FINRA Fines Three Firms Over $1.25 Million for Failing to Detect, Investigate and Report Suspicious Transactions in Penny Stocks
Washington, DC — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has fined three broker-dealers — J.P. Turner & Co., of Atlanta, Park Financial Group, Inc., of Maitland, FL, and Legent Clearing, LLC, of Omaha — for failing to implement reasonable anti-money laundering (AML) compliance programs, including the failure to detect, investigate and report instances of potentially suspicious transactions in low-priced stocks.
J.P. Turner was fined $525,000, Park Financial was fined $400,000 and Legent Clearing was fined $350,000. In addition, two individuals — Park Financial’s former CEO and AML compliance officer Gordon Charles Cantley and J.P. Turner equity trader John McFarland — were barred permanently from the securities industry. David Farber, a Park Financial equity trader, was fined $25,000 and suspended in all capacities for 30 days. S. Cheryl Bauman, J.P. Turner’s former AML compliance officer, was fined $30,000 and suspended from acting as a principal in a securities firm for 18 months, while Robert Meyer, a former J.P. Turner branch manager, was fined $5,000 and suspended as a principal for one month.