Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Cameron G. High of Yellowstone Partners, LLP, of Idaho Falls, for fraudulently overbilling the firm’s clients and charging fees for work not performed. That amount to a total of over $11 million in excess charges from more than 100 of the firm’s clients. Mr. High faces up to 20 … Read more »
The Securities and Enforcement Commission’s Division of Enforcement release its 2019 Annual Report highlighting the 862 actions and $4.3 billion in disgorgement and penalties. The report emphasized actions against individuals. Excluding the Share Class Initiative cases, 69% of the standalone cases were against individuals. This is in line with cases filed during the past few … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The SEC Cancels Another Open Meeting: What Gives? Broc RomanekTheCorporateCounsel.net The SEC has cancelled tomorrow’s open Commission meeting about proposing changes to its whistleblower office. I think this is the third cancelled open meeting in as many months. Does it matter? Not really. Is it … Read more »
Thomas M. Maney had a 1000-acre parcel of undeveloped, vacant, desert land in Kern County, California. He decided to find other interested in owning part of it and helping with the development decisions. He split it into 4000 undivided, fractional ownership interests. So far, that’s just a time-share and not a security. Then Silver Saddle … Read more »
I had to scratch my head for a moment when reading the case against Jan Atlas. The SEC accused the lawyer of issuing legal opinions in which he falsified or omitted important facts in connection with an unregistered, fraudulent offering. “At the time he drafted the May 17 opinion letter, Atlas knew that certain facts … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The 2020 U.S. Election is Here: How is Your Firm Monitoring Political Contributions and Government Relationships?by Elaine VincentACA Compliance While the SEC certainly has plenty of responsibilities on its plate, based on precedent it is likely that the regulator will step up enforcement and investigation … Read more »
I had my coffee ready and headphones on to listen to Tuesday morning’s Securities and Exchange Commission open meeting for Item 3: “Investment Adviser Advertisements; Compensation for Solicitations.” After cancelling a appointment to watch it, I discovered that Item 3 had been taken off the meeting agenda. The SEC voted on Monday to propose amendments … Read more »
In response to Dodd-Frank, the SEC adopted Rule 21F-17 in August 2011, which provides: (a) No person may take any action to impede an individual from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation, including enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality agreement . . . with respect to such communications. I have … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that I read recently while getting ready for Halloween. It’s the Great Pumpkin: Lessons in Process Validation Through Monitoringby Tom FoxFCPA Compliance & Ethics The compliance lesson from Linus’ adventure; it is process validation. Unlike Santa Claus, who we have been repeatedly told “Yes, Virginia there is a … Read more »
I don’t like compliance officers being dragged into enforcement actions. If they are involved in the wrongdoing or are just a wholesale failure at compliance, I understand the desire for regulators to take aim at a CCO. The charges against Michael Cohn as a CCO are extremely bad. Mr. Cohn was the managing director and … Read more »