Misleading Investors Leads to Serious Consequences: How Former Executives Can Still Be Held Accountable

Working for an investment firm, you want people to take their hard-earned money and just throw it away, right? Of course not. But that’s essentially what’s happening when companies mislead their investors. Getting investments under false pretenses is unfair and fraudulent. Companies that participate in this kind of fraud need to be held accountable for …

Ensuring Compliance: Unregistered Offers and Sales of Security-Based Swaps Is a Growing SEC Concern

The SEC is continuously monitoring different transaction types to make sure they are following rules and regulations. One thing that has caught the SEC’s eye lately involves security-based swaps. Because security-based swaps are based on a security such as a stock or bond, or a credit default swap, they are subject to different rules and …

Misusing Cash and Putting Customer Securities at Risk: Taking A Deeper Look at Fraud Taking Place on Wall Street

When investors put their money in the hands of Wall Street, they should be able to do so with the understanding that they’re doing so in a transparent, trustworthy manner. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Broker-dealers sometimes misuse cash or fail to disclose complete and important information, putting customer securities at risk. It’s important to …

Tips for Mitigating FCPA Risks After a Record Year of Corporate Fines & Penalties

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was enacted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to serve a few key anti-bribery and accounting purposes. Most notably, the FCPA prohibits U.S. persons and businesses (or foreign public companies that are listed on the U.S. stock exchange or subject to the …

From Compliance Failures to Abuse of Power: Common Fraud that Takes Place in Hedge Funds and Beyond

Hedge funds are complex in nature and can take on a high level of risk. Paired with the large sums of money being handled and investors’ net worth, hedge funds become prime breeding grounds for fraud. While this is not to say that all hedge funds are fraudulent, there is, unfortunately, a high rate of …