Compliance & Ethics

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today settled charges against nine registered investment advisers for violations of its Marketing Rule, a regulation designed to ensure transparency and honesty in financial advertisements. The firms involved were found to have made untrue or unsubstantiated claims, or published endorsements and third-party ratings that lacked required disclosures. The combined civil penalties for the violators total $1,240,000.

Odeon Capital Group has agreed to a $250,000 fine and censure as part of a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), addressing violations of supervisory and compliance rules. This resolution comes under FINRA Rule 9216 and is intended to address specific rule violations described in the settlement.

In a sweeping enforcement action, the Securities and Exchange Commission has cracked down on several major public companies for impeding whistleblowers from reporting potential misconduct to regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled charges against Esmark Inc. and its founder, James P. Bouchard, for announcing a fraudulent tender offer to purchase U.S. Steel Corporation. The announcement came on September 6, 2024, following an investigation into the company's 2023 acquisition attempt.

Massachusetts securities regulators have fined Morgan Stanley $2 million for failing to properly monitor stock sales by a former First Republic Bank (FRB) executive in the lead-up to the bank's collapse in 2023. The announcement came from Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin on September 6, 2024.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Nicholas Bowerman, a former finance director at CIRCOR International Inc., with accounting fraud. The charges, announced on September 5, 2024, allege that Bowerman's actions led to misleading public statements about CIRCOR's financial performance from 2019 through 2021.

RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, has agreed to pay a $200 million fine to settle allegations of violating U.S. export laws. The aerospace and defense giant reportedly exchanged sensitive data and products with prohibited countries, most notably China, according to U.S. State Department records released Thursday.