Merrill Lynch Investment Managers is waiting to hear from Japan’s Financial Services Agency to determine its penalty for allegedly violating Japanese securities laws. Financial Times reports that Japan’s Securities Exchange Surveillance Commission, in the latest crackdown on violators, charged MLIM with engaging in illegal cross-trades between different investment trusts in order to adjust stock ratios incorporated in the trusts without telling clients of the changes. The FSA is charged with meting out the penalty, which in its most severe form is business suspension, though in certain situations it may order a complete shutting down of operations. According to the FT, FSA administrative actions doubled last year from the two previous years, and the number of suspensions as punishment soared from 21 in 2004 to 77 last year.