My error was going to work for EF Hutton. I passed the Series 7 two months before the company pleaded guilty to 2000 felony counts of check kiting.
It all worked out for the best, though. I applied what I learned from Hutton's fraud to a financial investigation I'm involved with at work. The end result is a 100+ item complaint filed against the former manager of one of our properties in the South.
Our asset managers are not schooled in accounting, they never questioned the harm generated by a commingled bank account that involved several different companies.
WIKI
1980s check scandal
In 1980, several Hutton branches began writing checks which were greater than the cash they had on hand at the bank, then making a deposit in another bank equal to the amount it wrote at the first bank. This strategy, known as “chaining”, is a form of check kiting. “Chaining” gave Hutton the use of money in both accounts until the checks cleared. In effect, Hutton was giving itself a free loan that also did not carry any interest. Thomas Morley, who was in charge of getting the firm to better manage its cash, wrote a memo to Hutton’s president, George Ball, saying that this practice netted one branch an extra $30,000 per month. Ball sent the memo out across Hutton’s network of regional sales managers, with the note, “A point well remembered—and acted on.” Over the years, Hutton shuffled money in this manner between 400 banks (mostly small rural banks), gaining the use of an estimated $250 million a day without paying a penny in interest. Whenever something was amiss, Hutton questioned the bank’s procedures.
The scheme worked for almost three years until officials at the Genesee County Bank in Leroy, New York, discovered that the large deposits made by Hutton’s four-person office there were far more than the office’s banking requirements. They also discovered that the checks Hutton was using to make the deposits were drawn on two Pennsylvania banks. When Genesee officials learned that Hutton did not have enough money in the Pennsylvania bank accounts to cover the checks, they stopped honoring Hutton checks. One of the banks involved, United Penn Bank (now part of Citizens Financial Group), asked the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to investigate. In 1984, the matter was forwarded to the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, who opened a federal criminal probe.
Hutton retained Tom Curnin, a respected defense attorney who was inclined to fight the government. However, in February 1985, Curnin discovered a memo from a Hutton regional vice president for the Washington, D.C., area which stated that his offices drew on “bogus deposits”. The memo—tantamount to a smoking gun—led Curnin to change tactics and begin negotiations for a plea agreement. In the spring of 1985, Curnin told Hutton’s board that it faced two choices: plead guilty to a massive list of felonies or face a trial that would likely see three senior Hutton executives convicted and drive Hutton out of business. Curnin advised settling with the government to avoid years of bad publicity.
On May 2, Hutton agreed to plead guilty to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud, as well as pay a $2 million fine plus $750,000 for the cost of the investigation. This is equivalent to approximately $4.6 million and $1.7 million, respectively, in 2022. Hutton also agreed to pay $8 million in restitution—the estimated extra income earned from the fraud. This is equivalent to approximately $18.6 million in 2022. In return, Curnin wrung two major concessions. First, no Hutton executives would be prosecuted (even though the government determined that 25 senior officers masterminded the scheme). Second, the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed Hutton to stay in business; offenses of this magnitude usually result in an individual or firm being permanently barred from the securities industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_Hutton
Note carefully the last paragraph.
The first two times I took it I was real young and stupid. Me and my buddies didn’t really study and got bombed the night before. After that I actually studied and took it serious as I had a child on the way.