SEC v. Monness and others (2014)

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-monness-2014) by email

In August 2014 the SEC settled with research broker Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. for failing to enforce its restricted list and employee trade reporting rules and to set procedures for its idea dinners and corporate access programmes. It paid a $150,000 civil penalty. The order does not find front running or insider trading.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	34-72886
Date filed	2014-08-20
Date resolved	2014-08-20
Status	settled
Asset class	equities
Venue	NYSE, Nasdaq
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	Monness (individual) ; Crespi (individual) ; Hardt & Co., Inc. (entity)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $150k
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: $150k
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 issued the order on August 20, 2014.

The order finds that from 2006 to early 2012 the firm did not enforce two written compliance procedures and had no policies covering the risk of non-public information passing through its idea dinner and corporate access services, violating Section 15(g) of the Exchange Act.

'Research front running' appears only in the description of the firm's own policy. The front running and insider trading tags have been removed.

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.

Timeline

2014-08-20 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.