The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says a large insurance company did a poor job of screening and supervising a registered representative.
The SEC has imposed a $250,000 fine in connection with the matter on Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, a unit of MetLife Inc., New York, and ordered Metropolitan Life to do a better job of keeping customer records.
Metropolitan Life has neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings.
Metropolitan Life cooperated with officials looking into the matter, a company representative says.
“We’re pleased to put this matter behind us,” the representative says.
A south Florida office of Metropolitan Life hired a registered rep in February 2000 even though the company found that the rep had misrepresented his education on his resume and a previous employer was investigating the rep for misappropriating customer funds, SEC officials say.
Metropolitan Life hired the rep after the previous employer cleared the rep of misappropriating funds but cited the rep for violations of customer file and fund submission rules, officials say.