Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been skeptical of registered investment advisers using advertisements. The default position is always that it’s likely to be fraudulent, deceptive or manipulative and therefore a violation of Section 206 of the Investment Advisers Act. The level of skepticism has been even higher for performance advertisements and even higher for performance … Read more »
Back a few years ago there was blue collar insider trading case. Some workers on a railroad noticed a lot of guys in suits walking around the rail yards. Their boss made some unusual requests about equipment. The two workers put to and two together and took a guess that the railroad was for sale. … Read more »
Often there is little new to discover and learn from in securities fraud charges. The fraudster may or may not have started with good intentions. Regardless, the fraudster takes the investors’ money and spends it on things it was not supposed to be spent on. But I could not help but take a closer look … Read more »
A mentioned two weeks ago that the Securities and Exchange Commission was looking at private fund managers who failed to Form PF. That is now official and the SEC announced enforcement actions against 13 private fund managers. The SEC’s orders are against: Bachrach Asset Management Inc. Biglari Capital LLC Brahma Management Ltd. Bristol Group Inc. … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. What can we learn from employee reimbursement program disasters? by Julie DiMauro Boston-based mutual fund company Fidelity fired or let resign about 200 people during the past year after discovering that some employees misused the firm’s partial-reimbursement program, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a … Read more »
Last week, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act became law, providing some revisions to Dodd-Frank and some new regulatory wrinkles. Some of those revisions apply to private funds. Section 203 exempts Banks and Bank Holding Companies with (1) $10 billion or less in total consolidated assets and (2) total trading assets and trading … Read more »
I’m pleased to announce the latest addition to the Compliance Building family. Boo has been in training for her first week, as you might expect. So far she has passed the sleeping through the night module. She is still working on the waste disposal training module. We expect no less than 100% compliance to pass … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Does Profanity at Work Create a Hostile Work Environment? (Maybe.) by Daniel Schwartz in the Connecticut Employment Law Blog The court’s decision focuses on the difference between profanity of the general type, which it calls “general, indiscriminate vulgarity” (presumably, words like “sh**”), and … Read more »
PwC released the results of its latest State of Compliance survey. In this seventh iteration, PwC polled 825 risk and compliance executives worldwide about their organizations’ compliance polices and procedures, training, monitoring and technology. Only 17% said they are very satisfied with the effectiveness of their compliance programs. Another 45% said they were somewhat satisfied. Personally, … Read more »
With the statutory changes from Dodd-Frank, the Securities and Exchange Commission started gathering basic information about private fund managers and their funds on Form ADV. The SEC increased that information flow by requiring Form PF. Unlike Form ADV, Form PF provides detailed information about the private fund’s activities and performance. That left many reluctant to … Read more »