A former compliance officer at a unit of Wells Fargo & Co was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday for allegedly altering a document before it was given to the agency during an insider trading investigation.
The SEC said Judy Wolf, then at Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, in 2010 closed an internal review of a Brazil-based broker's trading with no findings.
The broker, Waldyr Da Silva Prado Neto, was subsequently charged in criminal and civil proceedings with trading illegally in Burger King securities before a 2010 buyout of the fast food company.
After the SEC charged Prado in 2012, Wolf changed the document to make it appear as if she had performed a more thorough review, the agency said as it announced an order instituting an administrative proceeding against Wolf.
The SEC said its staff spotted the alteration after Wells Fargo provided the document as part of the commission's investigation. Wolf initially denied changing it, but later testified she had done so, the agency said.
"Regardless of her motivation, her conduct was inconsistent with what the SEC expects of compliance professionals and what the law requires," Daniel Hawke, chief of the SEC enforcement division's market abuse unit, said in a statement.
Steven Salky, a lawyer for Wolf, said she "did nothing wrong, and we look forward to clearing her of these baseless charges."
A Wells Fargo representative declined comment.
