According to an SEC press release, Oppenheimer & CO. recently agreed to admit wrongdoing and pay $10 million to settle the SEC’s charges that it allegedly sold penny stock in unregistered offerings. Oppenheimer will also pay an additional $10 million to settle a parallel action with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)

The SEC alleged Oppenheimer engaged in two courses of misconduct. The first involved aiding and abetting the illegal activity of a customer, Gibraltar Global Securities. Gibraltar Global Securities is a brokerage firm in the Bahamas that is not registered in the U.S. “Oppenheimer executed sales of billions of shares of penny stocks for a supposed proprietary account in Gibraltar’s name while knowing or being reckless in not knowing that Gibraltar was actually executing transactions and providing brokerage services for its underlying customers, including many in the U.S.”

The second course of misconduct again involved Oppenheimer engaging on behalf of another customer in unregistered sales of billions of shares of penny stocks. The SEC’s investigation, which is ongoing, found that Oppenheimer was paid $588,400 in commissions. In both circumstances the Oppenheimer’s liability stems from the firms inability to respond to redflags involving the sale of unregistered securities.

The foregoing information, which is available on the SEC’s website, is being provided by The White Law Group.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Franklin, Tennessee.

If you have concerns about investment losses and would like to speak to a securities attorney, please call the firm at (312)238-9650. For more information on The White Law Group, visit www.WhiteSecurtiesLaw.com.