A MassMutual investment subsidiary has agreed to pay $4.75 million to resolve allegations by Massachusetts securities regulators including that it failed to supervise its agents, among them the social media persona "Roaring Kitty," whose online posts helped spark January’s trading frenzy in GameStop shares.
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin on Thursday said MML Investors Services failed to detect the activities of Keith Gill, who touted GameStop stock in his spare time while he was working at the company.
Galvin, the state’s top securities regulator, alleged MassMutual also inadequately supervised other agents and failed to review their social media usage or catch excessive trading in their personal accounts.
MassMutual, who did not admit wrongdoing, settled an investigation over a general failure to supervised its employees and having inadequate procedures in place to detect stock-based social media posts and the personal trading of employees, including the employee that goes by Roaring Kitty on YouTube and is largely credited with starting the GameStop Reddit-fueled meme stock volatility. Keith Gill, Roaring Kitty's real name, is also under investigation by the Massachusetts Securities Division for failure to report his outside business activity he conducted while employed by MassMutual, which as a registered broker he was required and failed to do.
Gill is separately being sued civilly in a proposed class action lawsuit alleging he committed securities fraud for misrepresenting himself as an amateur trader online while pumping up GameStop stock prices as a registered broker.