Enforcement

State and federal judges in Wisconsin approved final settlement agreements with Stifel and Royal Bank of Canada to conclude an eight-year effort by five school districts to recoup $200 million lost on a risky investment product.

Former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux will face a much lighter penalty for securities fraud than the Securities and Exchange Commission sought, after a federal court judge found that the commission overreached in its requests to have Boudreaux enjoined and fined $450,000.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered UBS to pay two Puerto Rican residents $18.4 million in damages, interest, and other fees over the residents’ investments in closed-end mutual funds concentrated in Puerto Rico bonds.

The SEC, in a court filing on Tuesday, said former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux's arguments against penalties the SEC wants to impose on him for securities fraud show a lack of responsibility and respect for the jury verdict that found him guilty.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found that Merrill Lynch failed to properly supervise customers’ investments in Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end funds.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers wants the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to revise the management contract guidance released in August, which it says is confusing and could limit the usefulness of safe harbors in short-term contacts.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. scrapped the closing on $377.6 million in revenue and general obligation bonds it priced for El Camino Hospital in northern California after the U.S. Justice Department subpoenaed documents from the hospital.

Connecticut and Illinois state treasurers, in partnership with shareholder activists, called for a change in Wells Fargo’s corporate bylaws to ensure an independent non-executive board chair.

Robert Crowe, the alleged fundraising expert for a pay-to-play scheme that took place in 2010 and 2011, is fighting the SEC’s fraud charges against him in Ohio federal court.

The IRS has sent auditors new procedures for information document requests sent to issuers.

The Iowa Fertilizer Co. LLC’s construction and cash flow troubles led Fitch Ratings to downgrade deeper into junk almost $1.2 billion of project bonds that are now under an Internal Revenue Service cloud.

A banker who serves on issuer charitable groups and donates to them raises conflict of interest questions.

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White said in a speech on Friday that the municipal securities market is an example of an area where the commission has brought to bear its “bolder and more unrelenting approach to enforcement to change industry behavior.”

Rebecca Harrigal, the first female director of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Tax Exempt Bonds, will leave her post at the agency next month to join a law firm.

The city of Mobile, Ala., has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of money to the Internal Revenue Service to maintain the tax-exempt standing of $63.4 million of general obligation refunding and improvement warrants it issued in 2006.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower office fielded more allegations involving municipal securities and public pensions in fiscal year 2016 than ever before, according to a report the office sent to Congress about recent whistleblower activity.

Miami city commissioners will be asked Thursday to approve their first bond issue since a federal jury found the city guilty of violating securities fraud charges and paying a record $1 million settlement.

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White on Tuesday said the numerous violations the commission's municipal continuing disclosure enforcement initiative uncovered may mean the SEC needs direct regulatory authority over issuers.

Former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux has been ruined financially fighting securities fraud charges and cannot pay a $450,000 civil penalty sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, his attorney argued in a court filing Monday.

Issuers, borrowers, and MAs disagree that they violated state and local government series securities (SLGS) rules.