Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 12th, 2014
(Dec 2014)
SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
SEC Sanctions Eight Audit Firms for Violating Auditor Independence Rules
December 8, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 272)
The SEC sanctioned the following firms for violating auditor's independence criteria: BKD LLP, Boros & Farrington Accountancy Corporation, Brace & Associates PLLC, Robert Cooper & Company CPA PC, Lally & Co LLC, Lerner & Sipkin CPAs LLP, OUM & Co LLP, and Joseph Yafeh CPA Inc. While performing audits for their broker-dealer clients, these firms...
15 Days in Puerto Rico Cost UBS Clients Over $1 Billion
(Dec 2014)
We've shown in recent posts that UBS underwrote $1.7 billion of unmarketable ERS bonds and bought them into the UBS PR Funds. You can find our earlier blog posts here. UBS made room these ERS bonds by selling out of the Funds other bonds UBS didn't underwrite. UBS bought the ERS bonds it underwrote in 2008 because there was no other market for the bonds it was underwriting.
Recently we illustrated how UBS-underwritten conflicted bonds purchased by UBS into the funds in 2008 caused losses in...
What Hell Hath UBS Puerto Rico Wrought
(Nov 2014)
We've shown in recent posts that UBS underwrote $1.7 billion of unmarketable ERS and $1.35 billion of COFINA bonds and bought them into the UBS PR Funds in 2007 and 2008. You can find our earlier blog posts on Puerto Rican Funds. UBS made room for these ERS and COFINA bonds by selling out of the Funds, roughly $3 billion of other bonds UBS didn't underwrite. UBS bought the ERS and COFINA bonds it underwrote in 2007 and 2008, because there was no other market for the bonds it was...
El Infierno Forjado por UBS Puerto Rico
(Nov 2014)
En entradas recientes al blog hemos demostrado que UBS suscribió $1.7 billones de bonos inmercadeables de la ASR y $1.35 billones de bonos de la COFINA y luego los compró para colocarlos en sus Fondos UBS PR en el 2007 y 2008. Pueden encontrar nuestra entrada anterior aquí. UBS hizo cabida a estos bonos de la COFINA y de la ASR vendiendo bonos que los Fondos tenían (alrededor de $3 billones) pero que no habían sido suscritos por UBS. UBS compró los bonos que suscribió en el 2007 y en el 2008...
UBS PR Funds Also Bought $1.35 Billion of UBS Underwritten COFINA Bonds in 2007 and 2008
(Nov 2014)
Yesterday in our post "UBS Succumbed to Conflicts and Purchased $1.7 Billion of Employee Retirement System Bonds into its Puerto Rican Municipal bond Funds in 2008", we showed that UBS underwrote $1.7 billion of unmarketable ERS bonds and bought them into the UBS PR Funds in 2008. Today, we show similar conflicts led UBS to underwrite unmarketable 2007 and 2008 Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA) bonds and stuff them into the Funds. COFINA issued two series of bonds in 2007...
UBS Succumbed to Conflicts and Purchased $1.7 Billion of Employee Retirement System Bonds into its Puerto Rican Municipal bond Funds in 2008
(Nov 2014)
In today's post we show that UBS underwrote unmarketable Employee Retirement System bonds and bought them into the UBS Funds in 2008. Friday, we'll show similar conflicts led UBS to underwrite unmarketable 2008 COFINA bonds and then stuff them into the UBS Funds.
The Puerto Rican Employee Retirement System was acutely and chronically underfunded. Figure 1 is a plot of the PR funding ratio and the median of the 50 states' funding ratios. The states median funding ratio fluctuated between 80%...
UBS Stuffed $2.5 Billion of ERS and COFINA Bonds it Underwrote in Its Puerto Rican Funds in 2007 and 2008
(Nov 2014)
We've written extensively about the UBS Puerto Rican Municipal Bond Funds. You can find our earlier blog posts about Puerto Rican Funds on our blog. In a January 2014 blog post titled "Diversification and UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Losses", we pointed out that the losses suffered by investors in the UBS PR Funds were caused by the portfolios' high leverage and concentration in Employee Retirement System and Sales Tax Authority (COFINA) bonds. In a December 2013 post titled "Merry Christmas...
Durante 2007 y 2008 UBS Rellenó sus Fondos de Puerto Rico con $2.5 Billones de Bonos de ASR y COFINA Suscritos por Ellos Mismos
(Nov 2014)
Hemos escrito extensamente sobre los Fondos UBS de Bonos Municipales de Puerto Rico. Pueden encontrar nuestra entrada de blog más reciente aquí. En la entrada de blog de Enero de 2014 disponible aquí, nosotros señalamos que las pérdidas sufridas por los inversionistas de los Fondos UBS PR fueron causadas por el alto apalancamiento y concentración de las carteras en bonos del Sistema de Retiro de Empleados y en la Corporación del Fondo de Interés Apremiante (COFINA). En nuestra entrada de...
Taxes, Puerto Rico Municipal Bonds and the UBS Funds
(Oct 2014)
We've written extensively about the UBS Puerto Rican Municipal Bond Funds on our blog. Puerto Rico's unique tax regime keeps coming up and we thought it was worth a blog post clearing this matter up.
Puerto Rican residents don't pay federal income tax but do pay very high income taxes. The Puerto Rican maximum marginal income tax rate is 33%, reached at only $50,000 per year of taxable income.
The income on Puerto Rican municipal bonds is exempt from the state income tax that would be paid...
