Financial Institution Fraud

July 18, 2022

Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company has agreed to pay $50 million to settle charges of providing statements to 1.4 million variable annuity investors, which included public school teachers and staff, that failed to list all fees paid during the period.  In addition to the monetary settlement, Equitable has agreed to cease and desist from future violations and revise how it presents fee information.  SEC

July 14, 2022

Bank of America will pay fines totaling $225 million to following federal investigation into its administration of state unemployment insurance and other public benefit programs, which it provided pursuant to contracts with 12 states to deliver benefits through prepaid debit cards. When demand for benefits surged with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank adopted automated fraud detection practices which it the government alleged it knew or should have known would lead to its incorrectly freezing or blocking accounts. The CFPB and OCC found that the Bank imposed unreasonable barriers that made it difficult for people to report fraudulent use of their cards or unfreeze their prepaid debit cards, and failed to establish adequate operational processes, risk management, and internal controls. In addition to the penalties – $100 million imposed by the CFPB and $125 million imposed by the OCC – the Bank was ordered to provide redress to consumers and take corrective action with respect to its oversight over the programs.  CFPB; OCC

July 5, 2022

BNP Paribas has been ordered to pay a $6 million civil monetary penalty for its failure to correctly swap transactions as required by the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.  According to the CFTC, BNPP failed to make more than 300,000 reports involving more than 6,000 swap transactions by U.S. persons incorrectly classified as non-U.S. persons.  Additionally, BNPP incorrectly reported thousands of bunched trades as new trades, and incorrectly reported approximately 3,000 commodity swaps as equity trades.  CFTC

June 29, 2022

UBS Financial Services Inc. has agreed to pay $25 million in connection with a complex investment strategy that it ran from 2016 to 2017.  Though it marketed and sold YES, or Yield Enhancement Strategy, to some 600 investors, UBS did not adequately inform those investors about possible risks, nor provide its financial advisors with enough training and oversight to counteract those risks.  SEC

May 25, 2022

RiverSource Distributors Inc. will pay a $5 million civil penalty for violating Section 11 of the Investment Company Act by employing sales practices wherein variable-annuities-holding customers were unknowingly switched from one variable annuity to another, increasing sales commissions for employees and boosting RiverSource’s revenues. These trades were effectuated through Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, an affiliated broker-dealer/investment adviser. RiverSource’s compliance department caused the sales practice to stop in 2018, but only after these types of transactions saw a significant increase from 2016 until then. RiverSource was also hit with a cease-and-desist order and a censure, in addition to the civil penalty.  SEC

May 23, 2022

Registered investment advisor BNY Mellon Investment Adviser agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to resolve allegations that it misstated or omitted material facts with respect to investment decisions for certain mutual funds in managed.  Specifically, the SEC alleged that BNY Mellon represented or implied that all investments in the funds had undergone a review with respect to Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) considerations, even though that was not always the case.  SEC

May 20, 2022

Wells Fargo Advisors, which is a registered broker-dealer and investment advisor, agreed to pay $7 million to resolve allegations that it had an inadequate anti-money laundering system.  As a result, the SEC alleged, Wells Fargo did not file timely suspicious activity reports including with respect to foreign wire transfers to or from its customers’ brokerage accounts.  SEC

May 17, 2022

Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC pleaded guilty to securities fraud and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $2.3 billion, an SEC penalty of $675 million, and over $5 billion in disgorgement and restitution to victims.  Three former AGI senior portfolio managers, Gregoire Tournant, Trevor Taylor, and Stephen Bond-Nelson, also pleaded guilty to related charges and will be sentenced at a later date.  As part of its plea, AGI admitted that between 2014 and 2020, AGI and the individual defendants made false and misleading statements to current and prospective investors in AGI’s Structured Alpha Funds which understated downside risks and overstated the level of independent risk oversight over the funds.  While the funds promised risk management and hedging, the actual investment strategy prioritized returns over risk management, and the promised hedging positions were not purchased.  To conceal losses and understate the magnitude of the actual risks, defendants fraudulently altered numerous financial reports and other information provided to investors.  The scheme was exposed when the funds experienced billions in losses during the 2020 COVID-related market volatility. With its guilty plea, AGI US is disqualified from providing advisory services to U.S.-registered investment funds for the next ten years, and will exit the business of conducting these fund services.  SEC; DOJ; SDNY

May 4, 2022

Bank of America has been ordered to pay a $10 million civil penalty for processing illegal, out-of-state garnishment orders totaling nearly $600,000 against 3,700 customers’ bank accounts beginning in 2011.  According to the CFPB, the bank deceived customers about their rights, imposed unenforceable clauses, and failed to adhere to consumer protections governing customer bank accounts.  As part of the resolution, the nation’s second largest bank must also fix its broken garnishment process and eliminate unenforceable clauses from its contracts.  CFPB

March 17, 2022

USAA Federal Savings Bank will pay $140 million in penalties and admit that it willfully failed to implement and maintain an anti‑money laundering (AML) program that met the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, and willfully failed to submit timely and accurate suspicious activity reports.  FinCEN imposed a $140 million penalty, and the bank will receive credit for its payment of a $60 million penalty imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for related violations. FinCEN; OCC