These are some of the compliance related stories that recently caught my attention. How the Feds Pulled Off the Biggest Insider-Trading Investigation in U.S. History by Patricia Hurtado & Michael Keller in Bloomberg For more than seven years, the U.S. government has relentlessly prosecuted Wall Street traders who used inside information to rake in hundreds … Read more »
Private Equity Fund Managers and Broker Dealer Registration
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been poking around fees earned by private equity firms and found many to its distaste. One item the SEC has highlighted in the past was fees for acting as a broker dealer. I’ve been waiting to see if the SEC’s distaste would be enough to bring an enforcement action. … Read more »
Delaying Losses To Earn Current Fees
Fee structure is a guiding force for how fund managers operate and a keystone for compliance professionals. A compliance professional needs to focus on ways that a fee structure could cause the fund manager to act to the detriment of fund investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission just charged a fund manager for using distorted … Read more »
TRID: The Reason I Drink
The Wall Street Journal dedicated some front page space to compliance professionals: Inside Enforcers Shake Up Bank Culture. It paints a stark picture of the regulatory pressure on banks. There were many factors that lead to the 2008 Great Recession. Most people agree that a lack of oversight by regulators on the banks under their supervision … Read more »
Weekend Reading: Little Pink House
In 2005, the US Supreme Court was faced with a challenge on the “public use” provision of the Constitution’s eminent domain protection. We know the government can’t take private property without just compensation. The challenge was on the boundaries of the government’s intended use of that property. Kelo v. City of New London gave the government … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for May 27
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Up Close and Personal: Individual CCO Liability – Part I by Tom Fox in FCPA Compliance & Ethics For when should a CCO have liability and should the regulators, whether in the financial services industry or in the broader anti-corruption world of the … Read more »
New Anti-Money Laundering Rules
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s new customer due diligence rule requires covered financial institutions to collect information on the significant beneficial owners of customers that are legal entities. For a private fund manager, the rule is not explicitly applicable. The term ‘‘covered financial institution’’ refers to: (i) Banks; (ii) brokers or dealers in … Read more »
Increasing the Threshold for Qualified Clients and Performance Fees
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed to increase the net worth threshold for “Qualified Clients” from $2 million to $2.1 million. Rule 205-3 currently requires “qualified clients” to have at least $1 million of assets under management with the adviser or a net worth of at least $2 million. Under the Investment Advisers Act, an … Read more »
A Bad Bet On Insider Trading
The recent insider trading case against William “Billy” Walters of Las Vegas is fascinating for all of the players involved, including him. Plenty has been written about the charges because it implicates pro golfer Phil Mickelson and former Dean Foods board member Thomas C. Davis. All three are implicated in insider trading. How did they get … Read more »
We The People
In We The People, Juan Williams tackles the history of the 20th century through the lens of some keys figures and tries to pin those societal changes back to the original thoughts of the founding fathers. At first glance, it looks like Mr. Williams might use the ‘great man theory‘ of history. The people he picks are … Read more »