Chicago’s money mile has its share of villains, but William Blair & Company deserves a category of its own. Draped in pinstripes and self-regard, it sells trust and stewardship while leaving a trail of regulatory rot behind. Over $100 billion under management, and still they can’t stop cutting corners. Now they’ve joined the Cummins circle, holding roughly 45,000 shares worth about $15 million. Another suit at the table, another parasite feeding from a contaminated chain. Let’s strip off the polish and see what’s crawling underneath.

2023: The Off-Channel Mess and the $10 Million Smack

Staff at William Blair & Company and its investment arm were running deals through personal phones like a bunch of amateurs. Texts, WhatsApps, private chats – all wiped clean. The SEC called it what it was: off-channel communication failures going back years.
Result: $10 million fine, public censure, forced compliance consultants. They admitted the facts, denied wrongdoing, and moved on. The usual theatre. It’s not oversight. It’s contempt for the rules they sell to everyone else.

2017: The Fund Fiddle

From 2010 to 2014, they dipped into mutual fund assets to pay for marketing that wasn’t authorised and overcharged about a hundred clients roughly $2.2 million. The SEC slapped them with a $4.5 million penalty, refunds, and a cease-and-desist. They called it negligence. Everyone else calls it theft with a tie on.

2015: Research Lies and Bond Blunders

By 2015, FINRA caught them pumping out research reports missing conflict disclosures, dodging quiet periods, and fudging ratings. $350,000 fine and censure. Same year, the SEC added an $80,000 sting for sloppy due diligence on municipal bonds.
Transparency? Only when the lights are already on.

Chronic Failures: Two Decades of Small-Time Stink

From 2003 to 2020, they were fined more than a dozen times for botched reporting, trade-throughs, bad data, and procedural failures. Fines stacking from $5,000 to $38,000, plus state and Swiss penalties for the usual paperwork rot. It’s not a few errors. It’s a culture that can’t function without regulators breathing down its neck.

When Clients Bleed

In 2009, an 88-year-old investor took them to arbitration and won $1.1 million after brokers allegedly faked an email to hide unauthorised trades. Earlier cases show the same sickness: negligence, exploitation, arrogance. Behind every fine is someone’s savings being scraped thin.

The Legal Circus

They fight dirty, too. A 2024 copyright suit over bond docs, a confidentiality spat in 2018 that fizzled, a 2002 merger fee fight still wrapped in fog. Every time, the pattern’s the same: lawyer up, posture, retreat. Litigation as image control.

The Cummins Link

And there it is again – Cummins. William Blair owns a $14.7 million slice. Not enough to move markets, but enough to expose the hypocrisy. The clean-cut Chicago broker with a portfolio that drips the same oil TCAP’s been tracing through every engine, fund, and press release.

Different badge, same grime.

William Blair calls itself employee-owned. Fine. The employees own the mess, too.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Shareholder Spotlight : William Blair – Chicago’s Polished Parasite