Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The ups and down of the Corporate Transparency Act and its Beneficial Ownership Information reporting continue to smash compliance and legal departments against their lap bars. The current release from FinCEN feels like another loop-de-loop. On February 18, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in the case of Smith, et … Read more »
Brinks just paid a $37 million fine for willful violations of the Ban Secrecy Act. As a result of Brink’s failures, hundreds of millions of dollars in bulk currency shipments were transmitted across the Mexican border. Some of these shipments were for high-risk entities, including a Mexican currency exchanger that pleaded guilty to violating the … Read more »
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network filed its appeal to a ruling issued by Texas District Judge Jeremy Kernodle in the Samantha Smith v. FinCEN case that still blocks the implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Treasury Department last month in the Texas Top Cop case challenging the law, but … Read more »
This year is Anti-Money Laundering year for registered investment advisers. FinCEN promulgated the Investment Adviser Rule. With the Bank Secrecy Act now applicable to registered investment advisers, with a compliance deadline for January 1, 2026, fund managers and advisers will need to update their anti-money laundering policies and procedures to deal with the new regulatory … Read more »
LPL Financial LLC, a dually registered investment adviser and broker-dealer, failed to follow its own anti-money laundering policies and procedures regarding its Customer Identification Program and ongoing customer due diligence obligations. The Securities and Exchange Commission and LPL settled on the charges and the $18 million penalty. What can we learn from the case? On … Read more »
Robinhood experienced massive growth during the pandemic. It had had 5.1 million cumulative net funded accounts by the end of 2019, 12.5 million cumulative net funded accounts by the end of 2020, and 22.7 million cumulative net funded accounts by the end of 2021. Based on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s action against Robinhood, the … Read more »
Deutsche Bank Securities, the registered broker-dealer subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG, had to pay a$4 million fine for failing to file suspicious activities reports. This year is the year that registered investment advisers need to get fully on the bandwagon with the Bank Secrecy Act. FinCEN promulgated the Investment Adviser Rule to spread the Bank … Read more »
SpeedRoute is a registered broker-dealer that specializes in routing U.S. equities orders for broker-dealer clients to trading platforms for execution. Being a registered broker-dealer means that SpeedRoute has to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act. Among many other things, that requires SpeedRoute to file Suspicious Activity Reports for suspicious transactions that it knew, suspected, or … Read more »
This year is the year that registered investment advisers need to get fully on the bandwagon with the Bank Secrecy Act. FinCEN promulgated the Investment Adviser Rule to spread the Bank Secrecy Act requirements. While most investment advisers are doing some form of AML-CFT reviews, the process is now subject to explicit regulatory requirements. The … Read more »
On Monday afternoon, the Fifth Circuit issued and order to stay the nationwide injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act. Filings are now due by the end of the year. UPDATE: And another panel at the Fifth Circuit reversed and let the stay remain in place. Sources: Read more »