Commonwealth Financial Must Pay SEC $93 Million Over Conflicts

Commonwealth Financial Network’s failure to adequately disclose revenue sharing arrangements to mutual fund investors will cost it about $93 million in disgorgement, interest, and civil penalties, a federal court ruled.

But the Securities and Exchange Commission isn’t entitled to an order prohibiting further legal violations because that would be “unduly punitive” in addition to the monetary award, Judge Indira Talwani said in an order docketed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Talwani determined the investment advisory firm’s liability in an April 2023 opinion. The case highlighted the SEC’s dim view of companies describing actual risks ...