Widespread Corruption: 71 Cities, Counties, and States Were Just Charged with Fraud

How widespread is the corruption in this country?

Well just this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that 71 cities, counties, schools, departments of transportation, and the entire states of Hawaii and Minnesota, have all been charged with fraud for violations in municipal bond offerings — misleading investors.

Between 2011 and 2014, the SEC found that these municipal issuers sold municipal bonds that contained “materially false statements or omissions about their compliance with continuing disclosure obligations”:

“The diversity among the 71 entities in these actions demonstrates that continuing disclosure failures were a widespread and pervasive problem in the municipal bond market,” said Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC Enforcement Division.

Foregoing trials, all 71 entities agreed to settle and update their policies and procedures, etc.

The entities are listed below so you can play the fun game of seeing if there’s fraud near you. (Then again, this is probably just a token gesture. If we were really honest with ourselves, we’d probably find stuff a lot worse than this going on everywhere all across the nation. It’d probably just be easier to make a list of places where fraud isn’t being committed these days. It’d be a short list, most likely because there would be nothing on it.)

Alabama:

City of Vestavia Hills

Board of Education of Madison County

Alaska:

Borough of North Slope

Arkansas:

Board of Trustees of Arkansas Tech University

California:

City of Alameda

Colorado:

Boulder County

Thompson School District No. R2-J

Colorado Department of Transportation

Connecticut:

Lawrence & Memorial Corp. and Lawrence & Memorial Hospital

Town of Fairfield

Delaware:

Delaware Transportation Authority

Georgia:

Fulton County

Hawaii:

State of Hawaii

Idaho:

Idaho Housing and Finance Association

Illinois:

Palatine Park District

Community Unit School District Number 18 (Blue Ridge)

Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria

Indiana:

City of Gary

Sanitary District of the City of Gary

City of South Bend

Iowa:

City of Cedar Rapids

City of West Des Moines

Kansas:

Unified School District No. 418 (McPherson County)

City of Andover

Kentucky:

Kentucky Housing Corporation

Electric and Water Plant Board of the City of Frankfort

Louisiana:

East Ouachita Parish School District

Maine:

Town of York

Maryland:

Montgomery College

Montgomery College Foundation

Massachusetts:

City of Chelsea

Michigan:

Berrien County

Minnesota:

State of Minnesota

Mississippi:

Lauderdale County

Missouri:

Ascension Health Alliance

Black Jack Fire Protection District of St. Louis County

Blair Oaks R-II School District

Montana:

Montana Department of Transportation

Nebraska:

City of Alliance

New Hampshire:

Southern New Hampshire University

New Jersey:

Borough of Roselle Park

Township of East Brunswick

New Mexico:

El Castillo Retirement Residences

New York:

Franklin County

City of Ithaca

Syracuse University

Westchester County Health Care Corporation

North Carolina:

North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency

North Dakota:

City of Devils Lake

Ohio:

The Ohio State University

Oklahoma:

City of Nichols Hills

Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency

Yukon Municipal Authority

Pennsylvania:

Adams County

Collegium Charter School

Hazleton Area School District

Municipal Authority of the City of McKeesport

South Carolina:

City of Columbia

Town of Hilton Head Island

South Dakota:

Tea Area School District 41-5

Tennessee:

City of Memphis

Texas:

Pecos County

Utah:

Heber Light & Power Company

Vermont:

Casella Waste Systems

Virginia:

Carilion Clinic

Washington:

City of Bainbridge Island

Public Utility District No. 1 of Whatcom County

West Virginia:

County Commission of Ohio County

Wisconsin:

City of Oconomowoc

Wyoming:

Wyoming Community Development Authority