The Financial IndustryRegulatory Authority has fined Webull Financial LLC $4.2 million for failuresin its anti-money laundering, identity theft prevention and best executionprogrammes.London's trading industry is coming home!FINRA found thatWebull approved more than 120,000 customer accounts between January 2020 andSeptember 2023 without adequately verifying applicants' identities. Some accounts wereapproved using photographs of scenic landscapes instead of government-issuedidentification, while others belonged to applicants listed as deceased inWebull's own systems.Webull Failed toDetect Suspicious Transactions"Webull’sbusiness grew rapidly, but its compliance program did not keep pace," saidBill St. Louis, FINRA's Executive Vice President and Head of Enforcement.FINRA found thatWebull failed to investigate 473 unauthorised Automated Clearing Housetransfers worth more than $1.5 million. The transfers moved funds fromcustomers at other financial institutions into Webull accounts.The broker also failedto investigate an account that generated nearly 13,000 alerts for potentiallymanipulative trading across more than 100 stock symbols over approximately 18months.Other surveillancegaps included inadequate monitoring of suspicious out-of-the-money optionstrading, customers using the same address or device, and fraudulent accounttakeovers.Webull also openeddozens of accounts for foreign nationals using the same IP address or device.It did not introduce checks for unrelated accounts sharing the same SocialSecurity number until August 2021.Finance Magnates contacted Webull forcomment. The firm had not responded by the time of publication.Best ExecutionReviews Fell ShortFINRA also found thatWebull failed to conduct adequate reviews of customer execution quality betweenFebruary 2020 and May 2025.The broker sometimes failedto assess execution quality at competing market centres. It also failed atcertain points to review non-marketable orders, which accounted for 60% to 70%of its order flow during some periods.Its reviews alsolacked the required analysis by order type and individual security.Webull PreviouslyFined Over Influencer PromotionsWebull settled thelatest case without admitting or denying FINRA's findings. It agreed to certifyremediation of its AML and identity theft prevention deficiencies and appointan independent consultant to review its best execution programme.The action follows aseparate $1.6 million FINRA fine in 2025 over Webull's supervision andretention of influencer promotions. The regulator found that some promotionalstatements were not fair and balanced or contained exaggerated and promissoryclaims.This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.