The Securities and Exchange sued Stifel, Nicolaus & Company on Wednesday, accusing the Midwestern brokerage firm of duping five Wisconsin school districts into buying $200 million in dubious investments.

The firm in 2006 sold the school districts “unsuitable” securities tied to synthetic collaterized debt obligations that were “far more risky” than advertised and mostly purchased with borrowed funds, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Milwaukee. Stifel and one of its former top executives, David W. Noack, concealed the perils of investing “through a series of falsehoods and misrepresentations,” the S.E.C. said.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Read the SEC Complaint here