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

Displaying 521-530 out of 692 results

SLCG Research: Dual Directional Structured Products

(May 2012)

Earlier this month, SLCG released a new research paper that values Dual Directional Structured Products (DDSPs). DDSPs are debt securities that feature payoffs very much like a long straddle position on the underlying asset for small price movements -- the investor realizes gains if the underlying asset increases or decreases in price (the origin of the term 'dual directional') within a certain range during the term of the note.

DDSPs differ from a conventional straddle position in a number...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 18th, 2012

(May 2012)

SEC Charges US Perpetrators in $35 Million International Boiler Room Scheme
May 16, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22370)
The SEC filed charges this week against Nicholas Louis Geranio, Keith Michael Field, The Good One, Inc. and Kaleidoscope Real Estate, Inc. for their roles in an international boiler room scheme which ran from April 2007 to October 2009 and raised approximately $35 million in proceeds. Geranio allegedly "organized eight U.S. Issuers, installed management (including Field),...

SEC Investigation into Largest Non-Traded REIT May Be A Sign of Things To Come

(May 2012)

As discussed in the financial press (see articles from InvestmentNews and Wall Street Journal) and the company's latest quarterly reports, Inland American Real Estate Trust is the subject of an ongoing SEC investigation. The SEC probe is determining whether the company incurred in any violations of the federal securities laws with regards to its fees, company organization structure, distributions paid to investors, and reported property impairments. Inland American is the largest non-traded...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 11th, 2012

(May 2012)

Georgia Doctor Consents to Order in Settlement of SEC Insider Trading Charges
May 10, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22364)
In a September 2010 complaint (Litigation Release No. 21644), the SEC alleged that Dr. Bobby V. Khan traded Sciele Pharma, Inc. (a Georgia-based pharmaceutical company) stock based upon material non-public information concerning a tender offer that was to be made by a Japanese company. Yesterday, the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia entered a consent...

The Small Price of Big Favors

(May 2012)

Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a press release announcing that it had filed a complaint alleging Detroit officials -- including former mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and former city treasurer Jeffrey W. Beasley -- influenced the city's pension fund investments to favor an advisor, MayfieldGentry Realty Advisors LLC, in exchange for personal gifts. This story illustrates an all too common occurrence in municipal finance. According to the SEC, Kilpatrick and Beasley...

Massachusetts Securities Regulators Fine RBC for Selling Unsuitable Leveraged and Inverse ETFs

(May 2012)

RBC Capital Markets has agreed to pay $2.9 million in restitution to Massachusetts investors related to the sale of unsuitable leveraged, inverse, and inverse-leveraged ETFs. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin, who has previously investigated Bank of America over warehousing of CLO assets, issued the complaint in July 2011, accusing RBC and its registered representative Michael D. Zukowski of selling these products "to clients who did not understand what these...

The "New" Non-Traded REITs Look a Lot Like the Old Ones

(May 2012)

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an article describing the "new versions" of non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), which purport to solve some of the transparency issues which have made non-traded REITs the subject of regulatory scrutiny. In particular, several non-traded REITs are now offering daily updated net asset values (NAV) in an attempt to calm concerns regarding the lack of transparency in the pricing of non-traded REITs.

However, a review of the prospectus for...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - May 4th, 2012

(May 2012)

SEC Charges Two Former Investor Seminar Salespeople with Securities Law Violations
May 1, 2012, (Litigation Release No. 22354)
This week, the SEC filed a settled civil injunctive action against Darlene Nelson Powell and Robert Eldridge -- independent contractors of Long Term-Short Term Inc. (BetterTrades) -- derived from allegations that the two made misrepresentations concerning their trading experience. As a result, legitimate investors purchased instructional courses and mentoring programs...

SLCG Research: Day-Count Conventions

(May 2012)

Earlier this month, SLCG finished a short research paper on the ubiquitous, but often overlooked, aspect of interest-bearing investments: day-count conventions. Day-count conventions (DCCs) refer to the various procedures used to compute the amount of time elapsed for the purposes of interest accrual. These conventions effect the payments we receive/pay on everything from mortgages to credit cards, from savings accounts to interest rate swaps.

Usually these conventions are written as a...

FINRA Issues Sanctions on Sellers of Leveraged and Inverse ETFs

(May 2012)

Today FINRA issued sanctions on four firms for selling leveraged and inverse exchange-traded products. The story has also been picked up by the New York Times [UPDATE: the Wall Street Journal too]. The offending firms, with links to their respective Letters of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent ('AWC's), were:

Wells Fargo Advisors
UBS Financial Services
Morgan Stanley & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets

These firms faced a total of $9.1 million in fines and restitution for sales occurring between January...

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