No Happy Trails For Victorville Tax Increment Bond Financing
For more than thirty years, I’ve driven by, but never stopped at, the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California. The museum eventually relocated to Missouri but reportedly did not survive for long. Despite this notable defection, Victorville has grown remarkably in the last three decades. Unfortunately, it now finds itself accused of a variety of securities law Read more...
Corporate Political Spending And Other Studies
Yesterday, Broc Romanek wrote this post about a new study from the Center for Political Accountability and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. This study focused on the political spending disclosure behavior of the top 200 companies in the S&P 500 Index. Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk has recently produced an advocacy paper making Read more...
Supreme Court Fails To Bite At Bulldog And Oxfam America Sues The SEC
Supreme Court says “no” to Bulldog In March, I wrote that the Bulldog group of funds had asked the United States Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of Massachusetts’ ban general solicitations in connection with the offer and sale of unregistered securities. Despite representation by Harvard Law School Professor Laurence H. Tribe and an amicus brief from the Cato Institute, Read more...
The California Constitution, The FACA And The SEC’s New Investor Advisory Committee
Last month the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the formation of a new Investor Advisory Committee. Section 911 of the Dodd-Frank Act created the committee to advise the SEC on: regulatory priorities, regulation of securities products, trading strategies, fee structures, the effectiveness of disclosure, and on initiatives to protect investor interests and to promote investor confidence and the integrity of the Read more...
Waiting For The SEC . . .
Do deadlines really matter? The answer is - ”it depends”. At the Civil War military prison at Camp Sumter near Andersonville, Georgia, the “dead line” clearly mattered – as reflected in the Secretary of War’s report of the post bellum trial of the camp’s commander, Heinrich “Henry” Wirz: And he, the said Wirz, still wickedly pursuing his evil purpose, did establish and cause to be designated within Read more...
SEC Marks The Ides By Bringing Actions Involving Secondary Market For Private Company Shares
Nearly two years ago, I began writing about some of the issues related to secondary trading in private company shares. Yesterday (Prid. Id. Mart.), the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had taken action against several firms and individuals related to activities involving secondary trading of private company shares. In this Litigation Release, the SEC announced its filing of a civil Read more...
They May Be At The Gate, But Lawyers Are Not Gatekeepers
In the sixth century BCE, the king of Clusium (a city in Tuscany) attacked Rome. A one-eyed junior officer, Publius Horatius Cocles, took up the task of defending a key bridge, the Pons Sublicius, when his more senior officers were casting about in confusion. Centuries later, the English historian, politician and poet Thomas Babington MaCaulay immortalized Horatius’ valiant actions in his Lays of Ancient Rome: Read more...
New U.S. Exchange – “It’s Better Than A Magic Lantern Show”
What’s the third largest securities exchange operator in the United States and where is it located? The answers may surprise you. The exchange operator is called BATS and it is based outside of Kansas City. BATS is derived from an initialization of Better Alternative Trading System. What Next! What Next? BATS was formed less than a decade ago as an alternative to the NYSE and Read more...
How Long Is The SEC Required To Keep Your Form 4?
Earlier this year, I tried to figure out the rules applicable to record retention at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here is what I’ve learned: The Federal Records Act of 1950, codified at 44 U.S.C. ch. 31, establishes the framework for records management programs for the SEC and other federal agencies. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is responsible Read more...
Political Spending Disclosure – Interest Does Not Equal Majority Support
Last week, a group of ten eminent academics filed this petition asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to develop rules requiring public companies to disclose to shareholders the use of corporate resources for political activities. I believe that this is the wrong time for the SEC to be wading into these waters. Briefly, my reasons are as follows: The burden Read more...
