CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo announced the senior staff appointments of Jason Goggins and Marcia Blase. Jason Goggins will serve as Chief of Staff to Commissioner Giancarlo, and Marcia Blase will serve as Senior Counsel. See: Press Release.

SEC Division of Investment Management Director Norm Champ delivered the keynote address at the 15th Annual Practising Law Institute Private Equity Forum. In his speech, Director Champ discussed alternative mutual funds (those that invest in alternative strategies, such as long/short, and those that invest in alternative assets such as currency or illiquid assets such as private debt) and their potential risks and benefits. He also discussed new developments within the SEC regarding alternative mutual funds. According to Director Champ, the use of alternative investment strategies by open-end

The SEC Division of Corporation Finance ("the Division") issued a no-action letter concerning the Oshkosh Corporation's request to reorganize its operations to form a holding company structure in which Oshkosh will become a wholly owned subsidiary of a new holding company ("Holdco"). Among other things, the Division stated that it would not object if Holdco, as successor to Oshkosh, does not file new registration statements under the Securities Act for ongoing offerings of securities covered by the Oshkosh Registration Statements. This assessment assumes that Holdco adopts the Oshkosh

The SEC announced that former Noble CEO Mark A. Jackson and former Director and Division Manager of Noble's Nigeria subsidiary James J. Ruehlen, who remains an executive at the company, agreed to settle the SEC's pending civil actions against them. The SEC filed its complaint in February 2012, in which it alleged that Jackson and Ruehlen had authorized the payment of bribes to customs officials to process false paperwork purporting to show the export and re-import of oil rigs, when in fact the rigs never moved. To settle the action, Jackson consented to the entry of a final judgment enjoining

The SEC issued a report on the use of custom tag rates to describe elements in financial statements. The report is a response to a recent SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis assessment of the quality of XBRL exhibits submitted by issuers complying with the 2009 rule requirements to file financial statement information in XBRL format. The purpose of the assessment was to help define a baseline of filer behavior with respect to filers' tagging of financial statements in their electronic filings, including how their behavior has evolved following the completion of the full phase-in of