Blog

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

Displaying 101-110 out of 128 results for "Muni Markup Week".

Private Equity Fund Advisers Charged with Misleading Investors about Valuation and Performance

(Mar 2013)

Earlier this week, the SEC charged Oppenheimer Asset Management (OAM) and Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management (OAIM) with misrepresenting the performance of the Oppenheimer Global Resource Private Equity Fund I L.P. (OGR) in their marketing materials. The SEC found that OGR's manager used his own valuation methodology to value the fund's largest investment, Cartesian Investors-A LLC ("Cartesian"), at a significant markup. This inflated valuation led to a ten-fold increase in OGR's...

SEC Charges the State of Illinois for Misleading Pension Disclosures

(Mar 2013)

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the State of Illinois with misleading municipal bond investors by making inaccurate or incomplete statements concerning their statutory plan to fund the state's pension obligations. In particular, the "SEC investigation revealed that Illinois failed to inform investors about the impact of problems with its pension funding schedule as the state offered and sold more than $2.2 billion worth of municipal bonds from 2005 to early...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 8th, 2013

(Mar 2013)

SEC Charges Robert Crane for Market Manipulation
March 7, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22636)
According to the complaint (opens to PDF), in 2010 Robert Crane manipulated the market of two penny stocks: Argentex Mining Corporation and ERHC Energy Inc. The complaint charges Crane with violating sections of the Securities Act and Exchange Act. A court order was entered against him that permanently enjoins him from future violations of those laws and also imposes a penny stock bar against...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 1st, 2013

(Mar 2013)

Defendant Adam S. Rosengard Settles SEC Charges in Penny Stock Manipulation Case
February 27, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22626)
A final judgment was entered this Monday against Adam S. Rosengard for his alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scheme. According to the SEC's original complaint, Pawel P. Dynkowski and other defendants manipulated the price of Xtreme Motorsports of California, Inc.'s stock through "wash sales, matched orders and other manipulative trading." Rosengard then...

SEC Issues Letter Regarding Structured Product Valuation Disclosures

(Feb 2013)

Bloomberg's Kevin Dugan is reporting that the SEC has issued a letter to issuers of structured products late last week that offers guidance for the disclosures of estimated value in offering documents. The SEC letter addresses the concerns we and others have shared over the potential mispricing of structured products, which can be and are sold to retail investors -- you can read through our research papers on the topic.

The letter confirms that the SEC will require--though it is not clear...

SEC Examination Priorities 2013

(Feb 2013)

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced their examination priorities for 2013 "to communicate with investors and registrants about areas that are perceived by the staff to have heightened risk, and to support the SEC's mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation."

For those that are unfamiliar, SEC staff conducts examinations of SEC registrants through their regional offices and headquarters

to determine...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 22nd, 2013

(Feb 2013)

SEC Charges Fund Manager in Scheme Involving Risky Mortgage-Related Investment
February 20, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22622)
According to the complaint, George Charles Cody Price "raised $18 million for three investment funds through his firm ABS Manager LLC" promising investors that their investments were "secured by government-backed bonds yielding extraordinary double-digit returns as high as 18 percent per year." In reality, Price was allegedly "investing in one the riskiest tranches...

Chinese Markets are Closed--So What Happens to China-based ETFs in the US?

(Feb 2013)

Happy Chinese New Year! Markets were closed in many Asian countries last week, while US markets remained open. As noted by several commentators, this means that while US ETFs that hold Chinese equities were actively traded, their underlying assets were not. So what does this mean for China-based ETFs traded in the US?

First, it's important to note how ETFs relate to their underlying assets. Essentially, ETF shares can be created by certain traders (called authorized participants) by buying...

Structured CDs: The Big Picture

(Feb 2013)

This week we have reviewed some of the issues surrounding structured certificates of deposit, giving an introduction, example offering documents (both simple and complex), the basics of FDIC insurance of these products, and a description of some of the tax implications investors should be aware of. We hope we have conveyed our reasons for thinking that structured CDs are complex and risky investments that, like structured products, are rarely suitable for retail investors.

But there is a...

Tax Consequences of Market-Linked CD Investing

(Feb 2013)

On this last day of structured CDs week here on the SLCG blog, we're going to discuss the tax consequences of investing in market-linked CDs (or structured CDs). We should probably start a blog post on taxes with a general disclaimer that we are not tax professionals and you should consult a tax professional or CPA before making an investment decision based upon tax consequences.

That being said, taxes are a pretty complicated issue for structured CDs. As mentioned earlier this week,...

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