The SEC charged the former CEO of a Houston-based investor-relations firm with insider trading in the securities of multiple clients. Lofchie Comment:Public companies should consider whether it is feasible to institute trading compliance procedures as to corporate service providers (other than investment banks) that obtain access to inside information. I say "other than investment banks" because investment banks already implement such procedures as to their employees, and it is unlikely that there is anything that the corporate issuer could do to supplement that. But other types of firms, such

The SEC has charged West Clark Community Schools and its municipal bond underwriter with providing bond investors with false information regarding annual financial information and notices. The SEC also charged Randy G. Ruhl, who heads the public finance and muni bond department at City Securities, for the school district's misconduct. Lofchie Comment: There has been a very significant pick-up of enforcement actions against governmental issuers. See: SEC Press Release; SEC Order Against West Clark Community Schools.

SIFMA issued a comment letter as to the level of effort that a broker-dealer should be required to undertake in order to obtain an execution of legally sufficient quality in the municipal bond markets. The comment letter was in reports to the July 31 SEC Report on the Municipal Securities Markets, asserting that retail customers in the municipal bond markets are disadvantaged in execution, pricing, and disclosure as they do not have access to the same information as dealers and institutional customers. In this regard, the SEC had recommended a rule change that would require municipal bond

The Department of Justice announced that it is bringing criminal charges for insider trading against SAC advisory companies responsible for a group of affiliated hedge funds. The alleged offenses were committed over the span of more than a decade by numerous employees involved in the securities of over 20 publicly traded companies. It is charged that the acts were made possible by institutional practices that enabled the use of material, non-public inside information resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal profits and avoided losses. The SEC has also announced charges against

The House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held a hearing on "The Future of the CFTC: End-User Perspectives." This is the second part of a two-part hearing on the future of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC"), specifically the reauthorization of the Commission. The first was yesterday and featured CFTC Commissioners O'Malia and Wetjen. See: Click here to see a summary of the reauthorization hearing from Delta Strategy Group. See also : Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing: "Reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading