Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. U.S. Banks Cut Off Mexican Clients, as Regulatory Pressure Increases by Rachel Louise Ensign, Emily Glazer and Amy Guthrie in the Wall Street Journal At issue are correspondent-banking relationships that allow Mexican banks to facilitate cross-border transactions and meet their clients’ needs … Read more »
Real estate in the United States has been rumored to be an interesting place for hiding money. In particular, the US Treasury is concerned about illegal money getting filtered through US real estate. Until now, FinCEN has mostly relied on anti-money laundering protections on real estate transactions involving lending. FinCEN is now looking at vulnerabilities … Read more »
Five years ago, the SEC came crashing into the offices of Level Global Investors accusing it of engaging in illegal insider trading. The firm agreed to pay $21.5 million in settlement money to resolve that insider trading investigation. Now it wants its money money back. When it comes to insider trading, it’s not the firm … Read more »
One of the challenges faced by the Securities and Exchange Commission when encountering a real estate scam is finding jurisdiction. The SEC is limited to securities and a real estate investment is not a security. But a real estate investments may involve securities or be a securities-like investment. That is the case the SEC is … Read more »
Should we worry about an attack on the Untied States’ electrical infrastructure? Ted Koppel says “very much so” in his book: Lights Out. You probably better know Mr. Koppel as the longtime anchorman on ABC News and Nightline. In Lights Out he puts on his old school journalist hat and puts together an in depth … Read more »
These are some of the compliance related stories that recently caught my attention. Corporate Disclosure, Social Policy, and Dirty Pool by Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance [L]et’s use the Conflict Minerals Rule as the flagship example of a much broader bad idea in Dodd-Frank—using federal securities law to force social policy on corporations. Because as … Read more »
The Securities and Exchange Commission made an unusual announcement this week, announcing a whistleblower award to a company outsider. Could this been a new way to profit from companies engaged in fraud? Is this a new alternative to short selling? Earlier this week, the SEC announced a $700,000 award to a company outsider who conducted … Read more »
A friend in the private fund compliance community just came up with another “gotcha” under the Custody Rule. His client used an auditor that was registered with PCAOB, but had not yet been inspected. He thought it was enough to be registered, while waiting for an inspection. An SEC examiner argued that the auditor needed … Read more »
There are few among us who think the high cost of getting elected and fundraising that it requires is good for American politics. The SEC took a moral high ground and passed Rule 206(4)-5. That rule effectively prohibits investment managers from making political contributions to politicians who control pension money, other than small token amounts. … Read more »
The world got a little less interesting now that this big, bold, brash guy has left it. I have not posted in Compliance Building while I’ve been trying to deal with this loss. My best friend, Jeff Levine, was diagnosed with cancer just before Thanksgiving. He lost his battle against the disease last week. Jeff … Read more »