INSIGHT: The SEC’s latest fine shows why banks shouldn’t put their Chief Compliance Officer in charge of AML

Regulatory Watch News

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  SEC Charges Advisory Firm Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust with Fraud

  SEC

  September 19, 2024

  Firm to pay nearly $80 million in connection with overvaluing assets and engaging in unlawful cross trades

  Washington D.C., Sept. 19, 2024 —

  The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced registered investment adviser Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust (MIMBT) will pay a total of $79.8 million to settle charges for overvaluing approximately 4,900 largely illiquid collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) held in 20 advisory accounts, including 11 retail mutual funds, and for executing hundreds of cross trades between advisory clients that favored certain clients over others.

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  Treasury Targets Key Actors in Sanctions Evasion Scheme to Support Russia and North Korea

  OFAC

  September 19, 2024

  DPRK and Russian Financial Entities Orchestrated Illicit Payment Mechanisms

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a network of five entities and one individual—based in Russia and in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia—that have enabled and supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Today’s action holds accountable parties that have assisted DPRK and Russian sanctions evasion and demonstrates Treasury’s commitment to exposing and disrupting networks that facilitate the funding of the DPRK’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs and support Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.

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  SC Charges Former Investment Banker with Securities Fraud and Unlicensed Capital Market Activities

  Securities Commission Malaysia

  September 19, 2024

  The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) yesterday charged Ruwan Amaresh Shaun Ponniah (Ruwan) at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court for defrauding investors into depositing monies totaling RM201,000 for shares investments.

  The SC also charged Ruwan for an offense relating to unlicensed capital market activities. Ruwan, 35, was an associate director of Debt Capital Markets at CIMB Investment Bank when the offences took place between October 2018 and June 2020. Ruwan faced 10 charges under section 179(b) of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA) for falsely representing to seven individuals that he would invest their monies in shares listed on the Malaysian and foreign stock exchanges. If convicted, Ruwan faces a jail term not exceeding 10 years and a fine of not less than RM1 million.