These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
AIFMD Update – US Private Fund Advisers Marketing in the UK in Compliance Avenue
Recent news from the UK suggests that these AIFMs have most likely been granted a reprieve until July 22, 2014 to comply with AIFMD in the UK. Earlier this week, the UK’s HM Treasury (“HMT”) published “Transposition of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive [the ‘AIFMD’]: Questions and Answers” (the “Q&As”) which suggest that they intend to make certain amendments to the current draft of The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Regulations 2013. With the amendments, the final UK regulations implementing AIFMD would permit “existing” U.S. AIFMs (and other third country AIFMs) and “existing” AIFMs from the European Economic Area (comprised of the EU, Lichtenstein, Norway and Iceland) (“EEA”) to have the benefit of the UK’s “transitional provision” which provides a twelve-month transition period until July 22, 2014. Generally, “existing” AIFMs are those in existence and operating as of July 22, 2013. Under the transitional provision, these non-UK AIFMs will be able to market fund interests in the UK without requiring the AIFMs to register with the UK Financial Conduct Authority or generally comply with the AIFMD until July 22, 2014. HMT also states that they intend to amend the draft regulations so that AIFMs relying on this transitional provision will not need to be authorized in order to launch and market new funds in the UK during this period. During the transitional period, these non-UK AIFMs would need to comply with general UK marketing regulations.
The Moral of a Recent Second Circuit Opinion: Don’t Rely on Commas for Disambiguation by Ken Adams in Adams on Contract Drafting
Via this post by Ray Ward I learned of the recent opinion of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in AIG v. Bank of America (PDF copy here). In the opinion, the court states that whether a modifying phrase following a list of nouns or phrases modifies each item on the entire list, or only the last item, depends on whether the modifying phrase is separated from the last item by a comma.
Use Planes, Trains and Automobiles to get to Compliance Week 2013 by Tom Fox
To say I am excited would be putting it mildly. Yes that most premier of compliance related conferences is on the short horizon; Compliance Week 2013 is nearly upon us. It will be from May 20-22 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC. As usual, Matt Kelly and his outstanding team have put together a first rate program for the General Counsel (GC), compliance practitioner (in-house or outside counsel), FCPA Bar/FCPA Inc. or even Mike Volkov’s good friends, the FCPA Paparazzi. If there is one national compliance conference that you can attend each year, for my money, this is the event. …
For the FCPA consigliori amongst you, I will once again be leading a conversation on the most recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) developments. With the recent Parker Drilling Company and Ralph Lauren Corporation resolutions and the various individuals who have been indicted or have pled out, it promises to be an interesting and informative time for anyone interested in all things FCPA. If it turns out that after my session you are still craving more insight about effective compliance with the FCPA there will be a session entitled “FCPA Guidance, Right From the Source”. This session will address any lingering questions you may have about the FCPA guidance published last fall by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The panel will include the top FCPA enforcers from both the DOJ and SEC, who will offer their latest thinking on anti-bribery enforcement and answer questions from the audience about best practices and putting agency guidance to good use.
