SEC v. Archipelago Trading Services, Inc. (suspicious activity reporting, 2023)

Settled

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 2, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (sec-archipelago-trading-services-inc-2023) by email

In August 2023, the SEC settled charges against Archipelago Trading Services, Inc., ordering a US$1.5 million penalty for failing to file at least 461 suspicious activity reports on potentially manipulative trading on its Global OTC platform.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.5m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.5m

Alleged gain

—

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 announced this matter on August 29, 2023 as release 34-98234. The respondents named are Archipelago Trading Services, Inc. (0 individuals, 1 entity).

The order finds that between 2017 and 2020 Archipelago did not monitor for or investigate red flags of possible spoofing, layering, wash trading and prearranged trading by subscribers across about 15,000 Global OTC transactions, so it failed to file the required reports. The order notes its own findings of suspect patterns, but the charge is the reporting failure, not manipulation by Archipelago.

This library applies no technique tag to the matter. The violation is an anti-money-laundering reporting failure by a trading venue. It is not a charge that the venue wash traded or layered.

A $1.5 million civil money penalty, a censure, and cease-and-desist relief.

Archipelago consented to the order without admitting or denying the findings.

Timeline

1. 2023-08-29 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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.