Enforcement

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White announced today that she will leave her position at the end of the Obama administration.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking a $450,000 civil penalty against former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux, who refused to reach a settlement after a jury found him guilty of securities fraud.

Scottrade has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that it did not identify bonds as callable in approximately 5,000 municipal securities transactions.

A New York audit firm and one of its senior partners have agreed to pay a combined $555,000 and take a number of corrective actions to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they issued fraudulent audit reports in connection with municipal bond offerings from the town of Ramapo, N.Y.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will continue to go after investment bankers and issuer officials to try to debunk the notion that enforcement is just another “cost of doing business,” an SEC official said here on Friday.

Underwriters should walk away from municipal securities transactions when they discover the issuer has failed to disclose key information, dealer officials said here, citing their own experiences as examples.

Tax controversy lawyer Brad Waterman argues allegations of misconduct against him are “payback” for his winning a student loan bond case.

A federal court judge has approved Miami's $1 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges the city acted fraudulently in taking steps to hide its deteriorating financial condition from bondholders.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority examiners are probing firms’ involvement with bank loans and other alternative financings in the municipal market, a FINRA official said at an industry seminar here.

Underwriters’ counsel should be more proactive in keeping up to date with regulators’ concerns and then communicating those to their underwriter clients, a dealer official said here.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission remains silent on whether there will be more settlements under its continuing disclosure enforcement initiative, an SEC official said any party that voluntarily submitted potential violations will be told whether the commission plans to take action against them.

The Internal Revenue Service's Office of Tax-Exempt Bonds has told its auditors that, if an issuer redeems 100% of the outstanding principal amount of its tax-exempt or tax-credit bonds, the audit can be closed without further TEB action.

The former head of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office says TEB is ignoring alleged violations on a financing for a Syracuse mall that benefited from breaks sought by Hillary Clinton.

Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg has banned Wells Fargo from its list of approved underwriters for one year, citing the fake-accounts scandal,

R. Seelaus & Co., Carty & Co., and Emmet & Co. have agreed to pay a total of $83,000 to settle separate charges by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority related to unfair markups, trading below the minimum denomination, and trade reporting failures involving municipal securities.

Miami agreed to pay $1 million to settle securities fraud charges after the city was found guilty by a local jury of playing a shell game to hide its deteriorating financial condition from bondholders.

The Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement division’s heightened attention on the municipal market and application of new legal techniques to that enforcement are “here to stay,” according to the commission’s top cop, Andrew Ceresney.

The SEC's MCDC initiative is causing many municipal issuers and underwriters to change the way they do things.

A judge has agreed to put Peter Cannava back into a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that alleges the Wells Fargo banker aided and abetted the defrauding of investors in connection with a private placement by 38 Studios.

Securities and Exchange Commission examinations of municipal advisors over the past two years found fiduciary duty and fair dealing violations, said SEC officials who cautioned the number of MA exams will increase in 2017.