On November 3, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Fenway Partners, LLC (Fenway Partners), a private equity fund adviser, agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle charges that it failed to disclose conflicts of interest to a fund client and omitted material facts to investors.…
On October 30, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted Regulation Crowdfunding. The final rule permits companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. The “Regulation Crowdfunding Exemption” is created under Section 4(a)(6), Title III of the JOBS Act. The key features of the final rules Permit individuals to…
In a letter addressed to CalPERS and CalSTRS, California State Treasurer, John Chiang, has called for state legislation to require private equity firms to disclose all fees paid by California public pension funds. According to the letter, the disclosure requirements should be applicable to the private equity investments of all…
The SEC, again, makes it clear: all aspects of fee, expense and other arrangements must be disclosed accurately and in detail before commitments are accepted. The SEC recently announced a settlement with three investment advisor affiliates of The Blackstone Group (the Advisors) that were accused of breaching their fiduciary duty…
U.S. Investment advisers, other financial services providers, and pooled investment vehicles – private and public funds – involved in certain cross-border transactions must file. Background The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (“BEA”) is conducting its next five-year “Benchmark Survey of U.S. Financial Services Providers and Foreign Persons”…
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on August 25, 2015 which, among other things, would add SEC-registered investment advisers to the “financial institutions” regulated under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). This represents another step by the U.S. government to expand the…
In a release issued today, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed anti-money laundering (AML) regulations for investment advisers. The proposed rule requires investment advisers registered or required to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish AML programs and report suspicious activity to FinCEN pursuant…
Kimberly Mann, co-head of Pillsbury’s Investment Funds and Investment Management Group, was interviewed and quoted at length in an article published in FundFire this week. The article explored whether regulators should permit asset managers to settle cases without admitting culpability. In response to that question, Ms. Mann, who has expertise…
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will soon propose new rules that may require investment advisers to establish and implement written anti-money laundering programs designed to prevent advisory clients from using advisers to launder funds or perpetrate other criminal activities. The rules also may require advisers to report…
On August 6, 2015, the Treasury and the IRS issued Notice 2015-54, which implements a Clinton-era tax provision intended to prevent U.S. taxpayers from using the partnership provisions of the Code to shift built-in gain on property contributed to a partnership to non-U.S. affiliates of the transferor that are partners…