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Finra Bans California Securities Firm Over Suspicious Penny Stock Trades
By Brian Monroe
printThe largest nongovernmental regulator of U.S. securities firms has expelled a Westlake Village, CA-based company for failing to implement anti-money laundering controls, the organization said Monday. Between November 2005 and December 2007, AIS Financial failed to look for many of the red flags listed in its compliance policy, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) said in a statement. In at least three instances, the lapses led to the firm failing to report suspicious activity tied to penny stock transactions, Finra said. The suspicious transactions involved penny stock deposits and liquidations for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including a Costa Rican...
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