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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 151-160 out of 200 results for "Muni Arb".

Overreliance on Credit Ratings Results in Large Losses for Municipalities

(Aug 2012)

Earlier this week, the SEC charged Wells Fargo's brokerage firm with selling complex securities to institutional investors such as municipalities and non-profits. The Institutional Brokerage and Sales Division, between January 2007 and August 2007, made recommendations to institutional clients to purchase asset-backed commercial paper "issued by limited purpose companies called structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and SIV-Lites backed largely by mortgage-backed securities and CDOs." Already...

Poor Incentives and Predatory Lending in Municipal Finance

(Aug 2012)

Last year, Poway Unified School District had a problem. A decade earlier, it had started a program to modernize its aging schools. In 2008, voters had approved additional funding for the project under the condition that the school board could not raise taxes further. Unfortunately, by 2011, the project needed an additional $105 million to complete. But because they could not raise taxes, they could not issue the kind of tax-backed bonds (called general obligation bonds) that usually fund...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - August 3rd, 2012

(Aug 2012)

SEC Settles Litigation with Former Veritas Software Corporation Chief Financial Officer
August 2, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22432)
On July 20, 2012, a final judgment was entered against Kenneth E. Lonchar in the case SEC v. Mark Leslie, Kenneth E. Lonchar, Paul A. Sallaberry, Michael M. Cully, and Douglas S. Newton. Lonchar, the former Chief Financial Officer of Veritas Software Corporation, had been charged with inflating Veritas' reported revenues "by approximately $20 million in...

LIBOR Manipulation

(Jul 2012)

An ongoing investigation into the manipulation of LIBOR has exploded recently with the revelation that Barclays was actively manipulating LIBOR since 2005, possibly at the behest of Paul Tucker (a leading candidate to become the next governor of the UK central bank). As evidenced by several forms of electronic communication, some employees were submitting false data to boost profits.

Such accusations of LIBOR rate manipulation are not new. In 2008, the British Bankers Association (BBA) ...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - June 29th, 2012

(Jun 2012)

SEC Shuts Down Mortgage Fund Ponzi-like Scheme
June 28, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22406)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), Small Business Capital Corp. ("SB Capital") and Mark Feathers ("Feathers"), its principal, are operating an "alleged Ponzi-like scheme." $42 million have been raised by SB Capital and Feathers through selling securities issued by their mortgage investment funds, Investors Prime Fund, LLC and SBC Portfolio Fund, LLC ("Funds"). The Funds attracted more than 400...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 25th, 2012

(May 2012)

SEC Charges Northern California Fund Manager in $60 Million Scheme
May 24, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22375)
The SEC charged John A. Geringer with running a $60 million Ponzi scheme. In Geringer's management of the GLR Growth Fund, he allegedly misrepresented the fund's historical returns -- double-digit annually -- in the marketing materials and then used new investor funds to finance the returns current investors purportedly realized. Geringer went so far as to produce account statements...

The Small Price of Big Favors

(May 2012)

Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a press release announcing that it had filed a complaint alleging Detroit officials -- including former mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and former city treasurer Jeffrey W. Beasley -- influenced the city's pension fund investments to favor an advisor, MayfieldGentry Realty Advisors LLC, in exchange for personal gifts. This story illustrates an all too common occurrence in municipal finance. According to the SEC, Kilpatrick and Beasley...

Massachusetts Securities Regulators Fine RBC for Selling Unsuitable Leveraged and Inverse ETFs

(May 2012)

RBC Capital Markets has agreed to pay $2.9 million in restitution to Massachusetts investors related to the sale of unsuitable leveraged, inverse, and inverse-leveraged ETFs. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin, who has previously investigated Bank of America over warehousing of CLO assets, issued the complaint in July 2011, accusing RBC and its registered representative Michael D. Zukowski of selling these products "to clients who did not understand what these...

Bill Luby on VIX-Related Exchange-Traded Products

(Apr 2012)

Bill Luby, who writes at the VIX and More blog and Expiring Monthly: The Options Traders Journal, is one of the most respected voices on all things related to the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index, also known as the VIX. We highly recommend anyone interested in the VIX and volatility-related derivates check out his blog, which has a variety of useful analysis and commentary.

Recently there has been a lot of coverage related to TVIX and otherexchange-traded products linked to the VIX. Here at...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - April 20th, 2012

(Apr 2012)

SEC Announces Settlement of Accounting Fraud Charges Against Former CSK Auto Corporation Management
April 18, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22338)
The US District Court in Phoenix entered a final judgment against three former CSK Auto Corporation employees: Don W. Watson (former CFO, Treasurer and Senior VP), Edward W. O'Brien (former controller) and Gary M. Opper (former director of credit and receivables). The judgment is a result of the SEC allegations in which the officers overstated CSK's...

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