The SEC announced they had obtained an emergency freeze against three Swiss-based traders under an allegation of insider trading. The SEC claims that Compania International Financiera S.A., Coudree Capital Gestion S.A., and Chartwell Asset Management Services purchased more than a million common shares of Arch Chemicals just prior to the announcement that it was going … Read more »
Anti-Money Laundering Obligations For Private Funds
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Treasury’s financial intelligence unit has been trying to impose anti-money laundering obligations on private funds for years. On September 26, 2002, FinCEN issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing to require unregistered investment companies to establish and implement anti-money laundering programs. (Anti-Money Laundering Programs for Unregistered Investment Companies, 67 FR … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for July 15
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. A snapshot of this year’s disclosure avalanche by Theo Francis in Footnoted But the biggest filings are also getting bigger: While the top 20 filings in the first half of 2010 totaled 52,514 pages, the top 20 so far this year add up to 56,571 … Read more »
Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel Supervisory Responsibility and Liability Brian L. Rubin, Partner
ACA Compliance sponsored this webinar on Thursday. Brian L. Rubin, Partner, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP was the presenter. These are my notes. Section 203(e) of the Advisers Act: If an investment adviser fails to reasonably supervise an employee or any other person subject to the adviser’s supervision, and that person violates the federal securities … Read more »
Compliance and Google+
Over the past few weeks, Google+ has exploded as a new social web platform. We had friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. Now there are Circles on Google+. What does this mean from a compliance perspective? Not much for right now. Google+ does not seem to present any new issues that we haven’t already … Read more »
SEC Made It Harder to Earn Performance Fees
As a general rule, investment adviser cannot charge performance fees. Section 205(a)(1) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 generally prohibits an investment adviser from entering into, extending, renewing, or performing any investment advisory contract that provides for compensation to the adviser based on a share of capital gains on, or capital appreciation of, the … Read more »
How Close Should You Come to Crossing the Line?
It’s clearly wrong to break the law. How close should you come to the limit of what is legal and what is illegal? Let’s hear from a federal prosecutor: [I]f you are single-mindedly focused on walking the line, you are bound to end up afoul of regulators, and God forbid, criminal prosecutors. Even more dangerous … Read more »
Another FCPA Opinion Procedure Release on Corporate Hospitality
The Department of Justice released the latest Opinion Procedure Release on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The releases are great tool to help you figure out if a proposed corporate action could lead to an enforcement action. Anyone with an interest in the FCPA looks to the existing body of opinion releases as a way … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for July 8
These are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my eye. Lessons of the Financial Crisis: The Dangers of Short-Termism by Sheila C. Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation [I]n my opinion, the overarching lesson of the crisis is the pervasive short-term … Read more »
Yes, the SEC Wants Real Estate Fund Managers to Register
After six months baking in the oven, the new Form ADV is ready. (To be more precise, the new Part 1 is ready. Part 2 has been sitting on the table for almost a year.) Form ADV still calls for real estate fund managers to register as investment advisers Earlier I had pointed out how … Read more »