$31.5 million dealt out to MFS clients

The distribution is the first in a series of payments to MFS account holders that are to total $306 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today distributed $31.5 million in Fair Funds to more than 150,000 investors who were harmed by market timing in Massachusetts Financial Services Company funds between 1999 and 2003.
The distribution is the first in a series of planned disbursements that are to total $306 million to MFS account holders, the SEC said in a statement.
The money was collected by the SEC as a result of enforcement actions against MFS of Boston and two of its former officers for allowing widespread market timing in some MFS mutual funds, despite disclosures by the fund claiming that such trades were not allowed.
In 2004, the SEC settled a case against MFS, former chief executive John Ballen, and former president and chief equity officer Kevin Parke.
MFS was ordered to pay $175 million in disgorgement and $50 million in penalties for distribution through the Fair Fund.
More than $3.2 billion has been returned to investors through Fair Fund distributions since the fund was created under provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.