SEC sues ex-Detroit officials, adviser on "gifts"

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is facing federal civil charges of taking part in an influence-peddling scheme involving the city's public-employee pension funds....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Securities regulators charged an Illinois-based investment adviser on Wednesday with using LinkedIn and other social media networking websites to lure investors by offering more than $500 billion in fake securities.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Two former Detroit city officials were indicted on corruption charges on Wednesday, a week after ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted for similar offenses and days before a state-appointed emergency manager takes over the city's finances. A grand jury accused former city pension officials Ronald Zajac and Paul Stewart of a bribery and kickback scheme that the U.S. Attorney's office said involved more than $200 million in Detroit pension fund investments. Stewart is a former trustee of the retirement system for the city's police and firefighters. ...

Distressed cities are finally doing what they should have been doing long ago, declaring bankruptcy to force concessions from public unions. Numbers are still a trickle, but at soon as a major city such as Oakland or LA selects that option, we will likely see a torrent of municipal bankruptcies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators issued a proposal on Wednesday to curb bonuses at brokerage and investment advisory firms over the objections of Republicans on the panel and even...

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday announced a state takeover of Detroit’s finances and appointed as manager a corporate bankruptcy expert who took a can-do attitude toward turning around the destitute city, calling it the “Olympics of restructuring.” Kevyn Orr, an attorney who worked on the restructuring of Michigan-based automaker Chrysler, said as the city’s emergency financial manager he hoped to avoid a bankruptcy filing by Detroit, something that would rank as the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.