and federal authorities over Morgan Stanley's creation of mortgage-backed bonds before the financial crisis. August 2016, Morgan Stanley Hong Kong Securities Ltd. was fined HK$18.5 million ($2.4 million) by Hong Kong's securities regulator, Securities and Futures Commission, for violations of Hong Kong's Code of Conduct. Included was Morgan Stanley's failure to avoid a conflict of interest between principal and agency trading. December 2016, another unit of Morgan Stanley paid $7.5 million to settle customer protection rule violations. In January 2017, the corporation was fined $13 million due to overbilling and violating investor asset safeguarding custody rules. Morgan Stanley agreed to pay the fine without commenting on the charges. Douglas E. Greenberg, a broker, was fired in 2018 after it was reported that four women from Lake Oswego, Oregon, had sought police protection against him over a 15-year period on allegations of harassment, threats, and assault. According to the report, Morgan Stanley executives were aware of the allegations, and knew of at least two arrests and a federal subpoena against him, but did not take any action. The story was called a #MeToo moment for Portland's financial service industry. He managed tens of millions of dollars, and had made the 2018 Forbes list for top wealth advisors in Oregon. In December 2018, FINRA announced a $10 million fine against Morgan Stanley for failures in its anti-money laundering compliance. Morgan Stanley violated the Bank Secrecy Act over a period of five years. In April 2019, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $150 million to settle charges that it had misled two large California public pension funds about the risks of mortgage-backed securities. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra commented: "Morgan Stanley lied about the risk of its products and put profits over teachers and public employees who relied on its advice." Morgan Stanley denied wrongdoing. In November 2019, Morgan Stanley fired or placed on leave four traders for suspected securities mismarking. The firm suspected that $100–140 million in losses were concealed by the mismarking of the value of the securities. Morgan Stanley paid a $1.5 million fine to settle SEC claims that it put client money into more expensive mutual fund share classes when cheaper options were available despite representations to clients that it used tools to find the least costly option. 2020s 2020 In May 2020, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay a $5 million penalty to settle allegations made by the SEC that