3.2.5.12. Other Pay to Play Example Questions
Example Question 1
You are working as a non-MAP executive officer and you make a contribution to an official of an issuer in a region where you are not entitled to vote. Is your advisor prohibited from engaging in municipal securities business with the issuer?
Answer: No. The ban only applies to contributions made by advisors, MAPs, and PACs controlled by the advisor or MAP. However, your contributions will be subject to reporting provisions. Also, you may not make contributions for your advisor.
Example Question 2
You are working as an MAP and you sign a check from a joint account along with a document that states the contribution is being made solely by the other holder of the joint account. The amount was for $400. Would any portion of this contribution be attributable to you as an MAP?
Answer: Yes. If a municipal advisor professional signs a check, whether the check was drawn on a joint account or not, and submits it as a contribution to an issuer official, then the municipal advisor professional is deemed to have made the full contribution, regardless of any writing accompanying the check that provides or directs otherwise. Moreover, if this amount exceeds, or does not qualify for, the de minimis exception, then by making such a contribution the municipal advisor professional will trigger the rule’s ban on business, thereby prohibiting his employer from engaging in municipal advisory business with that particular issuer for two years.
Example Question 3
You are an MAP and made a contribution two months ago to an official candidate of an issuer. The contribution was not subject to the de minimis exception. The candidate subsequently did not win the election. Will this contribution trigger the ban?
Answer: Yes. Rule G-37 defines the term “official of an issuer” as “any person (including any election committee for such person) who was, at the time of the contribution, an incumbe