Langford and Former Associates Should Settle With SEC Soon

After his guilty conviction on 60 counts and the guilty pleas of Blount and LaPierre, this almost seems like an afterthought, unless the SEC uses them as part of their case against CHASE. In that case more fireworks can ensue:

The Securities and Ex­change Commission's case against Larry Langford, Bill Blount and Al LaPierre will probably be wrapped up soon without a trial, accord­ing to legal experts.


"After the conviction and the guilty pleas, it isn't a vi­able case," said Jacob Fren­kel, a former SEC enforce­ment attorney now in private practice in Maryland. "It will be settled out of court with monetary judgments. The only ques­tion is what the terms are going to be."


The SEC, the federal gov­ernment's top investing watchdog, sued the trio in April 2008. Its allegations mirrored the criminal charges that later produced guilty pleas from investment banker Blount and lobbyist LaPierre and resulted in Wednesday's conviction of Birmingham Mayor Lang­ford.The SEC suit alleges that Blount and LaPierre con­spired with Langford, when he was Jefferson County Commission president, to get him $156,000 to pay off bank loans.


In return, the civil suit says, Montgomery's Blount Parrish & Co. investment bank collected millions in fees for helping structure and sell Jefferson County bonds and interest-rate swaps. Illicit activity related to bonds is what made the matter one for SEC consid­eration.


The SEC suit represented confirmation that Jefferson County's sewer bond deals and interest-rate swaps, which now threaten the state's most populous county with bankruptcy, were tainted by illegal activ­ity.

Jefferson County, which now faces bankruptcy, has turned to the SEC for help on these swap deals, what happens next is anyone's guess.