Clearing Broker Charged with Failing to File SARs

The SEC instituted enforcement proceedings against a clearing broker for failing to file required Suspicious Activity Reports as required by the Bank Secrecy Act.  Although the broker-dealer had appropriate Written Supervisory Procedures, the firm failed in practice to implement its compliance program.  The firm filed nearly 2000 SARs that omitted necessary descriptive information, failed to file follow-up SARs with respect to another 1900 transactions, and did not file 250 SARs within the required time frames.  The SEC claims that the deficient SARs “facilitated illicit actors’ evasion of scrutiny by U.S. regulators and law enforcement.”

OUR TAKE: The BSA is no joke.  Failure to file SARs can result in crippling fines (up to $25,000 per failed SAR) and land you in jail.  It should be Chapter 1 of a broker-dealer’s compliance program.