Citigroup agreed Thursday to pay $10.5 million in penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle two enforcement actions involving its books and records, internal accounting controls and trader supervision.
The charges stem from $81 million of losses due to trader mismarking and unauthorized proprietary trading and $475 million of losses due to fraudulently-induced loans made by a Mexican subsidiary.
Citigroup Inc. and its U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CGMI) agreed to pay a $5.75 million penalty to settle charges of inaccurate books and records and CGMI’s failure reasonably to supervise traders.
Citigroup and CGMI settled without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings and agreed to cease and desist from future violations.
From 2013 to 2016, the SEC found that three CGMI traders “mismarked illiquid positions in certain proprietary accounts they managed, in two cases covering losses from widespread unauthorized trading.”
The discovery of the mismarking led to the termination of the traders and the recognition of $81 million in losses not previously reflected in CGMI’s or Citigroup’s books and records.
The SEC’s order finds that CGMI failed to detect the traders’ misconduct earlier because it had inadequate supervisory procedures and systems and did not independently verify the valuations of the mismarked positions.