MassMutual Fined Over Wilmington Trader's Gamestop Activity

Wilmington MA

17 September, 2021

5:35 PM

Description

WILMINGTON, MA — MassMutual has been fined $4 million dollars as part of a consent order with state regulators in connection with Wilmington trader Keith Gill's Gamestop stock trading and advocacy. Gill turned an initial $53,000 investment in the video game retailer into millions of dollars when the stock exploded in value in Jan. 2021. Among other places online, he made his case for the stock in Youtube videos, as The Roaring Kitty, and on Reddit using another, more profane name. Until he resigned near the height of the frenzy, Gill worked for MassMutual as a financial wellness education director. He was a registered broker-agent, leading to an investigation by the Massachusetts Secretary of State's Securities Division into whether he was required to tell his employer about outside business activities. According to the settlement, MassMutual failed to sufficiently supervise Gill's activities around the Gamestop stock. The company neither admitted to nor denied the findings, but it agreed to the fine and to various compliance measures. An inquiry into Gill himself is still underway, the New York Times reported. In addition to his own trading and public advocacy for the stock, Gill made around 1,700 trades for three other people, officials said in the settlement. According to the settlement, under Massachusetts law, those trades should have been approved by MassMutual, but weren't. The full settlement is available here. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or [email protected].