Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Companies Need to Pay More Attention to Everyday Unethical Behaviorby Yuval FeldmanHarvard Business Review Numerous studies have documented the prevalence of practices such as stealing office supplies, inflating business expenditures reports, and engaging in behaviors that raise conflicts of interest. While these may sound … Read more »
As cryptocurrency issuance declines, the Securities and Exchange Commission is continuing to clean out the fraud, mis-steps, and foolishness of coin promoters. These actions have carried over to the services and investment managers involved in coin offerings. Usman Majeed wanted to make his money by running a fund that invests in cryptocurrency. He ran into … Read more »
It is generally bad to have one client trade with another client. Rule 206(3)-2 imposes some very specific requirements and leaves you with a final twist: This rule shall not be construed as relieving in any way the investment adviser or another person relying on this rule from acting in the best interests of the … Read more »
The Yucaipa Master Manager didn’t properly inform investors of all costs tied to preparing tax returns. Yucaipa resolved the case without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations. Under the fund documents for the Yucaipa American Alliance private equity funds, the cost of preparing the funds’ tax tax returns are an expense of the funds. Yucaipa … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Conflicts of interest for “the little people”by Jeff KaplanConflicts of Interest Blog The conclusion of the Mueller investigation does little to resolve the much broader set of concerns regarding President Trump’s conflicts of interest. These are too numerous to be chronicled on this … Read more »
Can the Securities and Exchange Commission penalize an investment banker even though he did not “make” false statements? The SEC is claiming that his distribution of those false statements constituted a “device, scheme, or artifice to defraud” or an “act, practice, or course of business which operates . . . as a fraud or deceit” … Read more »
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced awards totalling $50 million to whistleblowers who brought high-quality information to the SEC and assisted in bringing a successful enforcement action. As with all whistleblower awards, the order is heavily redacted as to the company involved, what happened, and when it happened. I’m not sure I can identify which … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The Federal Courts Are Running An Online Scam by Seamus Hughes in Politico But I’m here to tell you that PACER—Public Access to Court Electronic Records—is a judicially approved scam. The very name is misleading: Limiting the public’s access by charging hefty fees, … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Listing Gaps, Merger Waves, and the Privatization of U.S. Equity Finance by Gabriele Lattanzio, William L. Megginson and Ali Sanati in The CLS Blue Sky Blog The number of U.S. listed companies declined by almost half between 1996 and 2012, from 8,090 to 4,102, … Read more »
Enforcement actions by financial regulators can cause compliance professionals to rethink their career choice. In the majority of cases the SEC brings against CCOs, (1) the compliance officers are involved in misconduct that is unrelated to their compliance function or (2) the CCOs have engaged in efforts to obstruct or mislead the investigation. Typically in … Read more »