Enforcement

Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found rule violations including the failure to report accurate interest rate reset information for 251,507 variable rate demand obligation securities.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined that District of Columbia’s PILOT revenue bonds are taxable.

Moody’s Investors Service withdrew its credit rating for the Town of Ramapo, N.Y. after it failed to provide audited financial statements for the 2015 fiscal year.

Phoenix-based Lawson Financial Corp. had its Financial Industry Regulatory Authority membership revoked and its CEO and president was barred from the industry after FINRA found they fraudulently sold millions of dollars of municipal revenue bonds.

Two Puerto Rico residents are firing back at UBS, saying the firm's challenge in federal court of an $18 million Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration award over losses in Puerto Rico bonds is "a hopeless and baseless attempt at an unwarranted do over."

Financial advisor Hilltop Securities Inc. – formerly First Southwest – has agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit Rhode Island Commerce Corp. brought in the wake of the failed 38 Studios deal.

A federal judge has denied former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux's motion for a new trial after a jury found him guilty of securities fraud for misleading municipal bond investors, but he is still exploring options for appeal, his lawyer said.

Marc Wyatt, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, plans to leave the SEC next month to return to the private sector, the commission announced on Monday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and three defendants allegedly involved in a pay-to-play scheme to steer billions of dollars of business from a New York pension fund to certain firms have agreed to ask a federal court to stay the civil case resulting from the charges while two criminal cases moves forward.

The Securities Exchange Commission’s regulatory and enforcement workload may be slowed or stalled now that it is down to only two commissioners, one Democrat and one Republican, said observers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s former director of enforcement Andrew Ceresney will rejoin Debevoise & Plimpton in early March after stepping down from his federal role at the beginning of the year, the firm announced in a statement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking a federal court judge to deny former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux’s motion to vacate a verdict that found him guilty of securities fraud, saying the former official’s arguments are meritless and do not meet the high burden required for such action.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges and obtained an emergency asset freeze against a South Carolina businessman who allegedly siphoned funds raised from municipal bond investors that were meant to purchase or renovate senior housing facilities.

The Internal Revenue Service has published a new revenue procedure updating management contract safe harbors to address certain types of compensation, the timing of the payment of compensation, the treatment of land, and the methods of approval of rates.

Dougherty & Co. and its former employee Jeffrey Hill have agreed to $140,000 and $5,000 fines, respectively, to separately settle with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority over charges that Hill recommended and initiated numerous unsuitable trades for two elderly customers.

Ten investment advisory firms have agreed to pay penalties totaling $660,456 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they violated the SEC's investment advisor pay-to-play rule.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered UBS to hand over $18.2 million for misleading a family of investors in Puerto Rico closed-ended funds, the second highest fine for individual investors against UBS in these cases.

The Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Office awarded more than $61 million to whistleblowers in fiscal 2016, the agency said Thursday.

Public pension and municipal advisors are among the examination priorities for the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations announced Thursday.

Municipal market participants see a slowing of Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service guidance and rules in 2017, but plan to closely watch for tweaks to management contract guidance, final requirements for public approval of private activity bonds and political subdivision rules.