As Nassim Nicholas Taleb famously explained in The Black Swan, it is the unexpected that is most unexpected. For compliance professionals, testing is one of the tools that tries to expose the unexpected. I was thinking about testing as I was out in the snowpack in my front yard. I tried out some of the … Read more »
Making a Bigger Compliance Mistake After Making a Big Compliance Mistake
Total Wealth Management became one of the whipping boys for the Securities and Exchange Commission when it started its focus on private fund fees last year. The firm settled with the SEC and agreed to pay the fine. But the firm exacerbated the problem by allegedly misappropriating the money from its clients. Last year, the … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for February 6
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Alstom Gets Break on Fine by Rachel Louise Ensign and Ted Mann in the Wall Street Journal When the U.S. Justice Department announced a record $772 million foreign-bribery settlement with Alstom SA in December, there was a hitch: The French engineering company couldn’t … Read more »
What Ever Happened to the SEC’s Cybersecurity Sweep?
The Securities and Exchange Commission put the financial sector in a tizzy when it announced a sweep exam addressing cybersecurity last April. Along with the announcement came a detailed document request list that would make most compliance officers’ heads spin. The problem with the cybersecurity sweep is that it seems to be coming from the … Read more »
Compliance and the Super Bowl
As a long time Patriots fan, it’s a great morning. But the Patriots and the NFL were not without compliance failures. Clearly, something went wrong with the Patriots’ footballs in the Indianapolis game. I keep hearing conflicting reports and the investigation is not complete so it’s hard for me to draw any conclusions. But the … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for January 30
I have finally dug myself out from the 2+ feet of snow that buried me this week. These compliance-related stories caught my eye in between snow shoveling sessions. SEC Co-Chief of Division of Enforcement’s Asset Management Unit Identifies 2015 Exam Priorities for Hedge and Private Equity Funds in the National Law Review On November 18, … Read more »
Compliance Brought to You by Juno
The Massachusetts Governor declared a travel ban and public transportation has been stopped. That definitely makes it a stay-at-home day for me. I’ll be out shoveling instead of writing about compliance today. Read more »
What’s in your Wallet? Insider Trading
It’s clearly insider when a company’s high-level executive trades on pending earnings data not yet released to the public. It’s clearly not insider trading when you count cars in a retailer’s parking lot to get insight to sales. A recent SEC case falls somewhere in the middle. The Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for January 23
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Equity Crowdfunding: A Market for Lemons? by Darian M. Ibrahim in the CLS Blue Sky Blog Before reaching the more difficult Title III, I reveal that the less-radical Title II, which allows general solicitation of accredited investors, seems to have proven successful for … Read more »
Massachusetts Adopts Crowdfunding
Add Massachusetts to the growing list of states that are sidestepping the unusable federal crowdfunding alternative. “The Crowdfunding Exemption is designed to foster job creation by helping small and early-stage Massachusetts companies find investors and gain greater access to capital with fewer restrictions. The exemption is also intended to provide necessary investor protections by requiring … Read more »