by Here is a list of my recent Compliance Building posts:
Happy Thanksgiving
That means an extra long weekend for me.
Engage with Grace
With the Thanksgiving holiday this weekend, I’m turning the blog over to public service.
Real Estate and OFAC Compliance
The tale of 650 Fifth Avenue is one that should be closely watched by compliance professionals dealing with real estate. Last year, the Department of Justice filed a forfeiture proceeding against a 40% interest in the property held by the Assa Corporation.
The Four Areas of Risk and Knowledge
When thinking about risk, I break things into four quadrants. There are things we know and there are things we don’t know as individuals. I then slice slice that further again with the things we know and the things we don’t know as part of the larger organization or conscious state.
Positioning yourself for tomorrow’s social media today: Practical approaches for legal professionals
Join me for a 60-minute Webinar at 11:00 am Eastern time on Wednesday, December 9. It’s free, sponsored by Martindale-Hubbell Connected.
Compliance Bits and Pieces for Nov. 20
Here are some interesting stories from the past week:
Review of SEC’s Process for Selecting Adviser Examination Targets
To continue the Madoff dogpile on the SEC, the SEC’s Office of Inspector General released a report criticizing the SEC’s process for selecting investment advisers and investment companies for examination.
Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act Status
OpenCongress allows you to create custom widgets for the status of bills in Congress.
New Workplace Posters – EEO is the Law
Starting November 21, 2009, you need a new workplace poster: EEO is the Law.
There are two new federal workplace laws the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act and the ADA Amendments Act. Federal law requires all employers covered by the federal anti-discrimination laws (those with 15 or more employees) to post multilingual notices describing the federal laws
Federal Regulators Issue Final Model Privacy Notice Form
Eight federal regulatory agencies today released the final model privacy notice form. It’s supposed to make it easier for consumers to understand how financial institutions collect and share information about consumers.
Fund Registration Act Will Cost the SEC $140 Million
The Congressional Budge Office released a cost estimate of H.R. 3818, the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2009. Obviously, there will be an additional cost to fund managers that need to register with the SEC and operate under the SEC rules and oversight.
New Anti-Bribery Compendium
Trace International has launched an online, fully-searchable database containing summaries and analyses of international anti-bribery enforcement actions and investigations in the U.S. and throughout the world. The Trace Compendium summaries are searchable by name or by numerous other criteria, including year, substantive criteria, enforcement authority, and enforcement result.
Criticism and Praise
Do criticism and praise work to affect performance?
Leonard Mlodinow briefly addressed this topic in The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. He explores the studies of Daniel Kahneman who was lecturing the Israeli air force flight instructors on behavior modification.
The First CMBS Eligbile for TALF
Developers Diversified Realty Corp. sold $400 million worth of of debt backed by shopping centers backed by 28 malls in 19 states. The offering is the first to use the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility since it was opened to the debt in June.
It’s Tough Being Green… And Charged With Fraud
Mantria Corporation is a “diversified and progressive business enterprise that seeks out emerging sectors with a passionate focus on sustainability and the commercialization of socially responsible products and services.” At least that’s what their website says.
The SEC says: “In reality, the only green these promoters seemed interested in was investors’ money.”
Is PCAOB Constitutional?
Now that Jones v. Harris has been argued, we have to sit and wait for the decision. But there is another compliance case coming up for argument in front of the Supreme Court: Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB.
PBWorks and Real Time Collaboration
PBWorks has announced a “Real-time Collaboration Update” which brings integrated Instant Messaging collaboration, Live Notifications (activity streams), Live Editing (rather than standard wiki asynchronous editing) and integrated Voice Collaboration with on-demand voice conferencing.
The SEC is Going After the Geeks
First, Bernie the boss turned himself in, saying he did it all by himself. Nobody believed that, including the SEC. So the SEC went after Madoff’s right-hand man, DiPascali, and Madoff’s accountant, Friehling. Now the SEC is going after the geeks.
