I tripped across an enforcement case that was so full of wrong things that I had to re-read it. In one sense, I saw a clever way to exploit an investment feature. On the other hand, the whole investment felt morally wrong, was deceptive and violated at least one important rule under the Investment Advisers…
Tag: Custody Rule
Custody Failure Pinned On the Gatekeepers
I remember the SFX case because the CCO was charged for compliance failures. Now the auditors of SFX have been been charged for their failures. SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises is wholly-owned by Live Nation Entertainment and specializes in providing advisory and financial management services to current and former professional athletes. The SEC charged SFX’s…
Going All In To Save The Fund
In browsing through enforcement actions I look for lessons learned. In some cases it’s compliance doing its job and stopping a fraud before it gets too big. The case against Owen Li caught my eye. His trades were not working so he made a last ditch effort to make it all back. Given that this…
Custody Rule Enforcement
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been pointing out custody issues for investment advisers, made it an exam priority for 2014, highlighted in its presence exam initiative, and highlighted it in its never before examined initiative. So it should come as no surprise that the SEC brought an enforcement case solely for custody rule violations….
Updated Guidance on the Custody Rule for Private Funds
The Securities and Exchange Commission has provided some updated guidance on the Custody Rule for private funds. It has sometimes been tricky for private funds to comply with Rule 206(4)-2. The custody rule deems it to be a fraudulent, deceptive or manipulative act, practice or course of business for an adviser to have custody of…
The SEC Is Not Happy with Custody Compliance
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a Risk Alert on compliance with its custody rule for investment advisers. Beyond the warning to investment advisers, it also issued an Investor Bulletin to protect advisory clients from theft or misuse of their funds and securities. After a review of recent examination, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections…
2013 SEC Examination Priorities
The Securities Exchange Commission published its examination priorities for 2013. They cover a wide range of issues at financial institutions, including broker-dealers, clearing agencies, exchanges and self-regulatory organizations, investment companies, hedge funds and private equity funds, and transfer agents. The scope of an IA examination is “generally limited to the issues and business practices of…
Custody and Private Funds
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission put a new rule in place restricting an investment adviser’s ability to have custody of its clients’ assets. Given that many private fund managers are going to have to register as investment advisers they need to figure out how to comply with this rule. The rule is the…
More Information on the Custody Rule
With the removal of the 15 client rule exemption from registration with the SEC, many private funds are going to have to comply the custody rule Rule 206(4)-2. Private equity firms will have the most problems trying to meets the demands of the rule. The SEC is trying to help. They updated the Staff Responses…
Private Equity and the Custody Rule
With the impending removal of the 15 Client Rule exemption from registration with the SEC, I was scratching my head trying to figure how to make the SEC’s new custody rule work for private equity. The SEC recently updated its guidance on custody rule compliance truing to add clarity for advisers to pooled investment vehicles….