At the Wednesday March 2 Open Meeting, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to approve a new rule that would affect incentive compensation paid to employees of investment advisers and broker-dealers. Commissioners Casey and Paredes voted against proposing the rule as drafted. The other three voted to move the proposed rule into the comment period. … Read more »
Greater Boston Real Estate CCO Forum
Are you running a real estate fund and wondering what do about registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission? Are you near Boston? If your answers are yes and yes, join a group of CCOs who are getting together on an informal basis to discuss the issues. Our next meeting is Thursday, March 3 at … Read more »
Is Madoff a Sociopath?
The New York magazine interview with Bernie Madoff has finally been published. Steve Fishman spoke with Madoff on the phone (collect calls from Madoff’s prison) for several hours. And so, sitting alone with his therapist, in the prison khakis he irons himself, he seeks reassurance. “Everybody on the outside kept claiming I was a sociopath,” … Read more »
Is Your Copier in Compliance?
I remember the days of the mimeograph. In class people would inevitably sniff the newly printed pages. For a teacher, the danger was that the latent copy would fall into the wrong hands. Animal House highlighted that danger. Current day copiers are much more advanced than the mimeograph, but the dangers of the latent copy … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for February 25
Here are some compliance-related stories that caught my eye: A Blank Check for Cleaning Up Madoff’s Mess by Floyd Norris in the New York Times But the Bernard L. Madoff fraud is proving to be different, and not just because Mr. Madoff ran by far the largest Ponzi scheme ever encountered. … SIPC (pronounced SIP-ick), … Read more »
Placement Agent Limitations on Gifts
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is continuing to tighten the limits on what placement agents can do as part of their fundraising activities for private funds. Dodd-Frank created a new category of “municipal advisors” and placed them under the regulatory oversight of the MSRB. If your fund uses a placement agent and has government-sponsored investors … Read more »
Egypt, Mubarak and Politically Exposed Persons
Egypt’s top prosecutor requested the freezing of the foreign assets of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family. I expect that is one step in trying to figure out how much of Mubarak’s fortune was derived from corruption. I’ve read reports that his assets could be worth $3 billion and upwards of $70 billion. That … Read more »
The SEC is Looking at Advisers’ Use of Social Media
According to a story in Investment News, the Securities and Exchange Commission began a sweep of investment advisers’ use of social media and social networking last month. The story hast a quote from Doug Flynn, an adviser at Flynn Zito Capital Management LLC, that is exactly on target for traditional investment advisers: “I’d love to … Read more »
Read a Free Book
I have an extra copy of All the Devils are Here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera. They put together an insightful look at the many factors that created the housing bubble and amplified the destruction when it popped. Pundits and purists have tried to pin the blame on a single element. It seems clear … Read more »
The Amish Madoff
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Monroe L. Beachy, a 77-year-old Amish man from Sugarcreek, Ohio. They found the Bernie Madoff of the Amish. Beachy targeted his fellow Amish in his alleged fraud. He raised more than $33 million from as early as 1986. Beachy enticed investors by promising interest rates that were … Read more »