Elaine Greenberg Reflects on UBS Settlements Over Puerto Rico Bond Funds

The Wall Street Journal
September.29.2015

Elaine Greenberg, a partner in Orrick’s Securities, Litigation, Investigations and Enforcement Group in Washington, D.C. and a former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) specialized unit for municipal securities and public pensions, recently spoke to The Wall Street Journal about Puerto Rico’s financial crisis and UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico’s payment of $34 million to settle charges by the SEC and the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in connection with the sale of Puerto Rico bond funds to customers. As part of the SEC and FINRA settlements, most of this amount will be returned to investors who suffered losses after a former UBS broker had customers improperly invest borrowed money from an affiliated bank in the bond funds.

According to Elaine, the settlements are consistent with other recent SEC enforcement actions regarding supervisory failures. The SEC is “continuing to pursue actions against broker-dealer firms with regards to their policies and procedures, and whether or not those policies and procedures are reasonably designed to prevent and detect violations of federal securities law,” she said.