Securities & Exchange Commission v. Morgan Keegan & Co.

806 F. Supp. 2d 1253, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71481
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedJune 28, 2011
DocketNo. 1:09-CV-1965-WSD
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 806 F. Supp. 2d 1253 (Securities & Exchange Commission v. Morgan Keegan & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Securities & Exchange Commission v. Morgan Keegan & Co., 806 F. Supp. 2d 1253, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71481 (N.D. Ga. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

WILLIAM S. DUFFEY, JR., District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendant Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.’s Motion for Summary Judgment [40].

I. BACKGROUND

Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. (“Morgan Keegan” or “Defendant”) is a Memphis, Tennessee investment firm with over 1,200 brokers and 300 offices throughout the southeast. The firm offers [1255]*1255financial products and services to its customers, including securities brokerage, asset management, financial planning, mutual funds, securities underwriting, sales and trading, and investment advice. Morgan Keegan’s underwriting and sale of auction rate securities (“ARS”) is at the center of this action.

ARS are long-date municipal bonds, corporate bonds, and preferred stock with variable dividend yields or interest rates that are re-set every seven, fourteen, twenty-eight, or thirty-five days. (Pi’s Stmt, of Facts No. 1; Defs Stmt, of Facts No. 4.) The interest rate (or dividend) for a particular ARS issue is set through a “Dutch auction,” in which investors purchase and sell ARS at par value (typically $25,000 per share). (Pi’s Stmt, of Facts No. 2; Defs Stmt, of Facts No. 3.) In advance of an auction, potential ARS investors submit bids (or “buy orders”) to the managing broker-dealer (typically the underwriter of the ARS), specifying the number of ARS shares they desire to purchase and the minimum interest rate they will accept. {Id. No. 4.) Existing ARS holders can submit “sell orders” to sell a specified quantity at a certain interest rate, or “hold orders” to hold a specified quantity. {Id.)

An auction succeeds, or “clears,” if investors submit enough buy orders to cover the sale orders. {Id. No. 5.) In a successful auction, the “clearing rate” is the lowest interest rate that will cover all buy orders. (Id.) The clearing rate applies to all buy orders that investors accept, regardless of whether a bidder actually specified a lower rate in the bid. (Id.) If bidders do not submit sufficient buy orders to purchase all of the shares offered for sale, the auction fails and the interest rate resets to the “maximum rate” until the next auction, and all of the current holders continue to hold the securities, with minor exceptions, (id. No. 6.) ARS underwriters historically prevented auctions from failing by placing “supporting” bids to purchase for their own accounts the excess ARS offered for sale. (id. No 7.) The underwriter would then typically hold these ARS in its own inventory. (Id.) In its role as an underwriter, Morgan Keegan submitted orders in auctions for its own account, either as a bidder or a seller. (Defs Resp. to Pi’s Stmt, of Facts No. 9.)1

ARS Market Collapse

Before 2007, ARS auctions rarely failed. (id. at No. 10.) Beginning in the second half of 2007, however, ARS auction failures began to occur. (Defs Stmt, of Facts No. 46.) In early February 2008, auctions began to fail at increasing rates, restricting the ability of investors to liquidate ARS they held. (Pi’s Resp. to Defs Stmt, of Facts No. 12.) By February 12, 2008, there were approximately 100 failures in auctions in which Morgan Keegan played some participating role. (Pi’s Stmt, of Facts No. 25.) By that time, most ARS underwriters other than Morgan Keegan stopped supporting auction success by placing bids for their own accounts, resulting in an enlarged number of auction failures. (id. at No. 24.)

During the ARS collapse, Morgan Keegan continued to buy ARS for its account to support auctions, thus providing ARS liquidity for its customers. As a result, Morgan Keegan’s ARS inventory increased from $54 million on February 8, 2008, to $133 million on February 15, 2008, to $179 million on February 21, 2008. (Defs Resp. to Pi’s Stmt, of Facts Nos. 26 and 27.) On February 27, 2008, Morgan Keegan elected to cap its ARS inventory [1256]*1256at between $182-185 million, (id. No. 27.) After Morgan Keegan reached its ARS inventory cap, it discontinued its purchase of ARS for its account. Without Morgan’ Keegan’s support, those auctions failed and Defendant’s customers were left holding approximately $2.2 billion of ARS, including $1.1 billion of ARS underwritten by Morgan Keegan. (Pi’s Stmt, of Facts No. 28.)

Morgan Keegan’s Written Disclosures

Defendant prepared several written disclosures for its customers warning of the risks associated with ARS. These “Written Disclosures” included: (1) a twenty-four (24) page description of its ARS practices and procedures (the “ARS Manual”); (2) a trade confirmation after each ARS transaction (“Trade Confirmation”); (3) a trifold brochure (the “ARS Brochure”); and (4) an ARS web page on its website.2

The ARS Manual3 tracked the best practices set forth by the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association (Defs Ex. 32 at 32; Defs Ex. 3 ¶4). Morgan Keegan posted the ARS Manual on its website for the benefit of its customers. (Defs Ex. 32 at 33-34.) The ARS Manual devoted a full page to the risks of auction failures and how auction failures would be handled if they occurred. The ARS manual specifically warned customers that:

Holders who have submitted sell orders should be aware that, in the event of an auction failure, they will not be able to sell all, and may not be able to sell any, securities in the auction.

(Defs Ex. 1 at MK0187699-700.) A section entitled “Risk Factors and Special Considerations” stated:

Morgan Keegan is permitted, but not obligated, to submit orders in auctions for its own account either as a bidder or a seller, or both, and routinely does so in its sole discretion.... Because of these practices, the fact that an auction clears successfully does not mean that an investment in the securities involves no significant liquidity or credit risk. Morgan Keegan is not obligated to continue to place such bids or encourage other bidders to do so in any particular auction to prevent an auction from failing or clearing at a rate Morgan Keegan believes does not reflect the market for the securities. Investors should not assume that Morgan Keegan will do so or that auction failures will not occur.

(Id. at MK0187704-05.) Under a section styled “No Assurances Regarding Auction Outcomes,” Morgan Keegan warned:

Morgan Keegan provides no assurance as to the outcome of any auction. Nor does Morgan Keegan provide any assurance that any bid will be successful, in whole or in part, or that any auction will clear at a rate that a bidder considers acceptable ...

(Id. at MK0187706.) Finally, a section entitled “Holder’s Ability to Resell Auction Rate Securities May be Limited” states:

In any auction of auction rate securities, holders will be able to sell all of their securities for which they submitted a sell order only if there are sufficient bids to purchase all those securities in the auction. If sufficient bids have not been made, auction failure results, and holders that have submitted sell orders will not be able to sell in the auction all, and may not be able to sell any, of the [1257]*1257securities subject to such submitted sell orders. See Auction Failure above....

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
806 F. Supp. 2d 1253, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/securities-exchange-commission-v-morgan-keegan-co-gand-2011.