In a press release yesterday, the CFTC issued an exemptive letter, CFTC Letter No. 14-116, providing relief from certain provisions of CFTC Regulations 4.7(b) and 4.13(a)(3) that restrict marketing to the public. The exemptive relief was issued to make CFTC Regulations 4.7(b) and 4.13(a)(3) consistent with SEC Rule 506(c) of…
On May 16, 2014, a federal court in Florida entered an Order finding in favor of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) following a trial against four Hunter Wise related companies and their owners on charges that they had fraudulently misrepresented the nature of precious metals transactions that resulted in…
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…
Written by: Jessica M. Brown and Michael G. Wu On March 10, 2014, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Services Agency of Japan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation which expresses the agencies’ intent to work together to supervise and oversee regulated entities that operate on a cross-border…
As the new year is upon us, there are some important annual compliance obligations Investment Advisers either registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) or with a particular state (“Investment Adviser”) and Commodity Pool Operators (“CPOs”) or Commodity Trading Advisors (“CTAs”) registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission…
Written by: Jay B. Gould On September 23, 2013, the JOBS Act rules that roll back the 80 year old ban on the use of general advertising and public solicitation by issuers of unregistered securities will be a reality. At least it will be a reality for fund managers that…
Written by: Jay B. Gould and Jessica Brown On July 10, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to lift the ban on general solicitation and advertising by private funds (and other private company issuers) as mandated by Congress in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”). In addition…
Written by: Jeffrey Stern and Anthony H. Schouten The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued new “know your customer” and external business conduct rules to give effect to certain provisions of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Under these rules, major dealers in swaps…
The NFA recently issued a notice entitled “Guidance on the Annual Affirmation Requirement for those Entities that are currently operating under an exemption or exclusion from CPO or CTA registration.” As of February 2012, each person claiming an exemption or exclusion from CPO registration under CFTC Regulation 4.5, 4.13(a)(1), 4.13(a)(2),…
Under current gift tax law, any individual may make a gift of up to $5.12 million this year to the individual’s children, grandchildren and other beneficiaries without paying gift tax. Any gift in excess of that amount is taxed at a historically-low 35%. Unless Congress acts to extend (in whole…