Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. SEC forced to try new ways of pursuing bad financial advisers by Bruce Love in the Financial Times The US investment regulator’s powers to recoup losses from financial advisers who break the law were dealt a blow by a landmark Supreme Court decision … Read more »
On four separate occasions, an individual purchased jewelry from one of the Cartier boutiques located in California or Nevada for shipment to Shuen Wai Holding Limited in Hong Kong. I’m sure the store routinely ships purchases around the world. The problem is that Shuen Wai Holding Limited is named as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker … Read more »
Now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has some first-hand experience with cybersecurity and getting hacked, it has launched a new initiatives to address cyber-based threats. There is new Cyber Unit originating in the enforcement division. Robert A. Cohen will be Chief of the Cyber Unit, stepping away from being Co-Chief of the Market Abuse Unit. … Read more »
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been looking at fees and expenses at private equity funds for several years. Two years ago it brought a case against Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for misallocating more than $17 million in “broken deal” expenses to its private equity funds. An SEC investigation found that from 2006 to 2011, KKR … Read more »
Peter Sagan, for an historic third time in a row, earned the rainbow stripes of men’s road cycling world champion. And Chantal Blaak earned the rainbow stripes of women’s road cycling world champion. Over the weekend they competed on a thrilling course in Bergen, Norway. Salmon Hill, only 10 kilometers from the finish, splintered the … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Other People’s Money: SEC Disgorgement After Kokesh by Daniel R. Walfish in NYU’s Compliance & Enforcement Kokesh held that the disgorgement remedy in SEC enforcement actions is a “penalty” for purposes of the five-year limitations period for the “enforcement of any civil fine, penalty, or forfeiture.” 28 … Read more »
Cybersecurity is hard. It’s nearly impossible to stop an attack. If someone really wants in, they can continue to attack and attack until they find a gap. It’s hard to know that you have been breached until well after the breach. It may be just as hard to figure out what was accessed and what … Read more »
An investment adviser should not buy positions on their own behalf shortly before recommending that position to its clients. Nor should the adviser make recommendations to buy when the adviser is selling in the adviser’s personal accounts. Mark A. Gomes was doing just that. The test case came against Capital Gains Research Bureau. The firm … Read more »
It looks like the Securities and Exchange Commission has been taking a close look at advertising by investment advisers. The Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations issued a risk alert on The Most Frequent Advertising Rule Compliance Issues Identified in OCIE Examinations of Investment Advisers. I didn’t see any surprises in the alert. Advisers presented performance results without … Read more »
For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been focused on fees and expenses allocated by a private fund managers to their sponsored funds. The latest to be caught improperly allocating fees and expenses is Potomac Asset Management. First, Potomac improperly charged $2.2 million in fees to the fund for services provided by Potomac to … Read more »