The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an asset freeze against two people in San Bernardino, California accused of defrauding Chinese investors. The investments were made under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program which "provides a method to obtain visas by investing $1 million, or at least $500,000 in an area designated as rural or high unemployment, and which creates or preserves at least ten jobs for U.S. workers." The SEC accuses the individuals of diverting a portion of the investments for personal and other uses thereby jeopardizing investors' prospects for U.S. residency under

FINRA's request for comments on its proposal to extend the Tier Size Pilot program until June 10, 2016 was published in the Federal Register. The current program is scheduled to expire on December 11, 2015. The Tier Size Pilot was filed with the SEC originally on October 6, 2011 to amend the minimum quotation sizes for OTC Equity Securities. The purpose of the extension is to provide FINRA with additional time to finalize its recommendation concerning the pilot. The proposed rule change amends FINRA Rule 6433 ("Minimum Quotation Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities").

The SEC named Katherine K. Martin Associate Director in its Office of International Affairs. Ms. Martin served the SEC in various roles for over a decade. She was Assistant Director in the Office of International Affairs and Senior Special Counsel in the Office of Clearance and Settlement in the Division of Trading and Markets. Prior to that, she was Assistant Chief Counsel in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis and Senior Counsel in the Office of International Affairs.

The SEC, FINRA and the MSRB announced that registration for the Compliance Outreach program for Municipal Advisors is now open. Director of the SEC Office of Municipal Securities Jessica Kane said this about the event: "This year's outreach program is designed to promote compliance with municipal advisor rules by providing municipal advisor professionals the opportunity to interact with all three regulators and to discuss regulatory and compliance issues with their industry peers." The program will take place in Philadelphia on February 3, 2016. It also will be streamed live on the SEC Web

The Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises will hold a hearing titled Legislative Proposals to Improve the U.S. Capital Markets. The hearing will take place at 10:00 a.m. on December 2, 2015. The hearing will focus on the following legislative proposals: H.R. 3784, the SEC Small Business Advocate Act; H.R. 3798, the Due Process Restoration Act; H.R. ____, the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups (HALOS) Act; H.R. ____, the Fostering Innovation Act; and H.R. ____, the Small Business Capital Formation Enhancement Act. The hearing will