SEC Charges Rogue Trader Who Bankrupted His Firm

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Keith A. Wakefield, a former managing director and head of fixed income trading at IFS Securities, Inc., an Atlanta-based broker-dealer, with causing millions of dollars of losses through unauthorized trading in fixed income securities, and with fraudulently obtaining approximately $820,000 in fictitious commission income. The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Chicago, alleges that from June through August 2019, Wakefield engaged in unauthorized speculative trading in U.S. Treasury securities, on behalf of IFS and incurred millions of dollars in losses for the firm. The complaint further alleges that Wakefield engaged in a variety of fraudulent practices to create the appearance of fictitious trading profits and disguise his unauthorized trading losses, including falsifying IFS’s books and records.