The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday adopted a series of amendments to the rules that govern money market funds. The most controversial of these amendments will require institutional prime and tax-exempt money market funds to maintain a floating net asset value (NAV) and will allow the boards of institutional…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) charged Kevin McGrath, a partner at a New York investor relations firm with insider trading. According to the SEC complaint, McGrath allegedly received confidential information from clients in order to prepare press releases. The SEC discovered McGrath used non-public information from two different…
Private equity firms were put on notice last year that they may be subject to registration as broker dealers when David Blass, head of the Division of Markets and Trading at the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), provided his insights at an industry conference. Since that time, the SEC has…
In a move that should place securities lawyers and their clients on notice, Commissioner Kara Stein of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently indicated that lawyers may become targets of SEC enforcement actions when a registrant has been poorly advised by its attorney and the result of that advice…
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) staff recently issued guidance to registered CPOs regarding the delegation of commodity pool operator (“CPO”) functions from persons that might otherwise be subject to CPO registration. For non-natural persons delegating CPO functions to a registered CPO, the relief from registration is conditioned on the…
As we have previously reported, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has taken a significantly heightened interest in whether people who engage in certain promotional activities on behalf of issuers of securities should be subject to regulation as a broker dealer. The David Blass speech of April 5, 2013 put…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), on March 31, 2014, announced insider trading charges against two men who allegedly traded on information they overheard from their respective wives. On April 3, 2014, the SEC announced charges against two friends who traded tips related to an impending acquisition deal. The spouse…
Written by: Jessica M. Brown and Jay B. Gould On March 10, 2014, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) submitted a proposed rule to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that would require disclosure to certain clients and FINRA regarding the details of a broker-dealer representative’s financial recruiting incentives (the…
Written by: Jay B. Gould and Jessica M. Brown The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations released a “Risk Alert” on January 28, 2014, which focuses on the due diligence investment advisers perform in alternative investments[1] and managers for their clients. After observing an increasing trend…
Written by: Jessica M. Brown The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a registered investment adviser and its principal for making false claims over social media regarding their inflated performance claims with respect to a mutual fund managed by the adviser. Through a Twitter account and a widely circulated newsletter, Mark…