US Legal & Regulation

A federal jury in Charlotte has convicted certified public accountant Jonathan D Davey, 48, of Newark, Ohio, of four criminal charges relating to a hedge fund investment fraud conspiracy. »

Thanks to the recent JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act), signed by President Obama last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has lifted advertising restrictions for hedge funds and other kinds of private investment offerings as of 2013, allowing for direct solicitation to individual investors.     »

The National Futures Association (NFA) has taken an emergency enforcement action against Prodigy Asset Management (PAM), a commodity pool operator (CPO) and commodity trading advisor (CTA) located in New York City, and its principal Ezekiel Abdel Rahman. »

The National Futures Association’s board of directors has voted to accept the recommendations made by Berkeley Research Group (BRG) as part of its independent analysis of NFA's audits of Peregrine Financial Group. »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former executive at New York-based broker-dealer Jefferies & Co with defrauding investors while selling mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the wake of the financial crisis so he could generate additional revenue for his firm. »

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued an order granting a request made by Ice Clear Credit (ICC), a Commission-registered derivatives clearing organisation, permitting portfolio margining of swaps and security-based swaps in a cleared swaps customer account. »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a final judgment by default against investment adviser Gary J Martel, a resident of Chelsea, Massachusetts, in a case originally filed by the SEC in June 2012. »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has secured final judgments against hedge fund manager Chetan Kapur and his firm, ThinkStrategy Capital Management, ordering them to jointly and severally pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of USD3,988,196.59 and civil penalties in the amount of USD1m. »

In a recent speech before the Regulatory Compliance Association, Bruce Karpati, chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division’s asset management unit, suggested where the SEC may be heading regarding hedge fund oversight in the months to come. »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Santa Monica-based hedge fund manager and his investment advisory firm with conducting a "cherry-picking" scheme by steering winning trades to their own trading accounts and favoured clients to the detriment of certain hedge fund investors. »