Law and legal issues

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a distribution plan allowing ­Jefferson County, Ala., to receive a $25 million disgorgement and civil penalty that ­JPMorgan paid into a “fair” fund to compensate harmed investors and issuers.

CHICAGO — Detroit’s fiscal problems could act as a contagion for local governments across Michigan and the state itself, driving up borrowing costs and restricting access to credit, warns a new report by the Legislature’s independent Senate Fiscal Agency.

A Rhode Island judge Monday upheld the constitutionality of the law allowing the state to appoint a receiver to take over the finances of troubled Central Falls.

WASHINGTON — Four former Financial Industry Regulatory Authority officials who left the agency in 2008 each received between $2.74 million and $4.43 million in reportable compensation and benefits that year, according to the latest form the nonprofit self-regulator filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating bonds issued by the city of Bell.

Moody’s Investors Service said the proposed rehabilitation plan to deal with Ambac Assurance Corp.’s segregated account of high-risk insured assets is a credit positive and, if confirmed by the courts, will put the Wisconsin-domiciled bond insurer “one step closer to an orderly run-off.”

CHICAGO — The St. Paul Port Authority and lawyers for a group of investors who hold some of its 876 Fund economic development bonds will return to court Nov. 1 as litigation over the fate of $51 million of defaulted outstanding debt moves towards a trial date.

In the quarter when the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time charged a state with securities fraud for failing to make certain disclosures to investors, data from Thomson Reuters shows that most changes in rankings of law firms occurred among disclosure counsel.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined four firms a total of $62,000 for errors in the reporting of municipal securities transactions, including $25,000 against Goldman, Sachs & Co., the self-regulator announced in monthly disciplinary decisions released Friday.

The Harrisburg City Council is seeking a legal consultant that would offer advice to officials on a potential bankruptcy filing or entering into Pennsylvania’s distressed communities program, known as Act 47.

The Pittsburgh City Council is poised next week to reject a $451.6 million offer for its parking system that would, if completed, raise revenue needed to ward off a state takeover of the city’s pension system, which is only 30% funded.

Most municipal analysts bristle at the claim that California will “become the next Greece.”

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The California attorney general’s office plans to seek a court order placing the troubled city of Bell under some sort of receivership or monitoring.

WASHINGTON — As the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board begins to regulate an anxious and skeptical non-dealer advisory community, its new chairman, Michael Bartolotta of Dallas-based First Southwest Co., the largest dealer-advisory firm in the nation, is stressing that the MSRB’s rules will be fair to all regulated market participants.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that it has signed off on a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal to post ratings directly onto the board’s EMMA site.

BRADENTON, Fla. — A Florida audit of a $48 million appeals court building financed with $33.5 million of bonds Tuesday listed 17 findings that “appear to be inconsistent” with Florida statutes, state operating policies, or generally acceptable internal control practices.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has hired Karen Du Brul as an associate general counsel to work on the rulemaking and policy team as it begins to write rules for muni advisers.

DALLAS — Opponents of a Dallas suburb’s plan to issue $200 million of revenue bonds for an entertainment complex have appealed a judge’s order to post a $10 million bond to continue the case.

DETROIT — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s executive director on Friday tried to allay some of the concerns nondealer financial advisers have about the regulatory burdens they may face under MSRB oversight.

Wisconsin insurance commissioner Sean Dilweg Friday announced a rehabilitation plan for the riskiest assets — mostly mortgage-backed securities — insured by Ambac Assurance Corp. The plan aims to fairly compensate holders of the risky assets without depleting the insurer of its ability to pay other future claims, including insured municipal bonds.