Here are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my eye:
Compliance Professionals Ask Justice Department for Data Showing Programs Pay Off
Corporate ethics and compliance officers want the U.S. Department of Justice to provide data “that identifies how often an effective ethics and compliance program yields a direct return in enforcement decisions,” according to three leading professional organizations. In a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the three organizations – the Ethics Resource Center (ERC), Ethics & Compliance Officer Association (ECOA), and the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) – said that recent surveys of 1,223 ethics and compliance officers indicate “disappointment” with DOJ statements on past cases which linked favorable treatment for offenders to their cooperation with investigators yet ignored the value of existing ethics and compliance programs.
Real estate managers’ co-investments no comfort to investors by Arleen Jacobius in Pensions & Investments
Real estate managers have been sampling their own cooking for decades, but that didn’t make losses among the largest co-investments any more palatable to outside investors after the economic meltdown of 2008-“09.
Institutional Limited Partners Association Publishes New Private Equity Fund Guidelines by Michael Wu in the Investment Law Blog
Earlier this month, the Institutional Limited Partners Association (“ILPA”) published Version 2.0 of its Private Equity Principals (the “Principals”). The Principals set forth the ILPA’s take on the best practices in establishing private equity partnerships between limited partners (“LPs”) and the general partner (“GP”). The Principals focus on three guiding tenets for developing effective partnership agreements: Alignment of Interest Between LPs and GP, Fund Governance and Transparency to Investors. The revised version of the Principals incorporate feedback from GPs, LPs and third parties in the industry to increase “focus, clarity and practicality.”
California Commissioner Expresses Concern About Proposed Venture Capital Fund Definition by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate & Securities Law blog
As I wrote in this early posting, California is ground zero for the venture capital industry. Many of our most succesful and innovative companies have been funded by the venture capital industry. Thus, it is good to see that Commissioner Preston DuFauchard has submitted this letter of comment with respect to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rule defining “venture capital fund”.
SEC looks at Cahill, Goldman Sachs link by Frank Phillips in the Boston Globe
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has delivered subpoenas to the state treasurer’s office in a wide-ranging request for documents concerning dealings between investment banking giant Goldman Sachs and former treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, onetime top staff members, and former campaign aides, according to an official briefed on the document request.The agency’s subpoenas, which seek e-mails, phone records, schedules, files, and memorandums, come just over a month after Goldman Sachs removed itself from two state bond deals in Massachusetts following the disclosure that a vice president at the firm, Neil Morrison, was active in Cahill’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, which could violate federal securities regulations. Morrison had previously served as a top deputy to Cahill in the treasurer’s office.