Having someone else write you college term paper is cheating. There is no ethical debate. If you use one of these services you are passing off another person’s work as your own. Since I was in college and law school before the rise of the internet, these services were not easy to find during my … Read more »
Money Laundering Using Trust and Company Service Providers
Trusts and Company Service Providers (TCSPs) can provide an important link between financial institutions and some of their customers. TCSPs have often been used, wittingly or unwittingly, in the conduct of money laundering activities. The majority of TCSPs are established for legitimate purposes, the Financial Action Task Force’s research Shows that some TCSPs are being … Read more »
Email, Warrants and Corporate Email
Inside the company, you can take away your employees expectations of privacy when it comes to email. It has been unclear whether the same is true when it comes to the government inspecting your email. Surprisingly, there has been little law on whether your email would be subject to same protections as your phone calls … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for December 17
Here are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention: Additional Settlements in New York Pension Fund Investigation in the Pay to Play Blog New York State Attorney General and Governor-Elect Andrew Cuomo has announced additional settlements in his investigation of “pay-to-play” practices and conflicts of interest at public pension funds. FTC Gives Guidance on … Read more »
Regulation of Private Fund Advisers at the State Level
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act raised the level for registration with the SEC and removed the commonly used exemption from registration used by private fund advisers. That means smaller traditional investment advisers will be kicked out of the SEC registration and into the state registration systems. That also means that advisers … Read more »
Corporate Compliance after Dodd-Frank: Dealing with Whistleblower Bounties
Securities Docket produced a webcast “Corporate Compliance after Dodd-Frank: One Voice; How Many Masters?” that focused on the SEC’s proposed new whistleblower rules and their implications for internal controls and compliance programs, investigations, self-reporting incentives and employer/employee relations, including executive compensation and employee reporting responsibilities. The panelists: Byron Egan, Partner Jackson Walker L.L.P. Jeffrey Sone, … Read more »
CFIUS Annual Report on National Security Transactions
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is a multi-agency regulatory body empowered to review transactions involving a foreign person and a U.S. business that may affect national security. On November 14, 2008, the Department of the Treasury issued its final rule to implement the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, … Read more »
Placement Agents and the MSRB
In addition to laying out the changes to Form ADV, in Release No. IA-3110 the SEC also took a slightly different course on regulating placement agents. Rule 206(4)-5, released in July 2010, required placement agents to either be registered with the SEC as an investment adviser and subject to the limitation on campaign contributions, or … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for December 10
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my eye: Business Ethics and the “New York Times” Rule by Chris MacDonald in The Business Ethics Blog The first thing to say about the Newspaper Test is that it probably is a useful heuristic. Asking the question it poses at very least serves as an opportunity … Read more »
The Fabulous Fab Rule
Don’t write emails so provocative that they wind up reproduced on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. With many fund managers having to register under the Investment Advisers Act, they will now be subject to more extensive record-keeping requirements. That means more emails will be saved for a longer period of time. Those … Read more »