The Venture Alley - A blog about business and legal issues important to entrepreneurs, startups, venture capitalists and angel investors.

Article prepared by and republished courtesy of Perrie Weiner, Patrick Hunnius and Stephanie Smith of DLA Piper; originally published here http://www.dlapiper.com/sec-staff-preview-top-hedge-fund-enforcement-trends-for-2013/. In a recent speech before the Regulatory Compliance Association,1 Bruce Karpati, Chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit, suggested where the SEC may be heading regarding hedge fund oversight in the months to come.   Mr. Karpati both highlighted the SEC’s past enforcement activity concerning hedge funds (including several cases where the SEC alleged funds fraudulently overvalued their holdings) and signaled that the SEC’s emphasis on such activity will continue.  ... More

Article prepared by and republished courtesy of Evan Migdail of DLA Piper; originally published here http://www.dlapiper.com/congress-pulls-back-from-the-fiscal-cliff/. Following an unprecedented New Year's session, Congress has passed legislation, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, negotiated with President Barack Obama to partially prevent the US economy from going over the fiscal cliff.  You may read the full text of the bill here.   At a cost of US$4 trillion over ten years, the main provisions are as follows: The 2001 individual tax rates are made permanent, except that the highest rate, 39.6 percent, starts at US$450,000 in taxable income for married filing jointly, US$400,000 for... More

 CONTRIBUTED BY Andrew Ledbetter and Asher Bearman   New SEC rules regarding political contributions by certain investment advisers – dubbed the “Pay to Play” rules – become operative on March 14th.  These rules generally prohibit registered and certain unregistered advisers from engaging various political contribution practices with a quid-pro-quo element. **UPDATE**  Don't miss our newer post with some examples and guidance on dealing with the new rules, available here. This post addresses the scope of these new rules and which investment advisers are subject to the restrictions (hint - most of them).... More