Corporate & Securities Law

The SEC has filed securities fraud charges against five former San Diego city officials who played key roles in the city's inadequate municipal securities disclosures in 2002 and 2003.  The SEC charged the former officials for failing to disclose to the investing public buying the city's municipal bonds that there were funding problems with its pension and retiree health care obligations and those liabilities had placed the city in serious financial jeopardy.

"Municipal officials responsible for municipal bond disclosure play a key gatekeeper role in protecting investors," said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.  "It is therefore imperative that they honor the public's trust by ensuring that investors are provided with accurate, material information about the issuer's fiscal health."

According to the SEC's complaint, the five former officials knew that the city had been intentionally under-funding its pension obligations so that it could increase pension benefits but defer the costs.  They were aware that the city would face severe difficulty funding its future pension and retiree health care obligations unless new revenues were obtained, pension and health care benefits were reduced, or city services were cut.

Excerpted from SEC Press Release