Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The case against PHX Financial caught my attention because it involves actions of the firm before and after the compliance date of Regulation BI. During the Pre-Reg BI Period, PHX failed reasonably to supervise Representative 1, within the meaning of Section 15(b)(4)(E) of the Exchange Act, with the view to preventing and detecting Representative 1’s … Read more »
Was Robert Shumake a shaman or a securities fraudster? Or Both? On one hand he was the shaman of Soul Tribes in Detroit that was trying to “safe and sacred space for individuals to explore the healing benefits of sacred plants.” That apparently included storing over 99 pounds of mushrooms believed to be psilocybin and … Read more »
Inspire Investing advertises its ETF as “biblically responsible investing.” The obvious problem is how you define what is biblical. If it were so easy to define would we would not have so many sects and theologies of Christianity and Judaism. Inspire came up with its own methodology for excluding companies. A company is automatically given … Read more »
What’s with the fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram, or your social networking platform of choice reaching out to you? It’s likely the first step in a “relationship investment scam” or “pig butchering.” The scammer starts with casual conversations, try to build trust, maybe even a little romance. After building some trust/relationship over an extended period … Read more »
Of the nine marketing cases released by the SEC recently, one caught me off-guard and has left me concerned. Say you’re a proud alumni of Notre Dame. You want to be associated with the athletic program and give some money back to the school. All you ask is that you get to be the official … Read more »
I’m old enough to remember when stock prices were quoted in eights. They had been marked that way for 200 years on the New York stock exchange. Then they were shifted to decimals. That pushed the bid-ask spread for many stocks to $.01. Now that penny limit is being cut in half. The Securities and … Read more »
Can an investment adviser really say that they don’t have any conflicts of interest? You certainly can’t say that the firm “provides conflict-free advice” on the website when your Form ADV discloses conflicts of interest. The SEC released orders against nine investment advisers for violations of the Marketing Rule, claiming the firms made untrue claims, … Read more »
There are a few different ways to calculate Assets Under Management. The SEC has prescribed ways to calculate Regulatory Assets Under Management. Often AUM and RAUM will differ depending on an adviser’s business model and client base. But you can’t just make up RAUM. Rubin Cedric Williams did so at his firm Vista Financial Advisors. … Read more »
The Denver office of the Securities and Exchange Commission has rolled up a bunch more whistleblower rule violations. This follows up with last week’s settlement with Nationwide Planning for impeding clients from reporting violations to the SEC. In response to a Congressional mandate in Dodd-Frank, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted Rule 21F-17 in August 2011, which … Read more »
The Securities and Exchange Commission continues its relentless assault on firms that have allowed employees to use text messages, WhatsApp, private email, or other “off-channel communications.” Last week, six rating agencies were caught in regulatory crosshairs. Moody’s, S&P, Fitch, HR Ratings, A.M. Best, and Demotech had to pay $49 million in fines to the SEC. The … Read more »