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by Mike Caswell

A New York judge has imposed a $12-million fine on Alpine Securities Corp., the controversial Salt Lake City clearing firm run by John Hurry, for "illegal conduct on a massive scale." (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The judge has found that the firm committed 2,720 separate violations related to its failure to report suspicious transactions. Alpine did not report activity that reflected "a hallmark of market manipulation," with the activity continuing for many years.

The penalty comes as part of a case in which the SEC cited Alpine for scores of trades, with the activity at least loosely linked to Vancouver. The SEC said that Alpine failed to properly file suspicious activity reports, documents that a brokerage is required to submit with trades or accounts that could indicate money laundering on markets at risk for manipulation. The SEC did not name the stocks involved, but some names did come up when a related entity, Scottsdale Capital Corp., received a $1.5-million fine in 2017 for the same activity. The fine stemmed from trades with three companies, one of which was a Vancouver listing called Voip Pal.com Inc. According to the SEC, most of Alpine's business came from Scottsdale, and both firms are owned by Mr. Hurry.

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