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

Displaying 91-100 out of 432 results for "Mutual Fund".

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - March 28th, 2014

(Mar 2014)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

SEC Obtains Order Enforcing Compliance with Order to Pay Over $5 Million in Disgorgement, Prejudgment Interest, and Civil Penalties
March 26, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22952)
An opinion and order were entered this week "directing Walter Gerasimowicz, Meditron Asset Management, LLC, and Meditron Management Group, LLC to comply with the SEC order requiring them to pay $3,143,029.41 in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest, and a civil penalty of...

BlueVault Partners' Non-Traded REIT Study: Even the Winners do Worse Than Traded REITs

(Mar 2014)

We have noted in our research and our posts that non-traded investments including non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), business development companies (BDCs), oil & gas and equipment leasing partnerships typically have extremely high upfront and ongoing fees. Because of these high costs, illiquidity, lack of transparency and conflicts of interest, these investments should underperform liquid, lower-cost traded investments with similar underlying exposures. For example, non-traded...

Enforcement Actions: Week in Review - March 21st, 2014

(Mar 2014)

SEC ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

Manager of Pre-IPO Investment Funds Settles Fraud Claims
March 20, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22949)
Frank Mazzola,brokerage firm Felix Investments, LLC, and investment adviserFacie Libre Management, Associates, LLC, have been charged with defrauding "investors in funds created to purchase shares of Facebook, Twitter, and other technology companies prior to their initial public offerings." According to the SEC, Mazzola and Felix Investments "arranged to be...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 14th, 2014

(Mar 2014)

SEC Files Subpoena Enforcement Action Against Charles Riel III for Failure to Produce Documents and Appear for Testimony in Investigation of Reinvest LLC Securities
March 14, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22943)
The SEC has filed a subpoena enforcement action against Charles Riel III a/k/a Chuck Riel and REinvest LLC. The SEC previously served Riel and REinvest "with document subpoenas in January 2014" and a subpoena for Riel to "appear for sworn testimony in February 2014." According to the...

Municipal Bond Markups are Still Excessive

(Mar 2014)

Monday's Wall Street Journal article, Muni Bond Costs Hit Investors in Wallet: Investors Pay Twice as Much for Municipal Debt as for Corporate Bonds, points out yet again that investors pay far more to buy and sell municipal bonds than they pay to buy and sell similar quantities of corporate bonds or common stocks. The article cites a recent S&P study that finds investors buying a $100,000 municipal bond pays an average spread of 1.73% or $1,730 - twice as much as the 0.87% average spread...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - March 7th, 2014

(Mar 2014)

SEC Obtains Summary Judgment Win On Liability Against All Defendants in a Penny Stock Fraud Case
March 5, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22936)
A summary judgment was entered against StratoComm Corporation, its CEO, Roger D. Shearer, and its former Director of Investor Relations, Craig Danzig, for issuing and distributing "public statements falsely portraying the penny stock company as actively engaged in the manufacture and sale of telecommunications systems for use in underdeveloped...

Risk and Return in UBS's Willow Fund

(Mar 2014)

In four blog posts we have detailed the fall of UBS's Willow Fund. See Credit Default Swaps on Steroids: UBS's Willow Fund, Willow Fund's Hedging, Investing and Speculating in Distressed Debt With Credit Default Swaps, Further Reckoning of UBS Willow Fund's CDS Losses and UBS Intentionally Misled Willow Fund Investors About its Troubled CDS Portfolio.

The spectacular collapse of the Willow Fund was not the result of general market conditions operating on the Fund's disclosed investment...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - February 28th, 2014

(Feb 2014)

SEC Settles Claims Against Attorney Retained by Funds Involved in Fraudulent Investment Scheme
February 27, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22934)
A final judgment was entered against attorney Robert Custis for his involvement in a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Yusaf Jawed through companies Grifphon Asset Management, LLC and Grifphon Holdings, LLC. Custis agreed to the final judgment which permanently enjoins him from future violations of the securities laws and prohibits him from appearing or...

UBS Intentionally Misled Willow Fund Investors About its Troubled CDS Portfolio

(Feb 2014)

In three blog posts we explained how the UBS Willow Fund's decision to make a large, highly-leveraged short bet on credit risk contrary to its repeated SEC disclosures caused investors to lose over $200 million between 2007 and 2012 . See Credit Default Swaps on Steroids: UBS's Willow Fund, Willow Fund's Hedging, Investing and Speculating in Distressed Debt With Credit Default Swaps and Further Reckoning of UBS Willow Fund's CDS Losses.

As we demonstrated in our earlier blog posts, the second...

Structured Product Based Variable Annuites are Riskier Than Advertised

(Feb 2014)

My colleagues and I have a paper in the current (Winter 2014) Journal of Retirement about structured product based variable annuities (spVAs), which are variable annuities with index-linked accounts that have a payoff similar to structured products. We have been following the market for spVAs since they were first introduced in 2010, and distributed our first working paper in 2011. Since then, three issuers have sold more than $3 billion worth of spVAs, according to a recent article in...

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