Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
I’ve been highly critical of cryptocurrency. It doesn’t act like a currency: people are not using it to actually buy goods and service (at least not legal goods and services). The world of coin offerings has been the wild west. In many instances, the sponsors are just ignorant of the securities law implications of their … Read more »
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Robert Magee and Valor Capital was a straight forward cherry picking case. What caught my eye was the data and statistical analysis that the SEC used to prove its charges. Magee was doing the wrong thing by order block trades in an omnibus trading account and then allocating … Read more »
Cryptocurrency is a lawless land. Ten days ago, the Securities Exchange Commission and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission issued a joint statement on virtual currency: “When market participants engage in fraud under the guise of offering digital instruments – whether characterized as virtual currencies, coins, tokens, or the like – the SEC and the … Read more »
With the pending release of Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, I’m joining Tom Fox in tying compliance and the Star Wars franchise together in posts this week. I’ve always been trouble by the lie from Obi Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker: “Darth Vader betrayed and murdered your father.” It’s the little lies that lead to bigger lies … Read more »
With Bitcoin hitting stratospheric pricing levels, there are scams aplenty trying to cash in on tulip-mania around Bitcoin. This chart from the Wall Street Journal says it all. Of those trying to cash in, I’m sure some actually have legitimate business purposes and are trying to find new ways to operate financial systems. But many … Read more »
With all of the SEC enforcement actions, it takes something related to my area or a quirk to catch my attention. The fraud that caught my attention this morning was a hedge fund manager claiming he no longer needed income and instead wanted to help friends and charitable causes. He told investors that his 20% … Read more »
Augustine Capital Management did many things wrong while managing its Augustine Fund. One highlight or the misdeeds is using fund assets to make conflicting transactions without notifying investors. The fund charged the salaries of two principals, Thomas F. Duszynski and John T. Porter, as fund operating expenses. According to the fund documents, the management fee was supposed … Read more »
According to the SEC Complaint and Criminal Complaint, Dawn Bennett lived the life a classic ponzi schemer who got in over her head and continued to lie and cheat, perhaps hoping to find a way out. The story caught my attention for two reasons. The first was the implication that Ms. Bennett used a voodoo … Read more »
Rusty Tweed may have been trying to make good investments for his clients. He knew a guy that had a new quantitative trading strategy for blue chip stocks. Rusty raised money form his clients to invest with the quant manager. Problems started right at the beginning, according the complaints filed by FINRA and the Securities … Read more »
The First Every Cryptocurrency Back By Real Estate, REcoin, is a big scam. At least according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Several weeks ago the SEC posted an Investor Bulletin in Initial Coin Offerings. In the bulletin, the SEC raised the issue that an initial coin offering could easily be considered an offering of … Read more »