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’Editorialising, SEC-style
Maybe we are making too much of this, but when the SEC is on its 30th or so figurative lynching related to the Galleon rat case, does it really need to juice up its press releases in the hope of a tabloid pickup?
From the SEC IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From the actual SEC complain,
American swap regulation: a class apart
Take a moment to imagine what it must be like to be an American regulator. There are plenty to imagine being: the OCC, the Fed, the CFTC, SEC, FDIC, and that thrift one, until it subsumed into the OCC. Got one?
So there you are,
Bighead leaves SEC
Extract:
While I will miss doing this important work, I am gratified knowing that nearly every aspect of the SEC has been significantly improved in the four years since I was named Inspector General.
Full quote from departing inspector general H.
All Know Holdings vs SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission Civil Action No 11 CV 8605.
Presented without comment, obv.
SEC FREEZES ASSETS OF FOUR CHINESE CITIZENS CHARGED WITH INSIDER TRADING
On December 5, 2011, the Securities
[Something for the weekend] Don’t offer this man a Rakoff
Jed Rakoff is quite the hero. A New York District judge, he has done what the rest of us would love to do, and busted a cosy deal between bankers and their regulators. In early 2007, just when everything was starting to slide,
The Buffett rule
How do you buy $10b.7n worth of stock in a big blue chip like IBM without alerting the market?
The WSJ’s Deal Journal has one answer. You cut a deal with the SEC:
Check out the footnote to Buffett’s latest disclosures of his investment holdings released by the SEC:
“The protection of its customers’ funds is MF Global’s paramount concern”
MF Global used client money to trade from its own accounts in violation of government rules, reports the AP citing a “federal official”.
The discovery of a reported $700m hole in MF Global client accounts
SEC takes another crack at Gupta (and Rajaratnam)
The newly released SEC and FBI complaints against Rajat Gupta detail the alleged evidence of insider trading by the ex-McKinsey boss.
As the FT suggested Wednesday morning, Buffett’s investment in Goldman Sachs forms a key part of both cases,
SAC Capital referred for “unusually prescient” trades
The WSJ has got its hands on a list of the 18 “well-timed” SAC Capital trades referred by Finra or its predecessor NASD to the SEC between 2002 and 2011:
Finra, though, “described SAC’s history of well-timed trades as unusually prescient and particularly profitable”,
Citi, Credit Suisse settle SEC CDO probe
Sums involved: $285m for Citigroup, $2.5m for Credit Suisse.
From the SEC release:
Washington, D.C., Oct. 19, 2011 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Citigroup’s principal U.S.
NYSE Euronext’s bizarre internalisation U-turn
US market structure watchers may have noticed something very interesting occur this week.
On Oct 12, the NYSE Euronext filed a proposal to the SEC to create a new “Retail Liquidity Pilot Progam”. According to Joe Saluzzi at Themis Trading,
Grassley to SEC: try ducking me this time
Matt Taibbi’s latest piece in Rolling Stone – Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes? – has a lawmaker scrambling to get an answer to the question, and you get no points for guessing which one (flashes from Bloomberg):
Kids, can you count to 15 Enrons?
Fresh out of the SEC on Wednesday morning, a depressing allegation of fraud that hints at the absurdity of the working definition of “fiduciary duty” when it comes to municipalities.
In a complaint filed in federal court in Milwaukee,
The good, the bad, and the ugly, News Corp edition
You’ve heard of good banks, bad banks, and toxic assets.
What about a good, bad and a toxic News Corporation?
Nomura has a note on Monday that splits News Corp into three companies with distinct revenue and earnings profiles.
A secret Magnetar management deal?
Somewhat lost amongst the JPMorgan/Magnetar news on Tuesday, was a name.
Edward Steffelin.
Steffelin, the SEC says, was in charge of the team at GSCP that helped select the investment portfolio for the Squared 2007-1 synthetic CDO — parts of which were infamously shorted by hedge fund Magnetar.
JPM to pay $153m to settle Magnetar-related charges
Courtesy of the SEC, if you’re not the reading kind…
And if you are…
… the allegations:
Washington, D.C., June 21, 2011 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that J.P.
SEC to investors re Chinese reverse mergers: don’t be stoopid
Randolph: “I just received a hot tip about this Chinese reverse merger company. I think we should invest.”
Mortimer: “But did you ask this hot tipper about his motives? Maybe we should do our own research instead of relying on what somebody has told us.”
Nasvan…
…couver.
This can’t end well. Nasdaq recently got the regulatory green light from the SEC to launch its new BX Venture Market.
The idea here is that BX will serve as a new listing alternative for early stage and smaller companies – bringing the gap between the over-the counter market and Nasdaq.
[Galleon] Raj Rajaratnam: guilty of all charges
After a deliberation length that would make Henry Fonda blush, Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty on all 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud. Bernie could now have a cell mate.
From the FT,
Are you an insider trader?
That’s a question Reuters’ Matthew Goldstein asks in a special report published Wednesday on how the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is helping the SEC investigate white collar crime.
From the report:
The trouble with defining insider trading
Jonathan Macey, a law professor at Yale University, has an op-ed in Tuesday’s WSJ arguing that the SEC’s definition of insider trading is too strict and at odds with Supreme Court precedent. (Hat tip Stacy Marie-Ishmael.)
Using the ongoing Galleon case as an example,
Second thoughts on secondary markets [updated]
The WSJ on Friday reports that the SEC is looking to relax the regulations on share issuances by private companies. These attracted widespread attention following Goldman’s botched effort to set up a special purpose vehicle to purchase Facebook stock.
Agency shutdown slowdown
Looks like the SEC and CFTC will be on skeleton crew if the government shuts down, according to their contingency plans.
First the CFTC:
Of the 675 employees, 25 have been identified as excepted from the restrictions of the Antideficiency Act,
Further further reading
For the commute home, or while worrying about what Friday may bring,
- ‘What if the stock market was a bond?’
- One hundred ways to reduce the federal deficit.
- A good, basic summary of Saudi Arabia’s importance.
Death bonds’ unique risks
Victoria’s the Age newspaper on Wednesday published an interesting investigation into a bad life settlements investment by the Australian state’s quasi-SWF.
It alleges that it uncovered:
details of a new $500 million loss that was only entered in the corporation’s accounts at the end of last year and the mistakes that led to that loss – the lack of due diligence,
More for less, regulatory edition
A late (for Congress) night on Thursday left the Obama administration’s budget request for the SEC in tatters. According to Politico’s David Rogers:
Democrats failed to restore $131 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Regulators and hedge funds in muniland
From the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday, a little bit more light for all those new investors in the metamorphosising municipal bond market:
For new issues of securities beginning February 14,
SEC charges IndyMac execs with securities fraud
Is Chuck Schumer a happy man tonight?
The SEC on Friday charged three former IndyMac executives with securities fraud. The regulator accuses former CEO Michael Perry and former CFOs Scott Keys and Blair Abernathy with deliberately misleading investors about the mortgage lender’s worsening capital and liquidity conditions in the run-up to its collapse in July 2008.
SEC probes ‘ETF-stripping’ by insider traders — FT
From the FT’s Kara Scannell on Thursday morning:
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Wall Street traders are using exchange-traded funds as a means of disguising insider trading.