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FINRA Expels Firm, Bars Compliance Officer for AML, Accounting Deficiencies

By Brian Monroe

The largest non-governmental regulator of U.S. securities firms expelled a Southfield, MI, retail foreign currency broker and permanently barred its chief compliance officer for repeated rule violations, including anti-money laundering, accounting and capital requirements failures. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) stated Tuesday that Maximum Investment Group Inc., a member since July 1996, was expelled for "repeated violations" of agency rules and not paying a $15,000 fine imposed in May 2006 for improperly settling securities transactions in the foreign exchange, or forex, marketplace. Maximum, acting through its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Christopher Paganes, "failed to establish systems...

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