Bruce Karpati, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit, disclosed the launch of a Private Equity Initiative in a speech on Tuesday. While speaking to the Regulatory Compliance Association, Karpati spoke about the Enforcement Division’s and in particular the Asset Management Unit’s priorities in the hedge fund space. The Private Equity Initiative is … Read more »
Do You Have Skin in the Game?
If you tell investors that you have skin in the game, you need to have skin in the game. For the second time this year, the SEC has brought an enforcement action against a private fund for falsely informing investors that the Managers had skin in the game. Most investors want a manager’s executives to … Read more »
Valuations and the New Presence Exams
I’ve come across a new document request list for a presence exam from the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office. The exam period for the letter begins March 31, 2012 – the Dodd-Frank deadline for new advisers to register with the SEC. The SEC has said presence exams will target new advisers or those that manage private … Read more »
Newtown
No post today. I’m a bit lost from this horrible tragedy. Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for December 14
These are some of the compliance related stories that recently caught my attention. ‘Tis the Season When Gifts Become Bribes by Alexandra Wrage in Corporate Counsel People who are otherwise serious about the global scourge of bribery get frustrated when anyone raises the issue of gifts as bribes. Surely, most people will say, we haven’t … Read more »
Private Placement of Fund Interests and Rule 5123 Filings
Under the new FINRA rule 5123, FINRA member firms that sell securities in certain private placements to submit a notice filing with FINRA. That means your placement will likely have to file a fund’s private placement memorandum with FINRA. FINRA recently released FAQs and a user guide related to Rule 5123 filings. The notice filing must include a copy of … Read more »
Mortgage REITs Get Relief from the CFTC
The CFTC continues the journey out of the hole it dug itself. In February the CFTC stated that one swap contract would be enough to trigger the registration requirement. This runs with the CFTC long standing narrow interpretation of the commodity pool definition. The CFTC retreated from this position with respect to REITs in October. … Read more »
New Document Request List for Presence Exams
We’ve had the first siting of the new document request letter for the new presence exams. IA Watch has obtained a copy of the letter issued from the Atlanta Regional Office. This letter sets the exam period to start on March 30, 2012. That addresses some concerns that the SEC would look at period prior … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for December 7
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. High-Speed Trades Hurt Investors, a Study Says by Nathaniel Popper and Christopher Leonard in the New York Times A top government economist has concluded that the high-speed trading firms that have come to dominate the nation’s financial markets are taking significant profits from … Read more »
Phone Calls Can Get You Caught Insider Trading
The insider trading prosecution of Raj Rajaratnam was centered around phone calls. Prosecutors were able to get a recording of those calls. Can you get a conviction merely by tying phone calls to trades, without knowing the content of the calls? The Securities and Exchange Commission is hoping that old-fashioned phone call logs will be … Read more »