New Year’s Eve is a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. You may also add an excessive amount of alcohol, an expensive dinner in a crowded restaurant, or a long wait for Chinese food delivery. I’m sure there is a compliance story in there somewhere, but I’m just going [...]
Archive | December, 2011
Handy Decision Trees to Help with your Bribes
Thinking about making a payment or giving “anything of value” as part of a business meeting and wondering if you could be prosecuted for it under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or the Travel Act? Just reach into your briefcase and pull out a handy-dandy decision tree to help you through this difficult process. T. [...]
Comment Period Extended for Volcker Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission and federal banking regulators have extended the comment period on the Volcker Rule proposed regulations from January 13, 2012 to February 13, 2012. In Release No. 34-66057, the regulators noted that the extension of the comment period is appropriate “due to the complexity of the issues involved and to facilitate [...]
The New Accredited Investor Standard
After thinking about it for almost year, the Securities and Exchange Commission has finalized the new definition of “accredited investor.” On January 25, 2011, the SEC proposed amendments to the accredited investor standards in the rules under the Securities Act of 1933 to implement the requirements of Section 413(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform [...]
Happy Holidays
W.A. Rogers Editorial cartoon from 1902 published in Harper’s Weekly Uncle Sam standing smiling at Christmas tree laden with warships, telephones, an automobile, a fat man labeled “The Trusts,” and skyscrapers; with bags of money at its base. (The things that make Uncle Sam happy have not changed much over the last 100 years.)
Compliance Bits and Pieces for December 23
Here are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my attention. The Saga of MF Global – Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Fire the Chief Compliance Officer by Tom Fox Both the DOJ minimum best practices and the amendment to the US Sentencing Guidelines, giving the CCO direct access to a company’s Board of Directors, would seem [...]
Private Company Shares, Valuation, and Employee Stock Repurchases
There has always been a theoretical discussion that there could be insider trading on private company shares. I have not seen the theory tested in court. However, a recent enforcement case by the SEC gets close to the theory. The case involves a company re-purchasing shares from employees at a discounted price. The SEC makes [...]
FTC, Bloggers, and Disclosure
The Federal Trade Commission is continuing to pursue bloggers who fail to disclose that they received incentives to discuss a company’s products. Back in December, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines that specifically required bloggers to disclose any material connections to a product or company they are writing about. The FTC is focusing its [...]
Placement Agent Policies for Massachusetts Public Pension Systems
The local retirement boards in Massachusetts are subject to new regulations regarding placement agents. That means if you have one of the boards as investor in your fund or a client in your advisory business, you need to supply new information to your clients/investors. Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission is the umbrella regulatory organization that [...]
