Enforcement

Pennsylvania is distributing $8.6 million in restitution from JPMorgan Chase & Co., to municipalities and nonprofit organizations who were victims of a scheme to rig bids of municipal bond reinvestment contracts, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office announced.

FINRA ordered fines of more than $6.1 million for municipal market rule violations in disciplinary cases reported in 2012, 6% less than the $6.6 million in fines assessed in the previous year.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered nine firms to pay a total of $297,500 in fines and nearly $32,000 in restitution for violating rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

Two former bankers, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm, at an affiliate of General Electric Co. have contested a Justice Department request that they pay $6.9 million in restitution for their role in a scheme to rig bids for municipal bond reinvestment contracts.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $4.48 million for unfairly using bond proceeds to pay reimburse themselves for membership fees they paid to the California Public Securities Association, a lobbying group.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three firms $76,500 for violating rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

West Penn Allegheny Health System revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission may sue it over accounting discrepancies.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three Chicago-based firms a total of $40,000 for violations of muni trade reporting and other rules.

Lawyers for three former bankers convicted in May of rigging bids for municipal bond contracts have filed appeal notices with an appellate court. The appeals were filed late last week with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan by attorneys for Dominick Carollo, Steven E. Goldberg, and Peter Grimm, former employees at General Electric Co. affiliates.

After weighing which financing was least likely to provoke a third investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Miami chose a limited public offering to refinance a bank loan.

David Lerner Associates Inc. has agreed to pay some $4.3 million in fines and restitution for charging excessive markups on transactions of municipal bonds and collateralized-mortgage obligations between 2005 and 2012.

Walter Timpone, the defense attorney for one of the three convicted former banking executives in the muni bond bid-rigging trial is confident about an appeal.

After hearing tearful requests for leniency, federal Judge Harold Baer imposed prison and fines on three former bankers convicted of municipal bond bid rigging.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. agreed to pay $14.5 million to settle charges that a former vice president engaged in pay to play when working for the firm.

The SEC Thursday charged Goldman, Sachs & Co. and one of its former investment bankers with "pay-to-play" violations involving undisclosed campaign contributions to then-Massachusetts state treasurer Timothy P. Cahill while he was a candidate for governor.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $137,500 in fines for violations of trade reporting and other municipal securities rules.

Moody's Investors Service has expanded its review for potentially downgrading Miami to include pension obligations and health care costs in addition to pending SEC charges.

The Internal Revenue Service has stepped up its efforts to investigate possible misconduct in the municipal bond sector, more than doubling the number of examinations it conducts per year.

The IRS is auditing $98.5 million of general obligation refunding bonds that the State of Texas Water Financial Assistance issued in 2002.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will not pursue regulations aimed reducing the susceptibility of money market mutual funds to market runs, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Wednesday night.