CHICAGO - SEC enforcement officials want muni market participants to know that they have 30 people, mostly staff attorneys, in eight offices around the country who have significant expertise in municipal securities issues.
The group includes a former trader, a former investment banker and a former municipal accountant. Many of the staff have worked on muni issues for at least five years.
LeeAnn Gaunt, chief of the SEC enforcement division's municipal securities and public pensions unit, told National Association of Bond Lawyers' Bond Attorneys' Workshop attendees Thursday the enforcement division has "made a real commitment" to try to develop the kind of expertise "that is necessary to appropriately police the market."
Gaunt leads the muni enforcement unit along with Mark Zehner, its deputy director.
"For five years, we've had enforcement lawyers really getting up to speed, getting educated, and getting focused on issues in the municipal securities market," Gaunt said during a panel. She added the unit is starting to see "the fruits of that early commitment to getting people focused and specialized" in the muni area with enforcement actions and initiatives rolled out over the last few years by the unit.
The unit is still "driven in large part" by issues articulated in the SEC's 2012 Report on the Municipal Securities Market and continues to focus on issuer disclosure, broker-dealer abuses, and more recently municipal advisor conduct, Gaunt said.
During the past few years, the unit has pursued several first-of-a-kind cases in the muni realm, including: charging the city's mayor as a "control person" in the Allen Park, Mich. case; taking emergency action to halt a bond sale in the Harvey, Ill. case; and pursuing primary market bond pricing abuses in the Edward Jones case.
The SEC's Office of Municipal Securities, which had been down to as few as two people in 2013, has also added staff and works closely with the enforcement staff. OMS now has six attorneys and is currently looking for attorney-fellows and attorney-advisors. Attorney fellows typically serve two-year terms with the SEC and act as a counsel to the director and deputy director of OMS, according to a recent job posting for the position. Attorney-advisors provide advice and can be asked to take on a number of duties, such as participating in developing policies and procedures. They serve two-year appointments that can be renewed for another two years.
Jessica Kane currently serves as the office's director and Rebecca Olsen is the deputy director. In a panel earlier in the week, Kane said the office uses the SEC's 2012 report as a roadmap for where to put their focus.
The other staff members include Edward Fierro, Mary Simpkins, Cori Shepherd, and Hillary Phelps. Fierro was recently being promoted to the role of counsel to the director and deputy director.
Kane said OMS is focused on market structure and disclosure moving forward, with particular interest on a best execution rule and guidance, as well as industry rules on disclosing markups and enhancing the availability of pre-trade pricing information.
