I previously wrote about how the Restoring American Financial Stability Act being tossed around in the Senate could affect private investment funds by changing the definition of accredited investor and altering the process for a Regulation D private placement. It looks like much of that is going to be wiped out of the bill. Senate … Read more »
Private Investment Funds and Form 5500 Schedule C
If you have ERISA plan investors in your private investment fund you should know that they have new reporting requirements this year. There is a new rule that requires greatly expanded disclosure of monetary and non-monetary compensation paid by the ERISA plan. On Schedule C to Form 5500, the plan will need to identify any … Read more »
Cash, Ash or Crash – Nobody Rides for Free
Iceland has been a sources of trouble. In October of 2008 their banking system crashed after ill-advised over-expansion. Proportionally, Iceland’s financial meltdown made the US failure look quaint. The three biggest banks in Iceland, a country of only 310,000, made loans totaling over 850% of Iceland’s Gross Domestic Product. In April, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted … Read more »
Interact 2010:Governing Social Media
The folks at Mitratech were nice enough to send me to Miami to talk at their annual Interact 2010 conference to talk about social media and compliance. This was the session description: Governing Social Media: How to Monitor, Manage and Make the Most of Employee Use of Social Media Doug Cornelius, Chief Compliance Officer, Beacon … Read more »
Interact Conference
I’m in Miami today for Interact 2010. I will try to post my notes from some of the sessions. Here is my agenda for the day: Innovations in Legal and Compliance Technologies Afshin Behnia, President & CEO, Mitratech. The session will review the state of the legal and compliance industries and present new trends and … Read more »
Weekend Book Review: Money for Nothing
The subtitle of Money for Nothing lets you know what’s coming: How the Failure of Corporate Boards Is Ruining American Business and Costing Us Trillions. If you’ve had your pitchfork and torch at the ready for a march on corporate malfeasance, then this is the book for you. John Gillespie and David Zweig spend the … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for May 14
Here are some interesting articles from the past week: When Investors Say Bad Things on Pay by Matt Kelly in Compliance Week‘s The Big Picture Shareholders had their say on pay at two U.S. corporations last week—and for the first time ever in this country, the answer was “no.” Motorola held its annual meeting on … Read more »
Gold To Go
Don’t settle for getting just cash from your ATM. Insist on gold. The Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi has installed an ATM that spits out gold instead of the local currency. The ATM monitors the hourly price of gold and offers small gold bars. In addition to 1 g, 5 g and 10 g … Read more »
SEC Censure for Failing to Conduct Due Diligence
The SEC censured and fined an investment adviser for due diligence lapses. Yosemite Capital Management, LLC and its managing director, Paul H. Heckler, got a wrist slap for failing to disclose to clients that they had encountered substantial problems when attempting to perform the due diligence. The big problem is that Yosemite had made a … Read more »
SEC Attacks the Rating Agencies
The SEC took its first swing at the failure of credit rating agencies by serving a Wells Notice on Moody’s Investor Service. At issue, according to the Moody’s filing, is the determination in 2007 that members of one of its European rating committees “engaged in conduct contrary to Moody’s Code of Professional Conduct.” Members of … Read more »