Insights

A recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, In re Tribune Company Fraudulent Conveyance Litigation, has emphatically rejected a controversial workaround strategy used by plaintiffs in several pending fraudulent conveyance cases brought against shareholders of public companies, providing clarity regarding the scope of the “Safe Harbor” defenses of Bankruptcy Code section…

Client Alerts | March 31, 2016

Self-employment tax is imposed on individuals’ trade or business income. Net investment income tax (“NIIT”) generally applies to high-income individuals’ investment income. Both taxes generally apply to income earned directly or through flow-through entities, and for most fund managers are applied at a marginal rate of 3.8% (although the self-employment tax has a lower effective…

Client Alerts | February 10, 2016 | Hedge Funds

On January 11, 2016, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced its 2016 examination priorities for registered entities.[1] OCIE grouped the priorities into the same three general thematic areas as in 2015: protecting retail investors, assessing market-wide risks and using data analytics to identify potential…

Client Alerts | February 10, 2016 | Hedge Funds

A recent decision by New York Bankruptcy Judge Gerber has both raised the hopes of thousands of good faith shareholder defendants mired in long-running adversary proceedings and provided useful guidance to practitioners regarding the scope of “actual intent” fraudulent conveyance law. The cases, Weisfelner v. Fund 1, Weisfelner v. Reichman, and Weisfelner v. Hofmann, are…

Client Alerts | February 9, 2016

A Section 475(f) election might help ease the pain for taxable investors in a fund experiencing losses in 2016 or possibly where a fund has significant unrealized losses coming into 2016. Specifically, Section 475(f) provides that a trader in securities or commodities can make elections to “mark-to-market” their securities and/or commodities and treat increases or…

Client Alerts | February 8, 2016 | Securities and Corporate Finance | Hedge Funds

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently approved the National Futures Association’s (“NFA“) Interpretive Notice requiring NFA member firms to adopt and enforce written policies and procedures to secure customer data and access to their electronic systems (the “Guidance“).[1] The Guidance will become effective on March 1, 2016, and applies to all NFA membership categories, including…

Client Alerts | January 27, 2016 | Hedge Funds

On December 18, 2015, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (“PATH”), the permanent “extenders” legislation. Included among the provisions are many potentially significant changes affecting REITs and foreign investment in U.S. real property through REITs. This newsletter highlights a few of the provisions. REIT Spinoffs Disallowed The extenders bill would…

Client Alerts | December 21, 2015

The first insider trading case brought by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission concluded in a settlement this month. In The Matter of Arya Motazedi, the CFTC found that, over the course of nearly three months, Arya Motazedi arranged 46 fraudulent transactions across multiple trading accounts he controlled, accruing personal profits at his employer’s…

Client Alerts | December 17, 2015 | Hedge Funds

The Cayman Islands government just released new individual and entity self-certification forms, which were developed for purposes of compliance with U.S. FATCA, U.K. FATCA and the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”). Under U.S. FATCA and U.K. FATCA, Cayman funds are required to identify investors that are “specified U.S. persons” or “specified U.K. persons” and to report…

Client Alerts | December 16, 2015 | Hedge Funds

Introduction As another calendar year comes to a close, SEC-registered investment advisers once again will collect personal securities reports and certifications of compliance with their Codes of Ethics from their “access persons”[1]. Many advisers allow their access persons to take advantage of a reporting exception for accounts over which the access persons have no direct…

Client Alerts | December 14, 2015 | Hedge Funds