Recently, the California Department of Business Oversight (“DBO”) officially adopted revisions to the California investment adviser custody rule, Section 260.237 of Title 10 of the California Code of Regulations (the “Rule”). According to the DBO, these changes were in response…… Read More
The past two months have seen much in the way of political and civil strife in the Ukraine, as Russian forces moved into the Crimea and Eastern regions. After a series of economic sanctions against Russia were instituted by the…
An important and pervasive online tool has been used to lure investors to a new Ponzi scheme, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). In a press release dated April 8, 2014, the SEC alleges that Joseph Signore of…
The securities industry became privy once again to a form of manipulative trading – termed “layering” or “spoofing” – through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC’s”) recent charges against the Holmdel, N.J.-based firm Visionary Trading, LLC (“Visionary”). According to the…
A St. Petersburg, Florida-based financial services firm was recently charged with inappropriately-calculated fee discounts and inadequate policies and procedures (“P&P”). Charges were filed against Transamerica Financial Advisors (“Transamerica”) by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) at the beginning of April…
The ripple effects of the 2008/2009 financial crisis still echoes throughout most US industries today. Fraudulent acts of certain “bad actors” – both individuals and firms in the financial industries during this time – are also still being discovered today….
As an Arizona-based private equity fund and its manager discovered at the end of February 2014, paying one’s expenses with client’s assets is both problematic and liable to receive prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Clean Energy Capital,…
In a recent interview with Drew Bowden, the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), he spoke to the mission, role and complications associated with operating the examination branch of the SEC…
The importance of adequate and effective Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) programs should never be underestimated in the current US regulatory environment, as the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency’s (“FINRA’s”) January 28, 2014 announcement of penalties against the firm Banorte-Ixe clearly illustrates. The…
In his January 24, 2014 speech Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher stated that “two issues that…should be at the very top of the SEC’s agenda”, a “revamping” of the SEC’s corporate disclosure system and a series…