James H. Freis, Jr., Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, let us know that his agency is working on anti-money laundering requirements for investment advisers. At a November 15, 2011 speech at the American Bankers Association/American Bar Association’s Money Laundering Enforcement Conference he highlighted many of the issues of money-laundering in the various financial [...]
Archive | January, 2012
Defending Jacob
Being a lawyer, I like a good legal thriller. If you’re looking for a legal thriller to keep you up at night, try William Landay’s latest novel: Defending Jacob. Jacob is a fourteen year old boy whose classmate is found murdered. Jacob’s father is an assistant district attorney. You can guess from the title that [...]
Compliance Bits and Pieces
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention: Ponzi Scheme and Investment Fraud Red Flags by Tracy Coenen in the Fraud Files Blog How do you know if you’re considering investing in a Ponzi scheme? The promoters will never come out and tell you they are running a pyramid scheme, so the [...]
New York City “Pay-to-Play” Law is Upheld
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a New York City “pay-to-play” law against various constitutional challenges: Ognibene v. Parkes. The Pay to play law is in Local Law 34 and it: Lowers the caps applicable to campaign contributions from parties that have “business dealings” with New York City to $400 (otherwise [...]
Private Fund Managers and SEC Registration
The SEC has provided a no action letter in response to an American Bar Association request on guidance for private fund managers. The ABA requested clarification that a group of funds could use a singe registration where the fund managers are in a control relationship and conduct a single advisory business subject to a unified [...]
Why How We Do Anything Means Everything
An acquaintance in the compliance field sent me a copy of Dov Seidman’s How and I let it sit around for months. (My “To Read” stack has grown very tall.) I assumed How was vanity book and would rattle on and on about Seidman’s company: LRN. I recently moved and my “To Read” stack was tumbled [...]
Ethisphere’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics
The Ethisphere Institute unveiled its “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics,” an annual list of individuals who have made a significant impact in the realm of corporate citizenship over the course of the previous year. Some are world famous and some are little unknown. Here are some that caught my attention: #48 Stephen Colbert [...]
Compliance Bits and Pieces for January 20
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Bruce Carton’s “2011: The Year in Enforcement” in Securities Docket 2011 was another difficult year for the Securities and Exchange Commission, even though another Madoff or Stanford-like scandal didn’t emerge to bring new embarrassment. Indeed, the SEC seemed to be under attack from [...]
Amending the Ban on General Solicitation and Advertising
There seems to be some momentum for changes to the Regulation D’s prohibition on advertising a private fund offering. The Managed Funds Association has asked the SEC to start a rulemaking and one of the SEC’s new advisory committees has also recommended a change. The SEC’s new Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies approved [...]
Stop SOPA
Based on the White House statement about Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act and the Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN), those bills may be in serious trouble. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261, as originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against [...]
