SEC v. Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC (insider trading controls, 2014)

Settled

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In September 2014 the SEC settled with Wells Fargo Advisors over failing to maintain and enforce policies to prevent misuse of customers' material non-public information, which came to light when a registered representative traded on and tipped others about a customer's information on Burger King. Wells Fargo Advisors was censured and paid a $5 million civil penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$5m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$5m

Alleged gain

$2m

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued the order on September 22, 2014 (administrative proceeding 3-16153).

The order finds that the firm's policies were not reasonably designed to stop its associated persons obtaining material non-public information from customers and advisory clients, a risk the firm had itself identified. The risk materialised in 2010 when a representative misappropriated a customer's information about Burger King Holdings securities, traded on it and tipped others. The respondent is the firm, charged with violations of Sections 15(g), 17(a) and 17(b) of the Exchange Act, Rule 17a-4(j) and Sections 204A and 204(a) of the Advisers Act.

The earlier record showed the matter as dismissed with no penalty, and carried a wash trading tag with no basis in the order. The order imposes a censure and a $5,000,000 civil penalty; the status, penalty and tags are corrected.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2014-09-22 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC order

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.