The Ethisphere Institute announced its fifth annual selection of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, highlighting 110 organizations that lead the way in promoting ethical business standards. Of the 110 companies honored this year, 74were on the 2010 list. (If you need help with the math, 36 are new to the list in 2011 and 26 … Read more »
The Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act
With the House of Representatives’ change in political control, the Republicans are taking some steps to cut back on Dodd-Frank. Earlier this week the House Committee on Financial Services distributed a press release about five potential bills that would revise the financial service legislation: The Asset-Backed Market Stabilization Act The Small Company Capital Formation Act … Read more »
More on the Proposed Limitations on Compensation for Fund Managers
There is a new joint federal rule in the works for all financial institutions. This will lump together banks, credit unions, broker-dealers and investment advisers. If you have more than $1 billion in assets under management, you need to pay attention to this rule. Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection … Read more »
SEC’s Pay-to-Play Rule Is Effective Today
If you have (or want to have) government investors in your private fund then you need to be in compliance with Rule 206(4)-5 starting today. Summary (from the SEC): The Securities and Exchange Commission is adopting a new rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 that prohibits an investment adviser from providing advisory services … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for March 11
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my eye. Inside The Mind of An Inside Trader by Francine McKenna in re: The Auditors No Big 4 audit firms or their partners have been named in the insider trading scandal surrounding the now-defunct hedge fund Galleon Management. But the SEC has accused one of the … Read more »
Massachusetts Brings Charges Against a Hedge Fund
You need to worry about more than just the Securities and Exchange Commission when it comes to private fund fraud. State securities regulators generally have the ability to bring fraud charges. Case in point is the Massachusetts’ Secretary of the Commonwealth bringing charges against Risk Reward Capital Management, RRC Management, the RRC Bio Fund and … Read more »
Lords of Finance
The financial crisis of 2008 was not the first. In reading Lords of Finance you see some of the obvious parallels from the 1920s. Liaquat Ahamed focuses his story on Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve, Hjalmar Schact of the Reichsbank and Emile Moreau of the … Read more »
The SEC Continues to Investigate Side Pockets and Valuations
The SEC brought another case against a private investment fund for misuse of side pockets. Lawrence R. Goldfarb of Baystar Capital Management agreed to pay a hefty fine to settle claims brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misuse of his investment fund’s assets. When used properly, a side pocket is a mechanism that … Read more »
Custody and Private Funds
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission put a new rule in place restricting an investment adviser’s ability to have custody of its clients’ assets. Given that many private fund managers are going to have to register as investment advisers they need to figure out how to comply with this rule. The rule is the … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for March 4
Here are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my attention. But not enough attention to anything with them other post a snippet of the story. Board Member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble Charged in Insider Trading Scheme The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a Westport, Conn.-based business consultant … Read more »