Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
Here are a few stories and items that caught my eye, but I have not had time to build-out to a full post: Reminder to Review Insider Trading Compliance by Melissa Klein Aguilar for Compliance Week The SEC settled an administrative proceeding this month involving Merrill Lynch based on the firm’s failure to have adequate … Continue reading “Short Bites”
Garrity, Graham, Murphy, Garofalo & Flinn and PRMIA (Professional Risk Managers International Association) sponsored a webinar that focused on the signs of fraud and what you can do detect fraud in the context of hedge funds. The agenda and my notes: The profile of a fraudster (James Tunkey, I-OnAsia) The psychology of the gullible investor … Continue reading “Hedge Funds and Fraud: The Future of Due Diligence”
You missed the warning signs and got suckered into a Ponzi scheme. Can the IRS help by giving you some tax relief? This is a critical issue for long-term Ponzi scheme investors (like some of the Madoff victims) who have paid taxes on gains from the investment. After all, they have been paying real taxes … Continue reading “You’re a Victim of a Ponzi Scheme, But What About Your Taxes?”
With Madoff, Nadel and Stanford in the news, people are wondering why the government does not prevent Ponzi schemes. The government should protect us from these frauds. How can they? Ponzi scheme sponsors are thieves. Common criminals. They just wear suits instead of black masks. The government has not been able to prevent bank robberies, … Continue reading “Can You Prevent Ponzi Schemes?”
Lawyers must protect their clients’ confidence, but they can’t aid in the commission of a potential crime. The Wall Street Journal covered some of the facts leading up to the “noisy withdrawal” of Thomas Sjoblom of Proskauer Rose LLP from their representation of the Stanford Financial Group: Top Lawyer’s Withdrawal From Stanford Case Waves a … Continue reading “Lawyer’s Noisy Withdrawal from Stanford Case”
Philip Urofsky and Danforth Newcomb of Shearman & Sterling LLP have released their latest update on the Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement (.pdf). The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been front page news quite a bit lately with the enormous settlement of Siemens. The first to break through $1 billion. The Hallibuton/KBR settlement … Continue reading “Recent Trends and Patterns in FCPA Enforcement”
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning about con-artists who may use the names of actual SEC employees to mislead potential victims. The SEC is already beaten down by the Madoff scandal. Now it has to deal with scam artists further dragging mud across the reputation of the SEC. Investors should be aware that … Continue reading “SEC Warns Investors and Financial Firms of Government Impersonators”
Yesterday, the SEC filed a complaint against R. Allen Stanford and three of his companies: Antiguan-based Stanford International Bank, Houston-based broker-dealer and investment adviser Stanford Group Company, and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management. Tuesday morning, the Wall Street Journal reported on Stanford Depositors head to Antigua or Redemptions. Word had gotten out that the authorities … Continue reading “The Stanford Fraud”
Newedge Group’s Kirby Daley says no. He explains why the Obama Administration should not necessarily rush to impose stricter regulation of hedge funds in the wake of the Madoff case. See Fox News Video on Securities Docket.
The April 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review has an article by Stephen Wagner and Lee Dittmar on The Unexpected Benefits of Sarbanes Oxley. Although the article is somewhat dated when it talks about the second year under Sarbanes Oxley, it foretells some of the current thoughts in compliance. Compliance is good for business. Two … Continue reading “The Unexpected Benefits of Sarbanes Oxley”