Enforcement

The SEC wants a Puerto Rico federal court to agree that Jose Ramirez, a former UBS Puerto Rico employee, engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in closed-end funds with large investments in Puerto Rico bonds.

Five firms have agreed to pay a total of nearly $920,000 to settle separate rule violations related to municipal securities.

The Senate Banking Committee’s scheduled hearing on Jay Clayton’s nomination is expected to include some questions from Democrats on Clayton’s ties to Wall Street and ability to protect investors.

A guilty plea from Aaron Troodler, the former executive director of the Ramapo Local Development Corp., for criminal securities fraud means he could face a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Marrien Neilson, the former BOK Financial employee the SEC said was responsible for concealing some of Christopher Brogdon's securities fraud, agreed to a first of a kind ban on her acting as an indenture trustee or dissemination agent for municipal bonds as well as a $55,000 payment to settle the charges.

Six holders of municipal revenue bonds underwritten by Christopher Brogdon are trying to recover as much as $1 million in lost capital as well as other expenses from bond trustee BOK Financial Securities.

Morgan Stanley will pay a $115,000 fine and $55,284 in restitution after FINRA found the firm engaged in muni transactions where it charged prices that were not fair or reasonable.

Major investment firms made unethical and probably illegal loans to Puerto Rico’s government from 2000 to 2008, according to a report from a populist financial industry watchdog.

House Financial Services Committee Republicans have floated a revised version of a their Financial CHOICE Act that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to review municipal market and other self-regulatory organizations' inefficiencies as well as reform its enforcement process

The House Financial Services Committee intends to review municipal bond regulators and other aspects of the capital markets with an eye toward rolling back certain programs, according to an oversight plan from the committee.