Enforcement

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered San Juan-based Santander Securities on Tuesday to pay $6.4 million for supervisory failures related to Puerto Rican municipal bonds.

At least three major Wall Street firms have not settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission under its Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative, noted some lawyers who were involved with a National Association of Bond Lawyers survey on the impact of MCDC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that it reached an undisclosed settlement with two ex-JPMorgan bankers involved in Jefferson County, Ala.’s sewer deals.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered 22 municipal securities underwriting firms to pay $4.12 million in civil penalties in the second round of what some lawyers said on Wednesday will be three total rounds of underwriter settlements under the commission’s Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative.

UBS Financial Services of Puerto Rico agreed to pay $34 million to settle charges by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Securities and Exchange Commission that it failed to supervise the suitability of transactions in Puerto Rican closed-end fund shares, as well as a former broker who had customers invest in those CEFs using money borrowed from an affiliated bank.

A bond investor’s suspicions triggered a municipal bond trustee’s firing of a vice president but the question remains: what happened to more than $2 million?

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed to update its rules for administrative proceedings to provide more flexibility to parties and improve the availability of documents to the public.

Former Internal Revenue Service director Mark Scott is urging the IRS to revoke a private-letter ruling that was favorable for a total return swap, arguing that TRS’ are “[arbitrage scheme[s]” that have “resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal tax benefits being stolen.”

The North Broward Hospital District in Florida will pay the federal government $69.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, according to the Justice Department.

Securities and Exchange Commission top cop Andrew Ceresney and a Justice Department official warned legislators on Wednesday that a bill to update the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 could hurt their enforcement programs.

A federal investigation into loan guarantees made by the Town of Oyster Bay, N.Y. could impact the credit rating of New York's fourth largest township, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Four broker-dealer firms have been ordered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to pay a total of $67,500 for municipal trade reporting and related violations.

SEC enforcement officials want muni market participants to know that they have 30 people, mostly staff attorneys, in eight offices around the country who have significant expertise in muni issues.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials rejected bond lawyers’ suggestions that the settlements with 36 underwriters under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative contained specific parameters of continuing disclosure violations.

Should industry practices on pricing new bonds change in the wake of the SEC’s enforcement case against Edward Jones?

The U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division is conducting a general inquiry into whether certain brokers’ brokers have engaged in anti-competitive practices with regard to pricing for secondary market and other municipal bond trades, according to industry officials.

Arbitration panels ordered UBS Financial Services, Inc. and its subsidiary in Puerto Rico to pay more than $5.44 million to investors in the firm's proprietary closed-end mutual funds that predominantly contained Puerto Rico bonds.

A U.S. district court judge has scheduled a trial for late summer of next year in the Securities and Exchange Commission case against the city of Miami and Michael Boudreaux, the city's former budget director.

Three federal appeals court judges dismissed a challenge Tuesday to the Securities and Exchange Commission's pay-to-play rule for investment advisors that has similarities to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's own pay-to-play rule for broker-dealers.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers released a paper Thursday giving its members tools to help issuer clients develop written disclosure policies and procedures in response to recent Securities and Exchange Commission cases against issuers.