Enforcement

The Securities and Exchange Commission tried to refute criticisms of its controversial disclosure violations self-reporting program while providing some hints about its attitudes toward what violations are important to investors, lawyers said Monday.

Rhode Island asset manager Michael Riley has asked the SEC to examine the Providence, R.I., pension fund over a $62 million spike in its unfunded liability.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced enforcement actions against 36 municipal underwriting firms Thursday for violations in muni bond offerings, fining them a total of about $9.3 million in settlements under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Wells Fargo Securities $12,500 for trade reporting violations and barred an individual from the securities industry for allowing the fraudulent transfer of $160,000 from a customer to an unrelated third party.

Municipal securities dealers are worried that their participation in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative could cause them problems with multiple regulators, and have asked the SEC for reassurance that their businesses will not be impeded because they chose to report under the MCDC.

The United States Supreme Court is poised to decide whether or not to hear the case of former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux, whose attorneys told the nation's top court it should accept the case to decide an important question of how exposed municipal officials should be to federal government lawsuits.

A federal appeals court denied the appeals of a trio of convicted bid-riggers Thursday in a ruling that could have lasting effects for future fraudsters.

Agents representing Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office raided the Harrisburg home of its former mayor, Stephen Reed.

Municipal issuers spent $2,000 to $18,000 to do continuing disclosure reviews under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative and the vast majority of them felt they were forced to do them, the Government Finance Officers Association said during a spirited panel discussion here Tuesday.

Municipal issuers need to be prepared to fight against Securities and Exchange Commission efforts to directly regulate them, members of the Government Finance Officers Associations' Committee on Governmental Debt Management said Saturday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged an Atlanta-based investment advisory firm and two executives with fraud for allegedly selling investments to pension funds for the city's police and firefighters, transit workers, and other employees that were illegal under state law.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined a dealer firm and fined and suspended an individual for violations of Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules, FINRA revealed in its monthly disciplinary report for May.

The U.S. government wrongfully extended the statute of limitations to obtain bid-rigging convictions for three ex-UBS bankers, lawyers told an appeals court.

Any well-publicized enforcement action over whether bank loans should be treated as securities would certainly provide some guidance on this issue, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board executive director Lynnette Kelly told muni analysts meeting here.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s appellate tribunal has revised its sanction guidelines, proposing significant increases in the highest level of fines for disciplinary actions and tougher sanctions for cases involving fraud and recommendations of unsuitable investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has frequently pursued recent municipal market enforcement actions in federal court rather than in front of its own administrative law judges, where critics have charged that the SEC enjoys a distinct home field advantage.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority faced criticism from House Republicans Friday wondered if the broker-dealer self-regulator is too heavy-handed with small firms.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has until May 20 to respond to a request from Miami, Fla.'s former budget director that the Supreme Court hear his argument that he should be shielded from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

Maverick County, Texas, faces an uncertain future after losing the operator of its $42 million private detention center that defaulted on its debt amid a federal corruption investigation and missing audits.

StateTrust Investments, Inc. has been penalized $90,000 and censured by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a settlement over charges it broke Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules when it sold Puerto Rico bonds for an amount less than the issuer's specified minimum denomination.