Blog

Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 10 out of 246 results

Diversification and UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Losses

(Dec 2013)

The 19 closed-end bond funds managed by UBS Puerto Rico listed in Table 1 lost $1.66 billion in the first 9 months of 2013. These funds were sold almost exclusively to citizens of Puerto Rico and approximately 70% of the portfolios of these funds were invested in Puerto Rican securities. The percentage losses over the past year range from 38% to 48% for the worst-performing UBS PR funds. These losses are substantially greater than Puerto Rican municipal bonds generally. The Standard and...

Diversificación y Pérdidas de los Fondos de Bonos de UBS Puerto Rico

(Dec 2013)

Los 19 fondos cerrados de bonos administrados por UBS Puerto Rico presentados en la Tabla 1 registraron pérdidas de $1.66 billones de dólares durante los primeros 9 meses del año 2013. Estos fondos fueron vendidos casi exclusivamente a ciudadanos de Puerto Rico y aproximadamente el 70% de las carteras de estos fondos se invirtieron en títulos Puertorriqueños. En el último año, las pérdidas de los fondos de UBS PR con peor desempeño fluctuaron entre un 38% y 48%. En general, estas pérdidas...

2013 SEC Enforcement Summary

(Dec 2013)

A couple months ago, we provided an analysis of SEC activity as represented by litigation releases. In that post, we commented on the breakdown of SEC litigation releases over time, aggregated by month and weekday. Recently, the SEC has released their enforcement statistics updated for the 2013 fiscal year.

All told, the SEC obtained monetary sanctions of more than $3.4 billion (including disgorgement and penalties) over the 2013 fiscal year. This number represents a nearly 11% increase year...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - December 27th, 2013

(Dec 2013)

SEC Charges Archer-Daniels-Midland Company with FCPA Violations
December 24, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22900)
According to the complaint, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company failed to "prevent illicit payments made by foreign subsidiaries to Ukrainian government officials." The SEC found that "ADM's subsidiaries in Germany and Ukraine paid $21 million in bribes" and ADM made "approximately $33 million in illegal profits as a result of the bribery by its subsidiaries." ADM has agreed to be...

Feliz Navidad de parte de UBS Asset Managers de Puerto Rico

(Dec 2013)

Anteriormente SLCG había publicado dos entradas sobre el colapso de los fondos UBS de bonos municipales de Puerto Rico incluyendo los fondos Puerto Rico Fixed Income Funds I y VI y Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Funds I y VI. Nuestra entrada del 7 de Octubre de 2013 titulada Peligro en la Isla del Encanto: Inversionistas de UBS Puerto Rico Sufren Cuantiosas Pérdidas, reportamos sobre las pérdidas en los fondos cerrados de bonos municipales administrados por UBS Asset Managers de Puerto Rico...

Merry Christmas from UBS Asset Managers of Puerto Rico

(Dec 2013)

SLCG previously posted two blog entries on the collapse of UBS's Puerto Rico municipal bond funds including the Puerto Rico Fixed Income Funds I to VI and Puerto Rico Investors Tax-Free Funds I to VI. Our October 7, 2013 post, Trouble in Paradise: UBS Puerto Rico Bond Fund Investors Hit Hard, reported on losses in closed end municipal bond funds managed by UBS Asset Managers of Puerto Rico and sold by UBS brokers in Puerto Rico. Then on December 18, 2013 in our Did UBS Charge its Proprietary...

Are Managed Futures a License to Steal?

(Dec 2013)

Bloomberg's David Evans raised this question in his recent Fleeced by Fees. David found that 89% of the futures trading profits and interest on collateral in 63 SEC-registered managed futures funds from 2003 to 2012 were consumed by fees and commissions. David's story shines a light on the abusive fees charged by the managed futures partnerships. His story quotes a spokesperson for the National Futures Association self-regulatory organization / trade group as saying that "We can't just give...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - December 20th, 2013

(Dec 2013)

SEC Charges Detroit Area Man and His Company with Conducting a Pump and Dump Scheme
December 18, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22892)
According to the complaint, "Randy A. Hamdan and a related entity, Oracle Consultants LLC,...carr[ied] out a pump-and-dump scheme in the securities of CompuSonics Video Corporation" that resulted in illicit proceeds of almost $30,000. The SEC has charged the defendants with violating the Securities Act and Exchange Act and seeks permanent injunctions,...

Self-Indexing in Commodity-Linked Investments - Citi CUBES

(Dec 2013)

Over the past few weeks and months, we've noticed a pattern in the products coming across our desks: structured investments linked to esoteric proprietary indexes, created by the same bank that issued the product. We touched on this topic a bit when we discussed self-indexing in the context of structured certificates of deposit, but we thought we'd revisit the issue with a few of the examples that we've been looking into more recently. The examples we'll discuss each reference a proprietary...

Did UBS Charge its Proprietary Puerto Rico Bond Funds Excessive Markups?

(Dec 2013)

UBS Puerto Rico's closed-end funds have received much attention in recent months. While the coverage has focused on the funds' leverage and concentration in Puerto Rican municipal bonds (see for example, New York Times and Bloomberg), discovery and further research into the funds is likely to reveal other important issues -excessive markups, for instance.

Investors, including mutual funds like the UBS Puerto Rico Funds, buy municipal bonds from dealers who typically charge a markup over the...

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