FINRA Slaps Deloitte Corporate Finance with $200,000 Fine for Failure to Retain iMessages

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has slapped Deloitte Corporate Finance, LLC (DCF) with $200,000 fine for failure to retain business-related iMessages.

DCF has been a FINRA member since 2001 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. In December 2014, DCF was censured and fined $75,000 for failure to retain emails and internal instant messages over a six-year period. The firm failed to retain approximately 60,000 internal instant messages and 850,000 emails due to a technological failure.

Between July 2017 and February 2022, DCF failed to retain business-related iMessages sent and received by its representatives on 95 firm-owned Apple iPhones, in violation of Section 17(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), Rule 17a-4 of the Exchange Act, and FINRA Rules 4511 and 2010.

In resolving this matter, FINRA has recognized DCF's extraordinary cooperation. The firm discovered the iMessage issue through its own compliance reviews.

Last month, FINRA has fined private securities placement platform Justly Markets​ (formerly known as DBOT ATS) $100,000 for failing to preserve its records of more than 95 million orders it received form its broker-dealer customer between April 2017 and October 2019.