By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – The Security and Exchange Commission is reviewing two-year college records relating to an investment bank that handled bond business for colleges and has ties to the system's former finance director.
SEC lawyers requested records in May concerning Merchant Capital of Montgomery and trips college system officials took to New York City from 2002 to 2005.
Chancellor Bradley Byrne said commission officials had an August interview with Debbie Dahl, who was fired as the system's vice chancellor for finance last month.
System records show more than two-thirds - $135 million - of two-year college bond business went to Merchant Capital after Dahl's office took over all post-secondary education bond business in 1998. Dahl's brother, Ken Funderburk, is an officer with Merchant Capital.
Mike Dunn, who serves as Merchant Capital's lead banker, declined to discuss the inquiry and efforts to reach Dahl and Funderburk for comment failed.
Some of the state's two-year colleges have been the focus of a joint state and federal investigation dating back to the summer of 2004.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)