Municipal advisers charged with recordkeeping violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday announced charges against a dozen municipal advisors for failures by the firms and their personnel to maintain and preserve certain electronic communications. The firms agreed to pay combined civil penalties of more than $1.3 million to settle the SEC’s charges.

According to the SEC, the 12 firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders, acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws, have begun implementing improvements to their compliance policies and procedures to address these violations, and agreed to pay the following civil penalties:

• Acacia Financial Group Inc. — $52,000
• Caine Mitter and Associates Inc. — $94,000
• cfX Inc. — $42,000
• CSG Advisors Inc. — $40,000
• Kaufman Hall & Associates LLC, together with Ponder & Company — $324,000
• Montague DeRose & Associates LLC — $40,000
• PFM Financial Advisors LLC — $250,000
• Phoenix Advisors LLC — $40,000
• Public Resources Advisory Group Inc. — $184,000
• Specialized Public Finance Inc. — $250,000
• Zions Public Finance Inc. — $47,000