Between September 2023 and January 2024, while he was associated with Wells Fargo, Townsend violated FINRA Rules 4511 and 2010 by sending business-related text messages on his personal cell phone, causing Wells Fargo to fail to preserve business related text messages. During the subsequent firm investigation, Townsend falsely stated to Wells Fargo that he did not send business-related text messages and deleted the messages from his cell phone in order to impede the firm's investigation, thereby violating FINRA Rule 2010.

From September 2016 through November 2022, Ally failed to preserve at least 22.6 million business-related electronic communications, violating Securities Exchange Act of 1934 § 17(a), Exchange Act Rule 17a-4, and FINRA Rules 4511 and 2010. During the same period, Ally’s written supervisory procedures were not reasonably designed to ensure review of business-related electronic communications, and the firm failed to timely review at least 521,000 such communications, violating FINRA Rules 3110 and 2010. For these violations, Ally is censured and fined $850,000.