Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The Securities and Exchange Commission has the same problem as any compliance professional: “How do you prove you’re being effective?” The Enforcement Division issued its annual report of its ongoing efforts to protect investors and market integrity. On one hand, remedying the identified harms committed by bad actors on investors is easy to measure. The missing piece is … Read more »
On August 7, 2018, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, tweeted to his 22 million Twitter followers that he could take Tesla private at $420 per share. There turned out to be little to no truth behind that public announcement. Regardless, Tesla’s stock price rose 6% on increased volume. It took only a month and … Read more »
The Trump Administration’s attack on regulations just made a sweep through the financial industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission, The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency all clarified that staff guidance is not a regulation. SEC Chairman … Read more »
Yesterday, the Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Elad L. Roisman to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Roisman fills the vacant seat left by Michael Piwowar. This is the fourth Commissioner appointed by President Trump. I expect we will see pictures of the swearing in ceremony this morning. Mr. … Read more »
Merrill Lynch has lots of relationships and is trying to manage an advisory business, a brokerage business and an investment banking business. It got into trouble for letting the last two interfere with the normal operations of its advisory business. In general during the time of the SEC action, a material change in any product … Read more »
According to a tweet from President Trump, he asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to study the possibility of moving from quarterly to semi-annual reporting for public companies. In speaking with some of the world’s top business leaders I asked what it is that would make business (jobs) even better in the U.S. “Stop quarterly … Read more »
A new program from the Securities and Exchange Commission will always (hopefully) catch my attention. I paused for a minute when I saw a press release for the SEC’s update of PAUSE, the “List of Firms Using Inaccurate Information to Solicit Investors.” That sounded interesting. The list even had a catchy acronym. PAUSE stands for … Read more »
Howard M. Appel is a bad guy who has been convicted of securities fraud multiple times. This time it was for actions in 2010 through 2013. He secretly acquiring large blocks of stock in three publicly traded companies and then manipulated the market for those shares with co-conspirators. It was classic pump and dump schemes. … Read more »
United Development Funding and its investment platforms have been under attack for a few years. It looks it has finally come to grips with its mistakes. UDF is closing out investigations into its funding of real estate investments from multiple investment platforms. The attacks started in 2015 when Kyle Bass, who runs Dallas-based hedge fund Hayman … Read more »
After last week’s Supreme Court decision in Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, it’s clear that administrative law judges of the US Securities and Exchange Commission are not mere federal employees but qualify as “Officers of the United States” under the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution. That means they need be appointed by the … Read more »