Insider Trading Case
The ambitious, big data, securities transaction monitoring project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) helped SEC officials build a case in an alleged, multi-year, insider trading scheme that yielded $47 million for the accused perpetrators, according to the SEC. “The SEC staff analyzed trading using the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database to uncover [Alan]… Read More >>
Danske Bank Pays $2B to Settle Fraud Charges
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that it has filed charges of fraud against Danske Bank, a multinational financial services corporation with headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, “for misleading investors about its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program in its Estonian branch and failing to disclose the risks posed by the program’s significant deficiencies.” Danske Bank… Read More >>
Bankrupt Firm Wins $57M Arbitration Against Alleged Fraudster
A liquidation trust for IFS Securities, Inc., a bankrupt broker-dealer based in Atlanta, Ga., has won an arbitration award of $57 million against a former IFS trader, Keith A. Wakefield, an alleged fraudster who held the post of managing director and head of fixed income trading at the firm, officials say. A key aspect of… Read More >>
Two Ex-JPMorgan Traders Convicted for Market Manipulation
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois recently found two former precious metals traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co., guilty of fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing via a precious metals futures contracts scheme that occurred over an eight-year period and encompassed “thousands of unlawful trading sequences,” authorities say. The two, now-convicted, ex-traders… Read More >>
Titanium CEO Pleads Guilty to $21M Crypto Fraud
Is $21 million scammed from would-be cryptocurrency investors worth up to two decades behind bars? The 54-year-old chief executive officer of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services Inc. (TBIS) might have the next 20 years to ponder his answer to that fraught question. He’ll probably learn much more about his fate on November 18 of this year,… Read More >>
