SEC Confiscates Over 100 Cellphones From Wall Street Traders and Dealers

• The staff’s identities are being kept a secret for the time being.
• Up to 30 persons have been named suspects in the inquiry.

More than 100 Wall Street employees’ mobile phones have been confiscated as part of an investigation into insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The goal is to determine whether trader and transaction information was unlawfully communicated over their phones.

According to Dailymail, the company’s most notable employees are being questioned and requested to give up their personal phones. Up to 30 persons have been named suspects in the inquiry, including trading departments and financial institution leaders. However, the staff’s identities are being kept a secret for the time being.

May Face Sanctions If Found Guilty

The overall goal of the inquiry is to expose the dissemination of confidential business information through social media platforms. HSBC, Bank of America, Citigroup and Credit Suisse are among the institutions being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for employee abuse of messaging applications.

The companies who are found to be responsible will face sanctions after the inquiry’s conclusion. The inquiry and search are kept as private as possible due to the involvement of independent lawyers hired to examine the employees.

Several people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that authorities are already gathering data from those discovered to be engaging in illegal activity through chat apps. The SEC and CFTC penalized JPMorgan Chase $200 million late last year for failing to monitor employee use of personal apps and email accounts to dodge business record-keeping duties. Since most chats are end-to-end encrypted and users may rapidly delete messages with a touch of a button, the whole investigation will be challenging for authorities.