Securities Firms

Canadian penny stock trader John Babikian, once dubbed the “Wolf of Montreal,” obtained a new legal identity, secured residency in Latvia, and bought a luxury apartment in Dubai after disappearing from public view following a U.S. securities settlement.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will prioritize enforcement against insider trading in prediction markets, manipulation in energy markets, spoofing, retail fraud, and willful violations of anti-money-laundering (AML) laws, the agency’s new enforcement director said Tuesday. 

Margaret Ryan, the former head of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), resigned last week after clashing with agency leaders over the direction of the watchdog’s oversight, including cases tied to President Donald Trump, his family, and his administration.

Elon Musk’s lawyers sought to negotiate a settlement of the SEC’s case over his delayed disclosure of a Twitter stake without fully involving the agency’s litigation team, an unusual approach that surfaced in federal court earlier this month.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday that Judge Margaret Ryan has stepped down as director of its Division of Enforcement after little more than six months on the job. 

TradeStation Securities agreed to pay $1.11 million to settle potential civil liability for 481 apparent violations of U.S. sanctions rules after the Florida-based brokerage provided services to people in Iran, Syria, and Crimea.

Hong Kong authorities have arrested eight people in their biggest coordinated market misconduct raids since 2017, as regulators investigate an alleged HK$315 million ($40 million) insider dealing and corruption scheme involving two major brokerages and a hedge fund manager.

The Justice Department released its first department-wide corporate enforcement policy for criminal matters, establishing a uniform framework for how prosecutors handle corporate cases across the department, except antitrust matters. 

FinCEN said on Friday it had assessed an $80-million civil penalty against Canaccord Genuity LLC over AML failures tied to suspicious trading in OTC securities. 

Washington is increasingly turning U.S. anti-corruption enforcement into an instrument of economic statecraft—a shift that threatens to undercut decades of American efforts to fight illicit activity abroad.