Quebec’s securities tribunal has imposed more than $1 million in penalties and sweeping market bans after concluding that a group tied to Ace Prime Group and Axes-Prime Ltd. orchestrated a fraudulent online investment scheme that left most investors with little to show for their money.
The Dubai Financial Services Authority has fined Ark Capital Management $504,000 (AED 1,850,940), citing weaknesses in the firm’s market abuse controls and a failure to keep the regulator informed about a proposed change in ownership.
South Korea’s financial intelligence authority is preparing for a significant expansion of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime, as it confronts a sharp rise in cross-border crime, increasingly sophisticated scams, and fast-moving risks tied to virtual assets.
Canada’s financial consumer watchdog has shed more light on a long-running fee disclosure breakdown at the Bank of Montreal, saying internal control gaps allowed erroneous charges to persist for more than a decade and affect over 100,000 customers.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan plan to increase incentives for companies that cooperate in criminal investigations, including offering agreements that allow firms to avoid prosecution, according to remarks delivered Thursday by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
After uncovering years of off-channel communications and discovery failures, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. $750,000 and issued a formal censure, closing a case that traces back to supervisory gaps first exposed more than five years ago. The settlement centers on the firm’s failure to properly supervise, preserve, and review business-related text messages used by its registered representatives. It also addresses the firm’s failure to meet discovery obligations during a contentious FINRA arbitration tied to recruiting disputes.
The European Commission has decided that Apple’s advertising service Apple Ads and its mapping service Apple Maps will not be brought under the scope of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, concluding that neither service currently plays a central role in connecting businesses with consumers across the bloc.