SEC enforcement

Capital Markets Advisors and its co-principals Richard Ganci and Richard Tortora are caught up in a legal back and forth with the SEC over how MSRB Rule G-42 on conflicts of interest applies to their case.

Bond Buyer Executive Editor Kyle Glazier discusses the coming year in D.C. with Bond Dealers of America's Brett Bolton. (15 minutes)

Vern Breland has agreed to pay a $35,000 fine and is permanently barred from participating in future municipal securities offerings.

"Nothing is off the table in terms of looking at who we can potentially charge," said Brian Fagel, assistant director of the SEC's Public Finance Abuse Unit.  

The SEC's Examination Division will focus on solicitor municipal advisors' compliance with new MSRB Rule G-46, which goes into effect on Mar. 1, 2024.

Brandon Comer and his firm Comer Capital Group are in talks to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission charges against them ahead of a pretrial conference Nov. 17.

The SEC has settled with Robert Benecke and his firm Benecke Economics for acting as an unregistered MA in a case that is emblematic of the growing problem regulators and advisors alike face.

The exemption, which has been recently enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time, will likely force some underwriters to opt out of it for fear of enforcement.

The SEC recently brought its first ever enforcement actions for violating its limited offering exemption, and market participants are beginning to tighten up their policies and procedures in response.

The Commission has settled with Roberto Mejill-Tellado for acting as an unregistered broker in the scheme that defrauded the city of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

The Ohio-based was underwriter on 47 limited offerings, violating the Commission's limited offering exemption.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's examination priorities for the year include big ticket items like Regulation Best Interest.

BVAL marketed its bond valuation methods as sophisticated but sometimes based the valuation on a single broker quote, the SEC said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Public Finance Abuse Division began looking in new directions, charging five different firms with violating 15c2-12 limited offering exemptions in addition to going after issuer officials.

PNC Capital Markets has agreed to pay almost $200,000 to settle with the SEC over a failure to meet disclosure requirements in connection with 36 limited offerings.

Brandon Comer said the SEC's case alleging breach of fiduciary duty against him lacks evidence, but a federal judge refused to end the case.

Ruben James Rojas agreed to admit wrongdoing and pay a $50,000 fine after the Securities and Exchange Commission found that he misled bond investors in connection with a $100 million offering.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's FY 2022 results show the Commission filed 760 enforcement actions and recovered $6.4 billion in penalties and disgorgement, a 9% increase from FY 2021.

The City of Rochester, New York, and its former finance director appear set in fighting SEC charges that they defrauded investors in connection with a 2019 bond offering.

Dave Sanchez urged local officials to be wary of certain structures that proved unprofitable during the last downturn.