The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced settled charges against registered broker-dealer Canaccord Genuity LLC for failing to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in connection with its over-the-counter (OTC) market making business.

The SEC’s order finds that, from February 2019 through March 2022—a period during which Canaccord was one of the most active market makers in OTC securities priced under $5 per share—Canaccord failed to maintain an anti-money laundering (“AML”) surveillance program that was reasonably designed to detect, investigate, and report suspicious OTC trading activity.

Canaccord’s AML program, according to the SEC’s order, not only relied on inadequately designed exception reports to flag suspicious activity, but Canaccord personnel failed to review or investigate activity that was flagged and then falsified documentation to cover up those failures.

As a result, the order finds, Canaccord failed to file approximately150 SARs related to potentially manipulative or otherwise suspicious trading activity.

The SEC’s order finds that Canaccord willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 17a-8 thereunder.

Without admitting or denying the findings, except to the extent admitted in a parallel action brought by the United States Department of Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Canaccord agreed to the entry of a cease-and-desist order, to be censured, and to pay a civil money penalty of $20 million.