Miami Firm Censured and Fined by FINRA for Failing to Implement Adequate Anti-Money Laundering Program

The Florida-based Soreide Law Group, (888) 760-6552 obtained the following summation of information from FINRA's website under “Disciplinary and Other FINRA Actions April 2015.”

Souza Barros Securities, Inc. (CRD #149032, Miami, Florida)

was censured and fined $75,000 by FINRA for allegedly failing to implement an adequate AML (Anti Money Laundering) program designed to detect and report suspicious transactions as required under the Bank Secrecy Act and its implementing regulations.

Some of the Souza Barros Securities’ foreign institutional clients engaged in activity, including high-turnover securities trading and high-volume cash movement, that Souza Barros Securities should have investigated and reported as suspicious activity. Others engaged in intra-day bond trading and trading of U.S.-dollar denominated foreign bonds.

FINRA's findings stated that despite the potential money-laundering risk presented by these transactions, Souza Barros Securities failed to adequately investigate the activity to determine whether it was consistent with legitimate business purposes. Although Souza Barros Securities employed an automated system for monitoring account activity, the alerts generated by this system were not consistently reviewed and investigated by the appropriate firm personnel.

Also, FINRA's findings stated that Souza Barros Securities failed to maintain and preserve the electronic correspondence of a registered foreign associate who communicated with their clients, including for business purposes, using his personal email address.
(FINRA Case #2012033169201)

The summation from FINRA's website ends here.

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