Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
WFAN morning show co-host Craig Carton was arrested for scamming investors out of $5.6 million. His ploy was a fraudulent ticket resale business. He promised the ability to deliver face-value tickets to concerts by Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Metallica and Barbra Streisand. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, he used the investors’ money to … Read more »
I was quite bothered by the Osunkwo CCO liability case that, on its face, sanctioned a CCO for misstating a firm’s assets under management. A few years ago, the SEC had expressed an unwillingness to prosecute CCOs, except in three extreme circumstances: Participating in the wrongdoing Hindering the SEC examination or investigation Wholesale failure None of … Read more »
After two weeks out of the office, I’m back to compliance. It’s not that compliance stops if it’s embedded in firm culture and operations. It also means that the work does not stop while you’re out of the office. I enjoyed two weeks in the midwest and mountains. It included a trip to Yellowstone. I … Read more »
My thoughts go out to readers of Compliance Building in Texas who live in the path of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey. I hope you were able to stay on high ground. It looks like this will be the first natural disaster of the Trump administration. These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. … Read more »
With the ground-shaking decision in Newman, insider trading law became a bit murky. Cases have been filling in the gaps left in its wake. The Mathew appellate Martoma decision helped fill in some more. From a compliance perspective, this is all chasing butterflies and tilting at windmills. It was clear that Mr. Martoma was involved … Read more »
Some of the things that catches my attention with frauds and Ponzi schemes are the steps that the fraudsters will take to cover up the fraud and how they think they will escape from the fraud unscathed. The recent charges against Jeremy Drake caught my attention because of the steps he took. The Securities and Exchange … Read more »
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, David I. Osunkwo failed as a CCO for incorrectly stating the amount of AUM and the number of clients for two affiliated investment advisers. Mr. Osunkwo relied on estimates provided to him by the Chief Investment Officer. For that, he was fined $30,000 and suspended for a year … Read more »
In case you unaware, the sun is being blotting out by the moon across all of the United States today. I happen to have traveled to my in-laws who live right in the path of totality. I think this astronomical phenomenon is far more interesting than any compliance story I could read or write about. … Read more »
Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I was attending and speaking at the Boston Investment Adviser Compliance Symposium. I needed to earn some continuing education credits for the my IACCP designation. While I was sitting it conferences, here are some of the compliance-related stories that caught my attention. Accredited Investors vs. Qualified Clients … Read more »
The Securities and Exchange Commission regulations for investment advisers does not contain any specific requirements on how valuations should be conducted. That means operating under the general anti-fraud provisions. That is, valuations should not be misleading, deceptive or fraudulent. Although there are no specific regulations, there are enforcement actions from the SEC against advisers that … Read more »