SEC accuses J.H. Darbie of violating AML rules

New York-based brokerage firm J.H. Darbie & Co. was charged with violations of anti-money laundering (AML) provisions of federal securities laws by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to report suspicious activity regarding penny stock transactions.

J.H. Darbie failed to report suspicious activity on “tens of billions” of shares of low-priced securities, also known as penny stocks, from 2018-20, according to the SEC’s complaint filed Monday.

J.H. Darbie accepted for deposit the low-priced securities of approximately 160 issuers reflected in approximately 1,800 deposits at one of its clearing brokers and the further processing of approximately $105 million in net transaction proceeds to customers through approximately 12,000 sale transactions involving 30 billion shares of such issuers, the complaint said.