As we pause this weekend to remember those who have fallen while serving the armed forces, these are some of the compliance-related stories that caught my attention recently.
No Movie Could Capture the Crazy Details of Bernie Madoff’s Story by GORDON MEHLER AND LARRY H. KRANTZ in The Atlantic
Bernie Madoff is back, nearly a decade after his arrest for the largest known financial fraud in history. An HBO movie, The Wizard of Lies, starring Robert De Niro, premieres on Saturday, and Madoff, an earlier ABC miniseries starring Richard Dreyfuss, have catapulted the preeminent Ponzi schemer into the limelight again, even as lawsuits to recover his investors’ losses continue to grind on in the courts. [More…]
More Details on COSO ERM Framework by Matt Kelly
COSO is streamlining the framework’s principles, not gutting them. The draft ERM framework published last summer had five primary components, supported by 23 underlying principles. Public feedback on the draft said some of the 23 principles seemed overlapping or redundant, so could COSO consolidate them? That’s how the final framework came to 20 principles. [More…]
The Supreme Court Meets Lehman Brothers by Frank Partnoy in the CLS Blue Sky Blog
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide an unusual, yet important, case brought by investors in bonds issued by Lehman Brothers, the infamous investment bank that collapsed in September 2008. The case, CalPERS v. ANZ Securities, Inc., is not about whether those investors were defrauded: It is widely known that Lehman concealed its exposure to subprime mortgage loans and complex derivatives, just as it used accounting gimmicks to hide risks. The investigation after Lehman’s bankruptcy showed incontrovertibly that its investors had been wronged.
Nor is the case about whether those investors could properly recover in class action litigation alleging that Lehman and others violated the federal securities laws. Various lawsuits filed by Lehman bond investors were consolidated in federal court in New York and then settled in 2011, three years after Lehman’s bankruptcy filing. That settlement has not been challenged. But the date of that settlement – and the three-year time period – are important. [More…]
Appeals Court Questions Impact of SEC Forum Challenge in Bloomberg
If the D.C. Circuit rules in favor of the SEC, it probably won’t resolve the issue, as the circuit split would be “destined for decision by the Supreme Court, which has shown in the recent days a willingness to limit the reach of the SEC,” R. Daniel O’Connor of Ropes & Gray, Boston told Bloomberg BNA. [More…]
Former SEC Officials Say Don’t Bank on Big Regulatory Disruption by B. Colby Hamilton
Be happy about the prospect of regulatory upheaval in Washington, D.C. Don’t worry.
That was the sentiment shared by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Jo White and JPMorgan Chase & Co. vice chairman Stephen Cutler—himself the former head of enforcement at the SEC—at a legal summit Wednesday. [More…]
If you enjoy Compliance Building, please join many of my other readers and support my Pan-Mass Challenge ride to fight cancer next week. (Thank you to those who have already donated.) I’m pedaling from the New York border to Provincetown on August 5-6. 100% of your donation goes to the fight against cancer. You can read more and donate here: http://profile.pmc.org/DC0176
