March Madness! SEC Loses an AP for First Time Since FY 2013 by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week In FY 2014, however, the SEC maintained 100% perfection in its administrative proceedings. The agency reportedly prevailed in every single one of its more than 200 APs in FY 2014, including 14 consecutive victories in cases that … Read more »
Failure to Disclose Loans Among Affiliated Funds
Once you hear the words “inter-fund loans”, a compliance professional is going to sit up straight and be concerned. Anything “inter-fund” is an inherent conflict. That one fund is loaning another fund money is an indicator that something has gone wrong. Stilwell Value managed several private funds. According to the SEC order, the Stilwell funds … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for March 20
It’s finally Spring. Someday, all of this snow in Boston will melt. Someday. These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The Fraudster Next Door by Scott Greenfield in Simple Justice Whether an epidemic of white collar crime exists in Utah isn’t clear. There isn’t much of an epidemic of any … Read more »
Drew Bowden Thinks Private Equity is a Great Business
“I tell my son, I have a teenaged son, I tell him, ‘Cole, you want to be in private equity. That’s where to go, that’s a great business, that’s a really good business. That’ll be good for you.’” – Andrew Bowden Mr. Bowden, Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and … Read more »
What Does the Regulatory Scheme for Financial Services Look Like?
This: Click for the full PDF file SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher drew this picture of the new rules applicable to U.S. financial services holding companies since Dodd-Frank. “The stakes here are considerable: regulatory burdens divert capital away from the real economy—this acts as a barrier to entry for new market participants and further entrenches … Read more »
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
It’s going to be a long day, with this next door to my office. (And by “long day”, I mean having to listen to bands and riotous crowds during the day while trying to get work done, and the unpleasant aftermath tonight and in the morning on my doorstep.) Read more »
Referral Fee Disclosure and Conflicts
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought another enforcement case involving an investment adviser and private funds. PageOne is a registered investment adviser that recommended three private investment funds to its clients. The SEC found serious conflicts the were not disclosed or materially misrepresented. PageOne disclosed that is was paid a “referral fee” by the private … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for March 13
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Protections for CCOs from Wrongful Termination by Tom Fox in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog You can consider the departure from MF Global of its Chief Risk Officer, the financial services equivalent of a CCO. As reported in a New York Times … Read more »
Lighting Up the Towers of Secrecy Through Anti-Money Laundering Requirements
A group of nonprofit organizations urged the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to repeal the 2002 temporary exemption from provisions of the Patriot Act that had been granted to the real estate industry. The letter was a reaction to the Towers of Secrecy story in the New York Times. Behind the dark glass towers … Read more »
Cybersecurity Sweep Phase 2
According to a story in IA Watch, advisers should expect a second phase of the SEC’s look at cybersecurity. In an interview with IA Watch on March 9, Jane Jarcho, OCIE’s national associate director of the Investment Adviser/Investment Company exam program, described the current thinking behind its “phase 2” initiative around cybersecurity. According to the … Read more »