Tag: crypto

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The Walden Pond

The Walden Pond: Responsible Innovation in Crypto and Compliance


Malcolm Wright is the founder of InnoFi Advisory. As a former Chief Compliance Officer at a large cryptocurrency exchange, Malcolm now advises companies on ensuring responsible innovation in digital finance. All companies, and their compliance officers, need to be familiar with cryptocurrencies and the trend towards decentralized finance. Malcolm describes how current compliance concepts such as “Compliance by Design” and “Know Your Customer (KYC)” are still applicable in the crypto space and gives practical advice to legal and compliance professionals on how to navigate in the crypto future. 

The year 2021 brought with it an explosion of different non-fungible tokens (NFTs) used for funding projects of all shapes and sizes, which often happens in decentralized finance where the whole ecosystem is run by smart contracts – automated contracts driven by code. Having an NFT is basically a digital certificate of provenance. The emergence of these NFTs and their uses has heralded the creator economy, and will revolutionize the way culture, finance, and our societies work.
For the last few years in crypto, there has been significant focus on centralized exchanges and custodians, but recently focus has shifted towards other areas of risk. At InnoFi, they consider how risks can present themselves not only from an anti-money-laundering perspective, but also a consumer protection perspective. 
Resources
Malcolm Wright on LinkedIn
To learn more, and contact Vincent Walden, please visit Alvarez and Marsal

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Daily Compliance News

January 15, 2022 the End of Sick Days Edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • College degrees and hiring. (NYT)
  • Halbank prosecution put on hold. (Reuters)
  • End of the sick day. (WSJ)
  • Who is responsible when crypto goes bad? (WSJ)
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Everything Compliance

Episode 92 – the Issues in 2022 Edition


Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. The entire gang was also thrilled to be honored by W3 as a top talk show in podcasting. In this episode, we have the sextet of Karen Woody, Jonathan Armstrong, Matt Kelly and Jay Rosen. We discuss some of the key issues we will be watching in 2022.

1. Karen Woody will be watching the legal evolution around SPACs and expansion of insider trading laws. Karen shouts out to workers in the travel industry for getting travelers home during the holidays.

2. Jay Rosen reviews the considers the Holmes verdict, Tyler Schultz/whistleblowers and the celebrity BOD failure at Theranos. Rosen shouts out to Antonio Brown.

3. Matt Kelly considers the Log4j cybersecurity threat and the SEC move to regulate ESG. Kelly rants about Elon Musk selling his Tesla stock immediately before the company announces a massive product recall.

4. Jonathan Armstrong tackles several topics; ransomware, Safe Harbor, EU Whistleblower Directive, Supply Chain & China. Armstrong shouts out Nicholas Burk and synthetic ransomware attacks.

5. Jonathan Marks looks at the intersection of crypto, currency and crime. Marks rants about the inconsistent information emanating from the CDC.

6. Tom Fox rants about Novak Djokovic.  

The members of the Everything Compliance are:
•       Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
•       Karen Woody – One of the top academic experts on the SEC. Woody can be reached at kwoody@wlu.edu
•       Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
•       Jonathan Armstrong –is our UK colleague, who is an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at jonathan.armstrong@corderycompliance.com
•       Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at jonathan.marks@bakertilly.com
The host and producer, ranter (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox the Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

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Daily Compliance News

January 8, 2022 the Crypto Crime Edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Crypto crime hit $14bn in 2021. (WSJ)
  • Portuguese corruption erodes trust in government. (FT)
  • MACC under fire for corruption. (This Week in Asia)
  • Roger Ng trial set for February. (Reuters)
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Compliance Kitchen

EU Council on Crypto Asset Transfer


The Kitchen looks at a new EU Council on transparency of crypto-asset transfers.

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Everything Compliance

Episode 90, the Happy Holidays Edition


Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. The entire gang was also thrilled to be honored by W3 as a top talk show in podcasting. In this episode, we have the quartet of Karen Woody, Jonathan Armstrong, Matt Kelly and Jay Rosen. We end with a veritable mélange of shouts outs and rants.

1. Karen Woody looks at a recent panel of two consisting of the current and most recent chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler and Jay Clayton respectively. Karen shouts out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

2. Jay Rosen considers telemedicine and telehealth coming out of the pandemic. Rosen rants about Tampa Bay receiver Antonio Brown who misrepresented his vaccination status by presenting a fraudulent shot card to the Bucs.

3. Matt Kelly looks at recent imbroglios involving SPACs, their inherent conflicts of interest and corporate governance issues. Kelly has a Shout Out to the Women’s Tennis Association for their pulling their tennis tournaments out of China in the wake of the Chinese government’s treatment of Peng Shuai after she raised issues of sexual harassment against a high-ranking Party member.

4. Jonathan Armstrong takes look at a recent UK data privacy enforcement action against the UK government due to the release of Personal Identifiable Information. Armstrong shouts out to the EU Public Prosecutors Office.

5. Tom Fox has his first dual rant/shout out. He rants about MLB locking out the players, particularly the inanity of doing so during the offseason. He shouts out to Houston Chronicle sports columnist Brian Smith for editorializing that MLB should use this time to fix the game of baseball, instead of trying to simply save a few pennies.  

The members of the Everything Compliance are:
•       Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
•       Karen Woody – One of the top academic experts on the SEC. Woody can be reached at kwoody@wlu.edu
•       Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
•       Jonathan Armstrong –is our UK colleague, who is an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at jonathan.armstrong@corderycompliance.com
•       Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at jonathan.marks@bakertilly.com
The host and producer, ranter (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox the Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

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Daily Compliance News

December 9, 2021 the Crypto Goes to Congress Edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Why the Chinese failed to understand the Peng Shuai imbroglio. (NYT)
  • FATF says looks at illegal profits in climate change fight. (WSJ)
  • Crypto goes to Congress. (NYT)
  • EU looking into Microsoft/Nuance deal. (Reuters)
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Daily Compliance News

December 3, 2021 the Recidivists on Notice Edition

In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • DOJ reaffirms recidivists are on notice. (WSJ)
  • Didi de-listing in US. (Bloomberg)
  • Current and former SEC Chiefs trade tips on crypto. (NYT)
  • Did Purdue Pharmacy wrongly hide assets in bankruptcy? (Reuters)
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Coffee and Regs

Digital Assets: Trading & Compliance for Cryptocurrency

Digital Assets: Trading & Compliance for Cryptocurrency

In this episode, Director of Registered Investment Company Services, Allison Fraser and Director of Broker-Dealer Services & Private Funds, John Gentile discuss the latest on digital assets and cryptocurrency. Are they considered securities, what does the SEC’s risk alert mean for digital assets, and how should investment managers be thinking about cryptocurrency trading and compliance?

About Our Guest Speakers:


Allison Fraser provides compliance consulting services to investment advisers, registered investment companies and private investment funds, including conducting annual compliance program reviews and testing, developing risk assessments and preparing for SEC examinations. She also assists clients with drafting policies and procedures and preparing regulatory filings. On behalf of, the Compliance Services division of CSS, Allison served as the Chief Compliance Officer for a family of alternative funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Prior to joining CSS, Allison served as a Senior Vice President of Compliance at Northern Trust Investments, Inc. (“NTI”), the asset management subsidiary of The Northern Trust Company. In this capacity, she managed and administered the compliance due diligence program for NTI’s Multi-Manager Solutions and Outsourced Chief Investment Officer businesses. Allison also was the Chief Compliance Officer of two registered funds of hedge funds advised by NTI as well as a member of the funds’ Pricing and Disclosure Committees. Before joining NTI, Allison served as the Compliance Director for General Motors Asset Management, where she assisted with the administration of the compliance program for this registered investment adviser.
 

John Gentile is responsible for overseeing various types of broker-dealer and investment adviser consulting engagements, including conducting SEC/FINRA internal control reviews, anti-money laundering testing, written supervisory policy and procedures testing, and other consultation services. John is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on various compliance topics, including “Effective Supervision,” “Large Firm Testing,” FINRA Supervisory Control Rules” and “Anti Money Laundering Requirements for Broker Dealers under the PATRIOT Act.” In 1987 John joined the SEC as a Securities Compliance Examiner, becoming a Branch Chief in 1991. He became Assistant Regional Director in 1993, supervising a team of 20 broker-dealer managers and examiners. He also planned and conducted financial, operational, and sales practice examinations of the largest broker dealers and was among those responsible for a review of hedge funds’ impact on broker dealer internal controls. Before joining the SEC, John was a Financial Damage Analyst with PaineWebber Inc. Most recently from 2000-2007 John was an Executive Consultant, Broker-Dealer Services, at National Regulatory Services. John has an MBA from Fordham University and a BS in Finance from Central Connecticut State University. From 1995 to 2002, John was also a member of the Securities Industry Continuing Education East Coast Content Committee.
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Coffee and Regs

The Mood of Compliance

The Mood of Compliance

 

In this episode, CSS’s Executive Director, Jackie Hallihan and Senior Consultant, Adam DiPaolo discuss observations on the mood of compliance, with predictions of heavy regulatory activity, and key areas of focus including enforcement, ESG, cryptocurrency, whistleblowers and cybersecurity.

 

About Our Guest Speakers:

Jackie Hallihan is the Co-Executive Director of CSS’s Compliance Services team and has over 25 years’ regulatory and risk management experience. She was the founder of National Regulatory Services (NRS) which started the compliance resource business and served as its President for over 20 years. She also founded the National Society of Compliance Professionals (NSCP), a non-profit organization for compliance officers, staff and lawyers serving the compliance industry. It now boasts over 2000 memberships. Jackie has been a leading speaker to compliance professionals, including in-house training programs and various other industry association conferences, and has received numerous industry awards. Jackie also serves as Director, Clerk of the New England Broker Dealer Investment Adviser Association (NEBDIAA), a non-profit organization, incorporated in 1997. The purpose of NEBDIAA is to provide a forum for the professional exchange of information among investment advisers, broker dealers, and persons who provide services to investment advisers and broker dealers, and to direct communication among its members which will improve their ability to serve the needs of their respective clients. The forum will help NEBDIAA’s members meet the increased regulatory demands placed on investment advisers, broker dealers, and persons who provide services to investment advisers and broker-dealers.

 

Adam DiPaolo CISA, CRISC is a Section 13 Reporting Manager, Senior Consultant and Associate General Counsel at CSS. Adam designs practical solutions to manage regulatory challenges faced by hedge funds, private equity funds, funds of funds, and other investment advisers. In addition to providing compliance services such as annual compliance program reviews, risk assessments and acquisition due diligence, Adam established Section 13 reporting capabilities and EDGAR filing agent services for CSS’s Compliance Services division. He drafts and maintains corporate filings ranging from Forms ADV and PF to Forms 13F and 13H. Adam also provides cybersecurity risk management services to CSS clients – ranging from network vulnerability scanning to onsite cybersecurity risk assessments to assistance in implementing the NIST cybersecurity framework. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA®), and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC™). Adam practiced corporate law prior to joining CSS and has an extensive background in both the public and private sectors. Adam served as Assistant General Counsel at Capgemini – one of the world’s largest providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services. As in-house counsel to a global consulting business, he implemented pragmatic strategies to resolve complex legal and regulatory issues. Adam earned his B.A. from Pitzer College, his J.D. degree from UC Berkeley – Boalt Hall School of Law, and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law. He is a member of the New York State Bar.