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 of millions of dollars in profits.
Federal prosecutors in New York have racked up 91 convictions and collected almost $2 billion in fines. In the latest action on May 19, the government looked beyond Wall Street, accusing a legendary Las Vegas gambler of profiting from insider tips.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look at what happens when the Feds get serious about insider trading. [More…]
The Most Powerful Man in Banking by Ryan Tracy and Emily Glazer in the Wall Street Journal
The most important person in the banking business isn’t a banker.
To most Wall Street executives, that title goes to Federal Reserve governor Daniel Tarullo, a brusque, white-haired former law professor who has come to personify Washington’s postcrisis influence over how banks do business.
Mr. Tarullo heads the Fed’s Committee on Bank Supervision. On paper—and in practice for most of the previous decades—the post isn’t a hugely powerful one. But the 63-year-old took office at the Fed in 2009 at a moment of broad public support for a more aggressive tack and has pressed that advantage ever since. [More…]
The Wall Street Golden Boy Who Allegedly Fleeced His Friends and Family by William D. Cohan in Vanity Fair
Groomed at Groton, Princeton, and Harvard Law, financial expert Andrew Caspersen had the trust of everyone around him. So why, as prosecutors allege, would he start a fraudulent investment that targeted his Wall Street buddies and even his own mother? William D. Cohan delves into the case and the two tragedies—the death of Caspersen’s fiancé on 9/11 and his father’s suicide—that could provide an answer. [More…]
Want to Work in Compliance – Learn How to Read a Balance Sheet by Tom Fox in the FCPA Compliance & Ethics Report
One of the most interesting tag lines I heard at Compliance Week 2016 was the following, if you want to work in my compliance department; you need to learn how to read a balance sheet. I thought that single line encapsulated the change in the compliance function over the past few years more than any other. Why, because it speaks to the change of compliance from being centered in the legal department, run by lawyers as a rules based program, to fully understanding that compliance is a business process that needs to centered in its own discipline. For if you cannot read a balance sheet you cannot bring a positive value to a business unit. [More…]
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