Regulators have fined MassMutual $4 million for not keeping tabs on Roaring Kitty, the trader at the heart of the GameStop saga
- MassMutual will reportedly pay a $4.75 million fine to settle allegations that a subsidiary failed to supervise Keith Gill.
- Gill, known as Roaring Kitty on Reddit and other social media , worked for MML Investors Services until his resignation in January.
- The settlement includes an overhaul of MassMutual's social media policies.
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MassMutual has agreed to pay $4.75 million as part of a settlement over allegations by Massachusetts securities regulators that one of its subsidiaries failed to adequately supervise its agents, including Roaring Kitty, the investor whose bullishness on GameStop contributed to a trading frenzy in the so-called meme stock earlier this year, reports said Thursday.
Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty on social media, worked for MassMutual's MML Investors Services subsidiary until his resignation in January. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said MML Investors Services failed to adequately supervise the trading activity and online activities of Gill and other agents.
The settlement said Gill was carrying out trades on behalf of three other people not affiliated with MassMutual without the insurer's knowledge, according to The New York Times. MassMutual neither admitted nor denied the allegations.
Gill amassed a following after he invested $53,000 in GameStop in 2019 and saw the valuation eventually climb to millions of dollars. He talked about GameStop stock on YouTube in his spare time away from his work as a registered broker at MML Investors Services.
A report by broadcaster WWLP said an investigation found that MassMutual failed to detect or monitor about 1,700 trades effected by Gill in the accounts of three other individuals, as well as transactions effected by Gill that were nearly double MassMutual's per-transaction limit of $250,000, including at least two trades in GameStop of more than $700,000.
The settlement includes an overhaul of MassMutual's social media policies, Reuters reported. Galvin said the company also agreed to pay a separate $750,000 fine for failing to register 478 broker-dealer agents, the report said.