The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Lawrence E. Penn III and his firm Camelot Acquisitions Secondary Opportunities Management, a private equity manager, with stealing $9 million from investors in their private equity fund. He is accused of siphoning off $9.3 million through sham due diligence payments. The SEC claims that Penn used a shell company … Read more »
Weekend Book Review: A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages
The 1908s was the start of the M&A boom, glorified on the big screen by Wall Street. John Weir Close looks back at those days in A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages. The author is a lawyer and a journalist. He founded the M&A Journal and was an editor at The American Lawyer. His book seems … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for January 31
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Five Golden Rules of What Works – The Internal Marketing of Compliance by Tom Fox I am attending the ACI Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Boot Camp in Houston. … One of the presentations was on how to tell your compliance story. It … Read more »
SEC Compliance Outreach Program National Seminar
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), Division of Investment Management, and the Asset Management Unit of the Division of Enforcement jointly sponsor the compliance outreach program. On January 30, 2014, there was a national meeting. These are my notes. Welcoming Remarks from Chair Mary Jo White Investors and the SEC relies on … Read more »
NEAT and MIDAS: The SEC’s New Tools
“This is not your father’s SEC – or your mother’s or even your older brother or sister’s.” Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White is proud of two new technology tools the Commission is rolling out. She spoke about the new tools at the 41st Annual Securities Regulation Institute. The first is NEAT, the … Read more »
Due Diligence for Alternative Investments
The Securities and Exchange Commission published a new risk alert on investment advisers and alternative investments. It’s a rambling piece that spends most its time laying out the OCIE’s observations on due diligence practices. To the extent there is any focus, it’s focus is on the perspective of advisers to pension funds and managers of … Read more »
Fees and Conflicts
I sat down with a few people last week to discuss various fee structures with fund managers and investment advisers. One fee was raised as potentially problematic. “I’m not sure if this fee is a conflict.” My thought is that every fee is an inherent conflict. You are taking money from the fund investor or … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for January 24
It’s been a busy week with guests in the house. I haven’t been able to publish any stories, but these are a few that caught my eye. Finders Are Not Always Keepers! in the Word of Wisdom Blog from Latham & Watkins Capital Markets Group Let’s start with the basics. Section 15(a) of the Exchange … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for January 17
It’s been a busy week at the office, but a few compliance-related stories caught my eye. Compliance Networks as Knowledge Networks by Tom Fox As compliance programs mature, they become less top down driven and more inculcated into the DNA of a company. The more doing business ethically and in compliance becomes part of the … Read more »
What Was It Called Before Mr. Ponzi Did It?
When Bernie Madoff’s fraud was exposed it was labeled a Ponzi scheme. Madoff was not investing the money as promised. He was using new investment money to pay old promised returns. I thought it would useful to look back at the original Ponzi scheme to see if offered insight to today’s world of compliance. I … Read more »