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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 111-120 out of 695 results

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - January 2nd, 2015

(Jan 2015)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

SEC Announces Charges Against N.Y.-Based Firm and Three Executives Accused of Siphoning Investor Money
December 29, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 294)
The SEC has charged VERO Capital Management, its president, general counsel, and CFO with channeling investors' money into a side venture. Robert Geiger, George Barbaresi and Steven Downey managed a pair of funds invested primarily in mortgage-backed securities at VERO Capital Management. The SEC alleges that, while in...

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 23rd, 2014

(Dec 2014)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

SEC Charges Investment Manager F-Squared and Former CEO With Making False Performance Claims
December 22, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 289)
It's been announced today that F-Squared Investments has agreed to settle with the SEC over charges that they defrauded investors of their AlphaSector indices. The SEC alleged that F-Squared falsely claimed a seven year performance track record, created by applying their model to historical data. The backtested record is also...

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 19th, 2014

(Dec 2014)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

SEC Charges Massachusetts-Based Scientific Instruments Manufacturer with FCPA Violations Rules
December 15, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 280)
The SEC charged Bruker Corporation approximately $2.4 million for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Bruker Corporation had insufficient internal controls which lead to approximately $230,000 in improper payments to various Chinese government officials. The improper payments enabled Bruker to realize...

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 12th, 2014

(Dec 2014)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

SEC Sanctions Eight Audit Firms for Violating Auditor Independence Rules
December 8, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 272)
The SEC sanctioned the following firms for violating auditor's independence criteria: BKD LLP, Boros & Farrington Accountancy Corporation, Brace & Associates PLLC, Robert Cooper & Company CPA PC, Lally & Co LLC, Lerner & Sipkin CPAs LLP, OUM & Co LLP, and Joseph Yafeh CPA Inc. While performing audits for their broker-dealer clients, these firms...

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - December 5th, 2014

(Dec 2014)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

SEC Charges California Resident With Fraudulent Sales of Stock
December 2, 2014 (Litigation Release No. 268)
The SEC has charged Vinay Kumar Nevatia for fraudulently selling $900,000 of private shares of CSS Corp. The SEC contends that Kumar, living in Palo Alto under several aliases, sold shares in 2011 and 2012 that he had already sold in 2008. Kumar has never been registered with the SEC.

SEC Announces Fraud Charges Against Two Executives in Scheme Involving...

15 Days in Puerto Rico Cost UBS Clients Over $1 Billion

(Dec 2014)

We've shown in recent posts that UBS underwrote $1.7 billion of unmarketable ERS bonds and bought them into the UBS PR Funds. You can find our earlier blog posts here. UBS made room these ERS bonds by selling out of the Funds other bonds UBS didn't underwrite. UBS bought the ERS bonds it underwrote in 2008 because there was no other market for the bonds it was underwriting.

Recently we illustrated how UBS-underwritten conflicted bonds purchased by UBS into the funds in 2008 caused losses in...

Equipment Leasing DPPs

(Nov 2014)

We've written extensively about the evils of non-traded REITs. You can read through our other non-traded REIT blog posts. As bad as non-traded REITs are - and they're so bad no one should ever buy one - registered, non-traded Equipment Leasing Direct Participation Programs (DPPs) are worse.

Examples of equipment leasing DPPs include the series of LEAF and ICON trusts we discuss below. Equipment leasing DPPs provide a stark illustration of the DPP deceit which infects non-traded REITs,...

What Hell Hath UBS Puerto Rico Wrought

(Nov 2014)

We've shown in recent posts that UBS underwrote $1.7 billion of unmarketable ERS and $1.35 billion of COFINA bonds and bought them into the UBS PR Funds in 2007 and 2008. You can find our earlier blog posts on Puerto Rican Funds. UBS made room for these ERS and COFINA bonds by selling out of the Funds, roughly $3 billion of other bonds UBS didn't underwrite. UBS bought the ERS and COFINA bonds it underwrote in 2007 and 2008, because there was no other market for the bonds it was...

UBS PR Funds Also Bought $1.35 Billion of UBS Underwritten COFINA Bonds in 2007 and 2008

(Nov 2014)

Yesterday in our post "UBS Succumbed to Conflicts and Purchased $1.7 Billion of Employee Retirement System Bonds into its Puerto Rican Municipal bond Funds in 2008", we showed that UBS underwrote $1.7 billion of unmarketable ERS bonds and bought them into the UBS PR Funds in 2008. Today, we show similar conflicts led UBS to underwrite unmarketable 2007 and 2008 Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA) bonds and stuff them into the Funds. COFINA issued two series of bonds in 2007...

UBS Succumbed to Conflicts and Purchased $1.7 Billion of Employee Retirement System Bonds into its Puerto Rican Municipal bond Funds in 2008

(Nov 2014)

In today's post we show that UBS underwrote unmarketable Employee Retirement System bonds and bought them into the UBS Funds in 2008. Friday, we'll show similar conflicts led UBS to underwrite unmarketable 2008 COFINA bonds and then stuff them into the UBS Funds.

The Puerto Rican Employee Retirement System was acutely and chronically underfunded. Figure 1 is a plot of the PR funding ratio and the median of the 50 states' funding ratios. The states median funding ratio fluctuated between 80%...

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