April 2021 Regulatory Updates
Regulatory Actions and Updates from Around the Globe
Enforcement Highlights – April 2021
United States:
- The SEC awarded over USD $3 million to two whistleblowers who brought to light key issues and violations to help improve SEC’s ongoing compliance efforts.
- SEC filed charges against 8 companies for failing to disclose complete reporting information on required Form 12b-25 filings.
- The SEC charged fund manager and former race car team owner Andrew T. Franzone with multimillion-dollar investment fraud and misappropriation scheme.
- The SEC filed charges against Spot Tech House Ltd., a binary options trading platform, and two of its top executives with defrauding investors out of more than USD $100 million through unregistered online sales.
- The SEC charged seven individuals with defrauding investors out of more than USD $16 million through an oil-and-gas market manipulation scheme.
United Kingdom:
- The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) commenced criminal proceedings against 2 individuals for conducting unauthorized regulated business activities in the UK.
- The FCA banned and fined UK financial adviser Simon Varley £68,300 for providing unqualified, dishonest financial advice to retail customers.
Hong Kong:
- The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) fined Optimas Capital Limited $1.05 million over multiple failures with their short position reporting processes.
- The Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) sanctioned two former executives of Asia Telemedia Limited (ATML), now known as Yunfeng Financial Group Limited, for insider dealing.
learn more
Is your AML compliance too expensive, time-consuming, or ineffective?
iComply enables financial services providers to reduce costs, risk, and complexity and improve staff capacity, effectiveness, and customer experience.
Request a demo today.
The Impact of Neobanks on AML and KYC Compliance: Ensuring Security in a Decentralized Era
As global financial institutions collectively face the reality of managing a consumer base that has aggressively adopted an increasingly digital presence, traditional banks are also facing a rising challenge in competing against a rapidly decentralizing model of...
Implementing Client Due Diligence in Credit Unions: Protecting Members and Ensuring Compliance
The evolving financial and political climate of 2023 and a post-pandemic market have left financial institutions and credit unions facing unique challenges as they navigate the new and growing risks associated with conducting business in an increasingly digital world....
Safeguarding Society: How Customer Due Diligence Helps Prevent Global Crime
With the economy facing increasingly challenging times and banking institutions having to contend with a sharp increase in digital users over the past few years, the threat of cybercrime, specifically in the financial sector, is at an all-time high. At its core, the...