Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
Pump and Dump schemes brought the fiduciary standard to light. In SEC v Capital Gains Research Bureau the US Supreme Court said a pump and dump scheme by an investment adviser violated its fiduciary duty. More recently, the SEC published an investor alert about Social Media and Investment Fraud. There is a lot of different…
The Securities and Exchange Commission packaged together five separate settled proceedings against registered investment advisers, investment adviser representatives, and a social media consultant for violations of the Testimonial Rule the use of social media and the internet. If you get a pitch from someone to increase your firm’s presence in search results ask that person…
As 2015 comes to an end, I looked back at some website wonkiness and saw a report for the top stories this year based on the number of views. Maybe you missed some of these. Qualified Purchasers under the Investment Company Act What is a Security? Is Real Estate a Security? Private Equity Real Estate…
At the recent NRS Fall Compliance Conference I was talking with another attendee about LinkedIn and the SEC rules on advertising. The basic question was can her employees use it. That became a more nuanced discussion of the various features. One topic was the messaging feature of LinkedIn. You can send massages to people on LinkedIn….
The National Labor Relations Board continues to wreck havoc on companies’ social media policies. That latest to get steamrolled in Boch Honda. I grew up with Ernie Boch’s commercial proclaiming that his costs are less so his prices are less, so “come on down“. Employers cannot prevent employees from discussing their conditions of employment with…
Broker-dealers and investment advisers are finding access to client through social networks and providing new marketing opportunities. But they also pose the challenge of making it harder for the firms to supervise, review, maintain, and protect the information. The Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA are struggling to keep the regulatory requirements up to date…
Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings got into trouble on July 3, 2012 when he used his personal Facebook page to announce that Netflix had more than one billion hours of online viewing in June. That trouble came from an SEC rule implemented in August of 2000: Regulation FD. That rule was implemented to stop the…
There was a kerfuffle in the news about employers demanding access to employees’ social media site. The stories stated the employers asked for the employees’ passwords, in addition to their usernames. In response, at least six states have started the legislative process to prevent employers from demanding that access. As you might expect, the tricky…
In the frenetic early days of social media foward-thinking companies thoughtfully sat down and crafted sensible policies to help guide employees who had suddenly turned into web publishers.The companies recognized the risks involved, whether the employee was acting recklessly, or merely writing down unacceptable material without realizing the implications. It was still a small area…
The National Labor Relations Board has been ruling on social media policies and making a mess of the regulatory landscape. In its May 30, 2012 report on recent social media cases (.pdf) the Board eviscerates many social media policies that resulted in adverse employment action. In the process it confuses the landscape of acceptable social…