SEC Charges Rochester, NY, and City’s Former Executives and Municipal Advisor with Misleading Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the City of Rochester, New York, its former finance director Rosiland Brooks-Harris, and former Rochester City School District CFO Everton Sewell with misleading investors in a $119 million bond offering. The SEC also charged Rochester’s municipal advisor Capital Markets Advisors, LLC (CMA) and its principal Richard Ganci with misleading investors and breaching their fiduciary duty to Rochester. CMA, Ganci and CMA co-principal Richard Tortora were also charged with failing to disclose conflicts to municipal clients. The SEC alleges that in 2019 the defendants misled investors with bond offering documents that included outdated financial statements for the Rochester City School District and did not indicate that the district was experiencing financial distress due to overspending on teacher salaries.