Lime Rock investment banker Kuhns Brothers Securities Corp. agreed to a repay clients $186,838 and pay a $1,012 fine for irregular pricing and lack of transparency on some of its customers’ securities transactions as well as ones made for its own account, authorities say.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the U.S. securities industry’s self-policing body formerly known as the National Association of Securities Dealers, disclosed Thursday its settlement with Kuhns Brothers, which did not admit or deny the findings.
According to Finra, the sanctions stemmed from Kuhns’ breach of Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) reporting and fair pricing rules on securities it purchased via its registered representative.
Kuhns “purchased an unspecified amount of municipal securities for its own account from a customer and/or sold municipal securities for its own account to a customer at an aggregate price (including any markdown or markup) that was not fair and reasonable,” Finra said in an online synopsis of the settlement.
Finra said it also found that Kuhns failed to keep records related to the transactions easily accessible for the specified minimum of three years
A Kuhns official referred a call Thursday from HBJ to its lawyer, who did not immediately comment.
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