Enforcement

Municipal market participants want to know why it has taken securities regulators so long to stop Christopher Brogdon from swindling investors by misusing for personal gain the proceeds of bonds and private placements that were supposed to finance the purchase and renovation of senior living facilities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an emergency freeze of the assets of an Atlanta-based businessman and filed a lawsuit charging him and his associates with fraud for misusing investor proceeds that were intended to be used to purchase and renovate senior living facilities.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered R.M. Duncan Securities, its president and chief executive officer, and a broker to pay a combined $166,000 for selling defaulted municipal securities from their own accounts to seniors at unreasonably high prices and for not maintaining adequate supervisory procedures.

The second wave of underwriter settlements was similar to the first, but with some new details on issuers failures to comply with prior continuing disclosure undertakings.

Seven former Internal Revenue Service commissioners are decrying ongoing House and Senate appropriations cuts for the IRS, warning they are hurting tax enforcement as well as taxpayer assistance, among other things.