At PEI ‘s Private Fund Compliance Forum, one attendee asked how to make compliance easier. That caught the room by surprise. If compliance was easy, we would likely would not be at the Forum. But it did get me thinking about ways to make compliance easier. First, compliance is hard because the laws we comply … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for May 30
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention: Cybersecurity Crackdown in ThinkAdvisor Think that your firm is too small or that your cyberdefenses are too strong to worry about digital attacks on your firm’s—and your clients’—data? The SEC and FINRA don’t think so. A reading of the regulators’ official announcements and … Read more »
Private Equity at Work
Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt tried to take an academic look at private equity firms and published their results in Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street. The authors paint the world in black and white. They present the book as a question of whether private equity firms are (1) financial innovators … Read more »
Fees, Expenses and the S.E.C.
Andrew Bowden threw a grenade at the private fund industry three weeks ago when he spoke at PEI’s Private Fund Compliance Forum. He said that the SEC found violations of law or material weaknesses in over 50% of the exams they had conducted of private equity funds when it came to fees and expenses. Mr. … Read more »
Weekend Reading: The Sea & Civilization
Lincoln Paine wants to change your view of the world. He wants you to focus on the blue parts of the map that cover over 70% of the world’s surface. In his book, The Sea and Civilization, he makes that case that mankind’s technological and social adaptation to the water has been a driving force … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for May 23
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. SEC Enforcement Director: What Empowered Compliance Looks Like by Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week “Companies that have done well in avoiding significant regulatory issues typically have prioritized legal and compliance issues and developed a strong culture of compliance across their business lines,” said … Read more »
What is an “Instrumentality” under the FCPA?
If your are trying to figure out whether a company is a private company or an “instrumentality” of a foreign government under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act you are already in trouble. To reach that point in the FCPA analysis you’ve already paid a bribe, or are thinking of paying a bribe. (If you’re just … Read more »
Private Equity Real Estate Top 50 – 2014 Edition of Who Is Registered
Private Equity Real Estate has released its ranking of the top 50 real estate private equity fund managers. As I have done in the past, I parsed the list to see which managers are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as investment advisers. (Disclosure: my company is on the list.) Rank Name of institution … Read more »
Update on the Cay Clubs
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against several executives of Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas for defrauding investors. The case originally caught my eye because it involved real estate and would likely play a role in my continuing quest to figure out what’s a security. The SEC’s complaint stated that the defendants “offered investors … Read more »
The SEC Says Be Wary of Bitcoin
Bitcoin has been the Dutch Tulips of investment for a few years. So of course that means the fraudsters have latched on. The Securities and Exchange Commission has piled on and issued an Investor Alert: Bitcoin and Other Virtual Currency-Related Investments. This is the second investor alert from the SEC on Bitcoin. The first was … Read more »