A recent action by the Securities and Exchange Commission caught my attention. The SEC charged a hedge fund manager with taking excess management fees. For a more exciting headline, the SEC press release says the excess fees were to “make lavish purchases.” Sean C. Cooper improperly withdrew more than $320,000 from a hedge fund he … Read more »
CFTC Allows General Solicitation for Private Funds
In early 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission decided to grab for more regulatory oversight and revoked some long-standing exemptions. The CFTC also got handed the regulatory oversight of non-securities derivatives. As a result, private funds with interest rate hedges had to figure out if they had to register with the CFTC as a commodity … Read more »
Weekend Reading: House of Debt
In House of Debt, Atif Mian, an economist at Princeton University, and Amir Sufi, a finance professor at the University of Chicago, make the case that household debt was the 2008 recession’s main culprit. This is a nuanced view that differs slightly from the view that it was the 2007 home price decline. Mian and … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for September 12
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Let’s Get This Straight, A URL Is Not An Address (At Least In This Case) by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate and Securities Law The tenant argued that the notice was defective because it included a URL (uniform resource locator) address rather … Read more »
9 11
The September 11 attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,977 victims. The victims included 246 on the four planes, 2,606 in New York City in the World Trade Center towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Nearly all of the victims were civilians. One was an employee of my company. Make a … Read more »
The SEC Is Serious About Section 16 Filings
Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act and the rules promulgated thereunder apply to every person who is the beneficial owner of more than 10% of any class of any equity security of a public company, and any officer or director of a public company. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a sweeping group of charges … Read more »
Do You Need to Know Enforcement Cases for Compliance?
Are you familiar with SEC investigations pertaining to the following companies? Aladdin Capital Diamondback Capital Liquidnet Paradigm Capital SAC Capital Galleon Capital I admit that I only recognized SAC Capital and Galleon Capital. In a recent survey about half of alternative investment managers said that they were also familiar with those two cases. Half said … Read more »
Combining Immigration Fraud and Investment Fraud
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program sounds like a scam so I’m not surprised to see it pop up in actual scams. The EB-5 program provides foreign investors who can demonstrate that their investments are creating jobs in this country with an expedited path to lawful permanent residency in the United States. EB-5 is not common … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for September 5
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Fantasy Football: A Real and Present Danger to the Workplace? by Daniel Schwartz in Connecticut Employment Law Blog So to answer my own question in the title: No, fantasy football is not a critical threat to your business. But sometimes, fantasy football can … Read more »
Failing to Disclose Fees
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been focused on fees charged by investment advisers and fund managers. The latest target is Robare Group Ltd. based in Houston. The SEC alleges that the firm was receiving a fee from certain investments made for its clients but failed to properly disclose that it was receiving the fee. … Read more »