Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
Howard M. Appel is a bad guy who has been convicted of securities fraud multiple times. This time it was for actions in 2010 through 2013. He secretly acquiring large blocks of stock in three publicly traded companies and then manipulated the market for those shares with co-conspirators. It was classic pump and dump schemes. … Read more »
It was a brutal year for the cyclists in this year’s edition of the Tour de France. It’s always a brutal three weeks of racing, but teamwork helps separate the winners from the rest. Geraint Thomas came across the finish line in Paris as the first winner from Wales. His teammate and favorite to win, … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Commission extends post-Lucia stay 30 more days By Rodney F. Tonkovic, J.D. The SEC has extended a stay of pending administrative proceedings for an additional 30 days. The initial order was issued on June 21, 2018 and stayed pending administrative proceedings until July … Read more »
According to a story by Franco Ordonez, the United States has been selectively using its sanctions regime in Venezuela in an effort to destabilize the government. “For over a year, Diosdado Cabello, the former military commander and vice president of Venezuela’s governing United Socialist Party, escaped sanctions that hit more than 50 other Venezuelan officials, … Read more »
I found the two recent cases of insider trading to be clear violations that should be easy to spot. Matthew Brunstrum worked at a company with specific restrictions on trading the company’s stock. Yao Li worked a different company, but one that also had restrictions on trading the company’s stock. In both cases, the two … Read more »
The SEC’s complaint against Temenos Advisory, Inc. and George L. Taylor paints a very bad picture for the firm and its Chief Compliance Officer. In this case, the CCO is also the CEO, founder and majority owner of Temenos. A few years ago, the SEC had expressed an unwillingness to prosecute CCOs, except in three … Read more »
Under the Investment Advisers Act, investment advisers selecting broker-dealers for executing client trades have an obligation to seek to obtain “best execution” of those transactions. The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) issued a new risk alert highlighting many of the most common deficiencies that the OCIE staff has cited in recent examinations of advisers’ compliance … Read more »
When I was a junior corporate lawyer, I sat in a debt training session. One of the partners mentioned LIBOR. The explanation confused me. But as a young lawyer I didn’t know very much about the workings of high finance. It turns out that the benchmark is hodgepodge of figures voluntarily submitted by banks with … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Compliance 101: Defining a Control by Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance Last week I was speaking at an ethics and compliance event in Houston, where one of the other speakers stumped the crowd with a deceptively simple question: What is a control? After … Read more »
In 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission opened its doors to the professional whistleblower when it first granted a whistleblower award to a company outsider. It’s becoming more lucrative. Last week the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced an award of approximately $30 million to a whistleblower who voluntarily provided key original information that led to a successful … Read more »