SEARS <S> DEAN WITTER UNIT AGREES TO SEC CENSURE
Federal regulators said Dean Witter
Reynolds Inc, the brokerage subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck and
Co, agreed to a censure to settle charges that it failed to
fully report cash transactions.
    In a complaint which was issued simultaneously with the
settlement, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Dean
Witter, the fourth largest U.S. brokerage house, with failing
to report more than one mln dlrs of cash transactions.
    In its administrative complaint, the SEC stressed that was
not charging Dean Witter with taking part in a scheme to
launder cash.
    But it said it found 35 single lump sum cash deposits in
excess of 10,000 dlrs made with Dean Witter's branch offices
and another three multiple cash deposits made by a customer on
a single day which totaled more than 10,000 dlrs. The total
unreported cash was 1,062,234 dlrs, the agency said.
    Federal law requires brokerage firms and banks to report to
the Treasury Department all cash deposits greater than 10,000
dlrs.
    After examining seven pct of the Dean Witter's branch
offices between July 1983 and April 1985, the SEC said it found
that the firm reported 1,880,376 dlrs in cash deposits, each of
which had been greater than 10,000 dlrs, but failed to report
another 1,062,234 dlrs.
    Besides agreeing to the censure, Dean Witter agreed to
tighten its oversight of its branch offices.
    Another major brokerage firm, E.F. Hutton Group Inc,
recently disclosed in an SEC filing that a federal grand jury
in Providence, R.I., was probing its compliance with cash
deposit reporting requirements at its Providence office.
 Reuter
