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

Displaying 61-70 out of 167 results for "Interest Rate Swaps".

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - January 10th, 2014

(Jan 2014)

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Diamond Foods, Inc.
January 9, 2014, (Litigation Release No. 22902)
According to the complaint, Diamond Foods, Inc. manipulated walnut costs to report "higher net income and inflated earnings to exceed analysts' estimates for fiscal quarters in 2010 and 2011." According to the complaint against Diamond's former CFO, Steven Neil, Neil "directed the effort to fraudulently underreport money paid to walnut growers." Diamond's former CEO, Michael Mendes, has...

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...

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...

SPIVA Scorecard: Persistent Lack of Persistence

(Dec 2013)

Earlier this week, S&P Dow Jones Indices released their semiannual SPIVA Persistence Scorecard, which assesses how consistent top performingactively managed US equity mutual funds have been. This is the third SPIVA release since our blog has been in existence and each time we bring attention to their work. Once again, their results suggest that mutual fund managers only rarely outperform for long.

This year the study found that roughly 7% of funds that were in the top 25% of actively managed...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - December 13th, 2013

(Dec 2013)

SEC Awarded $400,000 in Disgorgement from Certified Public Accountant for His Violations of Commission Suspension Order
December 12, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22887)
A court ruling was entered this week that requires Michael H. Taber to pay the government $400,000 "in compensation he received while suspended from appearing or practicing before the Commission as an accountant."

SEC Halts Texas-Based Oil and Gas Investment Scheme
December 6, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22886)
According to the...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - December 6th, 2013

(Dec 2013)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Massachusetts-Based Broker and Investment Adviser
December 5, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22885)
Final judgments were entered against Arnett L. Waters and two entities he controlled, "broker-dealer A.L. Waters Capital, LLC and investment adviser Moneta Management, LLC," for their alleged involvement in the "fraudulent sales of fictitious investment-related partnerships." The final judgment enjoins the defendants from future violations of the securities laws...

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