Compliance officer and company accused of tampering with records
Broker-dealer Buckingham Research Group (BRG) and its former chief compliance officer have reached an agreement with the SEC to pay a total of $160,000 in charges for failing to set policies that prohibit misuse of nonpublic information, the SEC said.
The settlement, which was announced on Wednesday, concludes the case where Buckingham and its investment-advisory operation, Buckingham Capital Management (BCM) were accused of replacing missing pre-approval forms for more than 100 employees and also tampering with incomplete compliance logs in preparation for the 2006 SEC examination. In turn, the company allegedly submitted those documents to the SEC without informing them of the changes made.
‘This case makes clear that when a firm is notified of an SEC exam, it must produce all the records the SEC staff requests as they exist, without changes or additions,’ says Antonia Chion, associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
According to the regulator, without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, BRG agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty while BCM agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty. Additionally, Lloyd Karp the company’s former chief compliance officer who was accused of aiding, alleviating and causing the compliance failures, is set to pay a $35,000 penalty as well.
Calls to the company remained unacknowledged as of press time.
