FINRA has fined two units of Raymond James Financial Inc. with a record $17 million in fines for rampant compliance failures in the brokerage’s anti-money laundering programs.
The two units, Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services, failed to implement systems to properly prevent, detect, and investigate suspicious activity for a number of years as the units saw “significant growth” from 2006 to 2014, according to a statement from the regulatory authority.
Linda Busby, Raymond James’ former anti-money laundering compliance officer, was fined $25,000 and suspended for three months.
“This case demonstrates that when there are broad-based failures within specific areas of responsibility, we will seek individual liability where appropriate,” said FINRA’s Chief of Enforcement, Brad Bennett.
The brokerage firm’s $17 million fine is FINRA’s biggest pertaining to anti-money laundering, according to Michelle Ong, FINRA’s spokeswoman. FINRA was especially concerned about the failures as RJFS was sanctioned in 2012 for inadequate procedures and agreed to review its program to meet compliance requirements as part of a settlement at that time, according to FINRA’s statement.
Raymond James was relying on “a patchwork of written procedures and systems across different departments to detect suspicious activity. The end result was that certain ‘red flags’ of potentially suspicious activity went undetected or inadequately investigated,” according to FINRA.
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