Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
Some beer lovers who were fans of Pabst Blue Ribbon heard that its parent company, the Pabst Brewing Co., was up for sale. The previous owner had died, leaving it to a charitable trust. Charities couldn’t hold on to the asset so they had to sell it. The beer lovers were a few hundred million … Read more »
Just about every compliance certification has the employee sign at the bottom. We have been signing letters and contracts at the end for millenia. But maybe there is a way to increase ethical performance by moving that signature to the top. Lisa L. Shu, Nina Mazar, Francesca Gino, Dan Ariely, and Max H. Bazerman recently … Read more »
In a tearful statement to the media, Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted he posted a lewd picture of his anatomy to Twitter. Not only that, he says he’s engaged in “inappropriate” online communications with at least six other women. It was just a few days ago that I revisited the Fabulous Fab Rule: Don’t write emails … Read more »
I don’t take pleasure from others’ failings, but I do try to learn lessons. The recent settlement between Wunderlich Securities and the Securities and Exchange Commission is full of lessons to be learned. overcharged advisory clients for commissions and other transactional fees in violation of Section 206(2) of the Advisers Act failed to satisfy the … Read more »
Here are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my attention: Launching Into Unethical Behavior: Lessons from the Challenger Disaster by Ann E. Tenbrunsel and Max H. Bazerman in Freakonomics On the night before the Challenger was set to launch, a group of NASA engineers and managers met with the shuttle contracting firm Morton Thiokol to … Read more »
Can you crowdsource the fight against corruption? An international team coming from Estonia, Lithuania, Finland and Iran thinks you might. They created a smartphone app that allows people to anonymously report incidences of bribery and later see the data visualized on an interactive map. Bribespot is an app that allows you to see how much … Read more »
Last summer, Fabrice Tourre didn’t turn around fast enough to see the bus coming at him. Goldman Sachs had given him a big push and put him in the front and center of their big bet on a crash in the residential mortgage securities market. Tourre ended up as the Fabulous Fab after giving himself … Read more »
Most private funds rely on a Rule 506 exemption under Regulation D to sell their limited partnership interests to investors. A new SEC rule amending Rule 506 should catch the eye of private fund compliance officers. The concept it fairly straight-forward: felons should not be allowed to take advantage of the private offering exemptions. Dodd-Frank … Read more »
Here are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my eye: Gold is Not an Investment by Carl Richards in the NY TImes.com’s Bucks Gold is not an investment. It’s a speculation. Investments are made by evaluating underlying value. Speculative bets are made by looking at the price of something and simply hoping the price goes … Read more »
In a blow to the efforts of internal compliance, the SEC will let corporate whistle-blowers collect a percentage of penalties when they report financial wrongdoing, even when they bypass companies’ internal complaint systems. “For an agency with limited resources like the SEC, it is critical to be able to leverage the resources of people who … Read more »