Compliance Bricks and Mortar for August 15

Doug Cornelius  Compliance Bricks and Mortar   [+]

GPs look for ‘sweet spot’ on co-investment disclosures by Nicholas Donato in Private Funds Management Part of the SEC’s thinking is that co-investments are being used as marketing tools – so some investor protection is needed to ensure that promises made during fundraising are being fulfilled. Inspectors apparently want to see that every prospective LP … Read more »

Proposed Regulations on Customer Due Diligence Requirements

Doug Cornelius  Anti-Money Laundering   [+]

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed revisions to its customer due diligence rules. Of course, the proposed rule would affect financial institutions that are currently subject to FinCEN’s customer identification program requirement: banks, brokers-dealers, and mutual funds. However, FinCEN suggested that it may be considering expanding these customer due diligence requirements … Read more »

Lawsuit Against SEC’s Political Contribution Rule

Doug Cornelius  Government Contracting   [+]

The New York Republican State Committee and the Tennessee Republican Party brought suit against the Securities and Exchange Commission challenging its political contributions rule for investment advisers, Rule 206(4)-5. The complaint seeks an injunction against the enforcement of the rule’s political contribution restrictions on contributions to federal candidates. The first attack on the rule is … Read more »

FinCEN Emphasizes a Culture of Compliance

Doug Cornelius  Anti-Money Laundering   [+]

The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has finally come around to realizing that US financial institutions should promote a culture of compliance. FinCEN does not point to any specific problem, but mere notes that “Shortcomings identified in recent Anti-Money Laundering enforcement actions confirm that the culture of an organization is critical to its compliance.” FinCEN’s … Read more »

Not Securities Fraud By Reason of Insanity

Doug Cornelius  Fraud, What is a Security?   2

Some investment fraud schemes sound crazy, but leave just a enough truthful-sounding bits to catch people. But Thomas Lawler’s scheme sounds completely bonkers. He established the Freedom Foundation to offer investors the chance to erase their debts and collect lucrative profits through the purchase of “administrative remedies”. Never heard of profit-making “administrative remedies”? Lawler can … Read more »

The SEC is Late to a Real Estate Fraud

Doug Cornelius  Fraud   1

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged M. “Shi” Shailendra with making false representations to investors, misappropriating money, and acting as an unregistered broker. Shailendra was selling interests in his Interstate North 5 Acres fund known as Shi Six. He was purportedly using the money to acquire distressed real estate. Instead, he was pocketing most of … Read more »