American Portfolios Financial Services, Inc. has agreed to pay a fine of $225,000 as a part of a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Between January 2019 and August 2022, American Portfolios opened new accounts for multiple customers that transacted in low-priced securities. Ten customer accounts deposited over 48 million shares of low-priced securities, liquidated over 42 million shares, and generated nearly $17 million in proceeds during this period. Notwithstanding the heightened level of risk presented by this activity, the firm failed to establish and implement policies and procedures that could be reasonably expected to detect and cause the reporting of suspicious transactions involving low-priced securities.
The firm’s AML procedures were not reasonably designed to detect and respond to red flags concerning…
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