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Federal securities regulators say the nation’s largest radio operator, iHeart Media Inc., is going too far with offers of legal immunity, threatening to strip shareholders of the right to pursue damages against alleged wrongdoers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In a court filing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took issue with provisions in iHeart’s chapter 11 turnaround plan that would shield a large group of people and firms from lawsuits connected to their roles in its multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy. Grants of legal immunity are a hot spot in corporate bankruptcy, sought after by everyone from private equity owners to legal and accounting advisors. Critics, such as the SEC lawyers who filed a protest in iHeart’s case, say that the law shields those that seek bankruptcy protection from legal hostility, but offers no safe harbor for people and companies that did not file for protection.

Steven Davis, a former chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf, has agreed to pay a $130,000 civil penalty in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to newly filed court papers, the largest fine so far to come out of the SEC’s case against five leaders of the now-defunct firm, The American Lawyer reported. The SEC filed court papers Aug. 31 laying out the details of Davis’ settlement, as well as the settlements with ex-finance director Francis Canellas, who has agreed to pay $43,178 in disgorgement and interest; and former Dewey controller Thomas Mullikin, who has agreed to pay $8,635.78 in disgorgement and interest costs. If the settlements are approved by the court, the SEC will have wrung out of Dewey leaders about $216,815, including its settlement with former Dewey executive director Stephen DiCarmine. That deal, including a $35,000 civil penalty, was revealed earlier this year.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said that the commission wants to make it easier for individuals to invest in private companies, including some of the world’s hottest startups, the Wall Street Journal reported. Clayton, a Trump appointee wrestling with how to boost flagging interest in public markets, said that the commission also wants to take steps to give more individual investors a shot at companies that have been out of their reach because they haven’t gone public. Companies including Uber Technologies Inc. and Airbnb Inc. have shunned the public markets in favor of private investors such as venture capitalists. For decades, regulators have typically walled off most private deals from smaller investors, who must meet stringent income and net-worth requirements to participate because of the added risk private investing holds. Clayton said the SEC is now weighing a major overhaul of rules intended to protect mom-and-pop investors, with the goal of opening up new options for them.

A businessman who led an adult-magazine empire that included titles like Playgirl and High Society has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of defrauding investors through the sale of unregistered securities, the Wall Street Journal reported. Carl Ruderman and 1 Global Capital LLC, the Florida small-business lender he led as chairman and chief executive, are accused of fraudulently raising more than $287 million from thousands of investors. Roughly 3,400 investors, many of whom risked their retirement savings, over more than four years invested in 1 Global’s securities, according to a complaint filed in Florida federal court on Aug. 23 and unsealed this week. The securities were sold through a network of agents that included people barred from the industry, the complaint said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that it plans to rehear dozens of cases that were pending before its in-house administrative-law judges, following a June Supreme Court ruling that faulted the appointment process for those judges, the Wall Street Journal reported. The agency, in an order yesterday revealing how it was responding to the ruling, said that it had reappointed the judges to comply with the court holding. The SEC said that it would give all the cases pending before the in-house judges, or that had been appealed to the five-member commission, the opportunity for a new hearing. The order said that the agency would start fresh on all of the cases, telling the judges they “shall not give weight to or otherwise presume the correctness of any prior opinions, orders, or rulings.” The SEC halted activity in administrative cases after the Supreme Court’s ruling, which said the agency’s judges must be appointed by the commissioners themselves rather than by SEC employees. The SEC uses in-house courts for about 20 percent of all litigated actions brought by the agency.

Five top sellers of Woodbridge Group of Cos. securities were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, accused of making unlawful profits from an alleged Ponzi scheme, the Wall Street Journal reported. The SEC sued Barry M. Kornfeld, Ferne Kornfeld, Lynette M. Robbins, Andrew G. Costa, Albert D. Klager and their companies in federal court in Florida over their roles as outside salespeople who enlisted investors for Woodbridge. The five defendants were some of the top moneymakers for Woodbridge, the SEC says in its suit. They collected more than $5 million allegedly selling unregistered securities for Woodbridge, which amassed a portfolio of real estate that includes Owlwood, a California estate once owned by Sonny and Cher. According to the SEC, the real estate wasn’t the source of funds to pay off investors. Instead, Woodbridge paid off earlier investors with money from investors who continued to be sold on the idea their money was safe and anchored by valuable properties.

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday charged the founder of San Francisco-based venture capital funds and his investment advisory firm with overcharging investors to fund personal projects, including sending millions of dollars to his own virtual reality production company, according to a press release. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Michael B. Rothenberg marketed his advisory firm, Rothenberg Ventures LLC, as uniquely positioned to identify millennial entrepreneurs and invest in “frontier technology” companies. According to SEC filings, Rothenberg’s funds had nearly 200 investors and more than $64 million in assets. The SEC’s complaint alleges that over a three-year period, Rothenberg and his firm misappropriated millions of dollars from the funds, including an estimated $7 million of excess fees, which Rothenberg used to support personal business ventures he claimed were self-funded and to pay for private parties and events at high-end resorts and Bay Area sporting arenas.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved to require states and local governments to disclose bank loans and privately placed debt, seeking to address concerns that bondholders are being left in the dark about a fast-growing segment of public finance, Bloomberg News reported. The SEC adopted amendments to a rule, known as 15c2-12, that obligates securities dealers to ensure that municipalities report updated financial information and material events to bondholders. The amendments will force the disclosure of loans incurred by municipalities, loan defaults and changes to financial covenants that affect bondholders within 10 business days.