Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

Puerto Rico appealed a court ruling that Doral Financial Corp., the holding company for the commonwealth’s second-largest mortgage lender, is entitled to a $229.9 million tax refund from the cash-strapped island’s government, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.

The home office of Doral Bank, the San Juan, P.R.-based lender struggling to meet regulatory mandates, was raided by the FBI in a search for evidence related to “several ongoing investigations,” the agency said, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Puerto Rico's electric power authority PREPA is expected to ask bondholders to extend a forbearance agreement set to expire at the end of next March, Reuters reported yesterday. A presentation to the bondholders in New York yesterday highlighted the extent of the problems facing PREPA and fell short of an expected business plan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that the city of Allen Park, Mich., and two of its former officials settled fraud charges related to the sale of a $31 million municipal bond issue to raise funds for a movie studio project to spur needed economic development, the Wall Street Journal reported today.