(Bloomberg News) – Robinhood Markets Inc. faces a civil fraud investigation over its early failure to fully disclose its practice of selling clients’ orders to high-speed trading firms, people familiar with the matter said.
The investigation is at an advanced stage and the company could have to pay a fine exceeding $10 million if it agrees to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission probe, one of the people said. A deal, however, is unlikely to be announced this month, the people said, and the two sides haven’t formally negotiated a proposed fine, the person said.
A Robinhood spokeswoman declined to comment on the investigation or any talks with regulators, but said: “We strive to maintain constructive relationships with our regulators and to cooperate fully with them.”
An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment.
The probe is the latest headache for the upstart brokerage firm that was founded in 2013 and has developed a hugely popular app that allows individuals to trade stocks, options and cryptocurrencies without paying any commissions. While Robinhood has seen phenomenal growth this year, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm has faced setbacks such as outages that prevented customers from trading, the cancellation of its plans to expand to the U.K. and fallout from the suicide of a 20-year-old Robinhood customer who thought he had lost money from a sophisticated options trade.
