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

Displaying 241-250 out of 711 results

The JOBS Act and Private Placement Advertising

(Oct 2013)

As per rules adopted in line with the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), hedge funds and other private placements can now advertise to the general public. We have been covering this issue extensively here on the blog. While many sources suggested that this would unleash an immediate flood of new marketing, several sources have noted that there has in fact been remarkably few hedge fund advertisements so far.

Why? There could be several reasons. The first is that while the...

Fidelity to Launch Mutual Fund Based on Hedge Fund Strategy

(Oct 2013)

We see it again and again: complex investment strategies packaged into traditionally conservative investments. We have seen corporate debt linked to exotic derivatives positions (structured products), exchange-traded products linked tocomplex futures positions (commodities and volatility ETPs), variable annuities linked to options strategies (structured product based variable annuities), and even certificates of deposit with complex payoff structures (structured CDs). Now, we are seeing more...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - October 11th, 2013

(Oct 2013)

Previously Unknown Insider Traders in Heinz Agree to $5 Million Settlement
October 10, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22841)
According to the complaint, Rodrigo Terpins traded on nonpublic information concerning H.J. Heinz that he learned from his brother, Michel Terpins. Rodrigo Terpins made his trades through "a Cayman Islands-based entity named Alpine Swift that holds assets for one of their family members." The Terpins brothers and Alpine Swift, which was named as a relief defendant, have...

Volume of SEC Litigation Releases over Time

(Oct 2013)

Here at SLCG, we have spent a lot of time compiling and summarizing the SEC's Litigation Releases each Friday. You can find all of those weekly summaries on our blog -- 91 and counting! -- but we noticed that last week had a lot more Litigation Releases than usual. We also noticed the same thing at the end of last September. We wondered if there was a pattern here.

Being nerds, we wrote a program to count all of the SEC's Litigation Releases over the past 15 years. We aggregated them monthly...

FINRA May Require Brokers to Carry Arbitration Insurance

(Oct 2013)

When investors suffer damages at the handsof brokers, they often turn to FINRA arbitration rather than suing in state or federal court. FINRA arbitrations are designed to "assist in the resolution of monetary and business disputes between and among investors, brokerage firms and individual brokers," and sometimes result in a monetary award. However, one problem with FINRA awards is that some brokers are unable to pay, especially brokers with small under-capitalized firms who ran fraudulent...

Trouble in Paradise: UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Investors Hit Hard

(Oct 2013)

Despite a 2012 settlement agreement with the SEC, UBS Puerto Rico continues to face new allegations regarding its sales practices of tax-advantaged closed-end funds. While UBS Puerto Rico did not admit wrongdoing when it settled with the SEC, an SEC statement on the matter said "UBS Puerto Rico denied its closed-end fund customers [...] accurate price and liquidity information, and a trading desk that did not advantage UBS's trades over those of its customers." At the time of the SEC...

Peligro en la Isla del Encanto: Inversionistas de UBS Puerto Rico Sufren Cuantiosas Pérdidas

(Oct 2013)

Hace más de un año, la Comisión de Valores y Bolsa de los Estados Unidos (SEC, por sus siglas en inglés) penalizó a la unidad puertorriqueña de UBS. La SEC acusó a UBS Puerto Rico (UBS PR) de encubrir la crisis de liquidez que afectaba a un grupo de sus fondos llamados Fondos de Puerto Rico. La investigación por parte de la SEC resultó en un acuerdo extrajudicial mediante el cual UBS PR se comprometió a pagar $26.6 millones de dólares a los inversionistas afectados. Hoy en día, UBS PR se...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review (Part II) - October 4th, 2013

(Oct 2013)

SEC Obtains Asset Freeze and Other Emergency Relief in Ponzi Scheme Targeting Investors in Japan
October 3, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22832)
The SEC was granted a temporary restraining order, asset freeze and other emergency relief againstEdwin Yoshihiro Fujinaga and his company MRI International, Inc.. Fujinaga allegedly raised more than $800 million from investors through MRI, an allegedly "fraudulent Ponzi scheme designed to misappropriate money from investors. "The defendants...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review (Part I) - October 4th, 2013

(Oct 2013)

SEC Files Fraud Charges Against Universal Travel Group, Its Former CEO and Chair, Jiangping Jiang, and Its Former Director, Secretary and Interim CFO, Jing Xie
September 27, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22823)
The SEC announced the filing of "fraud and related charges against Universal Travel Group, a China-based travel services company, its former CEO and Chair, Jiangping Jiang, and its former Director, Secretary and Interim CFO, Jing Xie." According to the SEC, Jiang and Xie "failed to...

SEC Awards More Than $14 Million to Whistleblower

(Oct 2013)

Earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that an anonymous whistleblower has been awarded over $14 million for the information provided to the SEC that resulted in an expedited enforcement action. This is the third, and by far the largest, award granted by the SEC's Office of the Whistleblower since it was established by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2011.¹
Although the announcement does not specifically mention which enforcement action lead to the award, we can...

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