Citi Fined $11.5 Million For Telling Retail Investors To "Buy" Stocks When It Meant "Sell"

Zerohedge reports:

In a fine that is on one hand bizarre, and on the other vindication for all those who claim that nearly two decades after the Henry Blodget fiasco banks still tell their customers to do one thing (i.e. "buy") while meaning the opposite, Citigroup was ordered to pay at least $11.5 million in fines and restitution to settle charges it displayed the wrong research ratings on more than 1,800 stocks, "causing many customers to own shares they never would have bought" a market regulator ordered on Thursday.

FINRA fined Citigroup $5.5 million and ordered it to pay at least $6 million to retail customers over errors that occurred between February 2011 and December 2015, and involved more than 38% of the equity securities that the New York-based bank covered.

Imagine that.