"In addition to the $15 million penalty, Citigroup agreed to retain a consultant to review and recommend improvements to its trade surveillance and advisory account order handling and routing," the press release stated.
Citigroup failed to review thousands of trades carried out by its broker-dealer employees who had access to non-public information, the SEC said. The failures in compliance and surveillance took place over a ten year period since 2002.
On Monday, two other Citigroup affiliates agreed to pay $180 million to settle charges that they allegedly mislead thousands of clients of two hedge funds.
Citigroup affiliates Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CGMI) and Citigroup Alternative Investments LLC (CAI) raised $3 billion from 4,000 investors by making false and misleading representations, according to the SEC.
