Among recent enforcement actions, the SEC went after the city of Victorville, Calif., as well as its underwriter and others for defrauding municipal bond investors. In addition, FINRA took action against firms for fraud and other violations, including one firm's intimidation of its own staff in its quest to protect its illegal actions.
Victorville, Underwriter, Others Charged by SEC With Fraud
The city of Victorville,Calif., a city official, the Southern California Logistics Airport Authority, and Kinsell, Newcomb & De Dios (KND), the underwriter of the Airport Authority's bonds, found themselves the target of SEC action with charges that they defrauded investors by inflating valuations of property securing an April 2008 municipal bond offering.
Keith Metzler, Victorville's assistant city manager and its former director of economic development; J. Jeffrey Kinsell, owner of KND, and Janees Williams, vice president of KND, were responsible for false and misleading statements that were made in the Airport Authority's 2008 bond offering, the SEC said. KND was also charged with working through a related party and misusing more than $2.7 million of bond proceeds to keep itself afloat.
The Airport Authority, controlled by the city of Victorville, set out to perform several redevelopment projects that included construction of four airplane hangars on a former Air Force base. It financed the projects by issuing tax increment bonds, which are solely secured by and repaid from property-tax increases attributable to increases in the assessed value of property in the redevelopment project area.
But by April 2008, the Airport Authority had to refinance part of that debt by issuing more bonds. Metzler, Williams and Kinsell used a valuation for the hangars that, at $65 million, was more than double what the county assessor had determined they were worth. That valuation helped to drive the principal amount of the new bond issue, and gave the Airport Authority the wherewithal to issue a lot more bonds and bring in more money than a true valuation would have provided. Not only that, but it meant that investors were duped about the value of the bonds they were buying.
To further complicate matters, Kinsell and KND, along with another of his companies, used more than $2.7 million intended for the building of the hangars for his own purposes. He came up with the scheme after allegations surfaced that the contractor building the hangars might have taken some of the bond proceeds for personal expenses. Kinsell stepped in to "manage" the construction of the hangars, although he had no experience to do so, through his company KND Affiliates.
Kinsell and KND Affiliates skimmed off more than $2.7 million in bogus oversight and management fees from the $60 million the company was loaned for the project, the SEC said. They also hid the fees from the Airport Authority, and from auditors as well.
The SEC seeks the return of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest and financial penalties, as well as the return of ill-gotten gains from relief defendant KND Holdings, the parent company of KND.
FINRA Charges John Thomas Financial With Fraud and Intimidation
John Thomas Financial (JTF) of New York and Anastasios "Tommy" Belesis, its CEO, have been charged with fraud in connection with the sale of America West Resources' (AWSR) common stock and intimidation of registered representatives. The two have also been charged with numerous market violations, including trading ahead and failing to provide best execution for customer orders. Others named in the complaint are Michele Misiti, branch office manager; John Ward, trader; Joseph Castellano, chief compliance officer; and Ronald Vincent Cantalupo, regional managing director.
