A Utah-based brokerage routinely and systematically omitted "red flag" data from the narratives of almost 2,000 suspicious activity reports despite previous regulatory warnings and citations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed Monday. In a 20-page complaint, the SEC said that from May 2011 to December 2015, Alpine Securities Corporation, a "self-clearing" broker-dealer that processed thousands of transactions related to microcap securities, also known as "penny stocks," filed hundreds of "blatantly deficient" SARs that did not disclose whether the client in question was a foreign financial institution or already the subject of punitive action. The Salt Lake City-headquartered firm during...
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