The SEC announced that it will not recommend enforcement action against TACT Asset Management Inc. ("TACT") under Section 203(a) of the Advisers Act if TACT does not register with the Commission as an investment adviser under the Advisers Act. TACT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management Co., Ltd. ("SJNAM"), and its only client was to be be Nipponkoa Insurance Co., Ltd. ("Nipponkoa"). Section 203(b)(2) of the Advisers Act exempts from registration any adviser whose only clients are insurance companies. The argument made in the incoming letter was that, even

The CFTC announced that Judge Leonard D. Wexler of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a default judgment and permanent injunction order against defendant Nicholas Cosmo for defrauding investors of tens of millions of dollars in a commodity futures trading scheme. The court's order finds that Cosmo engaged in a fraudulent scheme in which tens of millions of dollars were solicited from investors to invest in bridge loans and merchant advances. Instead, Cosmo used investors' funds, in part, to engage in unauthorized commodity futures trading that resulted in tens

Rule 900 of the Commission's Rules of Practice (17 CFR 201.900) requires the Commission's Secretary to issue a six-month status report on the Commission's administrative proceedings caseload. The report identifies the number of matters pending before the administrative law judges and the Commission at the beginning of the six-month period; the number of matters instituted, filed, and disposed of during the period; and the number pending at the end of the period. For each category of decision, the report shows the median age of the matters at the time of decision and the number of matters

New rules and rule proposals from CME and NYSE Arca. Click on the links to view the SEC notices for each rule change and proposal. CME: Proposed Rule - Change Regarding the Valuation of Securities on Deposit NYSE Arca: Proposed Rule - Change to List and Trade Units of the Sprott Physical Platinum and Palladium Trust Pursuant to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.201 NYSE Arca: Proposed Rule - Change Amending the NYSE Arca Options Fee Schedule to Change the Monthly Cost for Options Trading Permits

The SEC filed an insider trading civil action against an employee who traded on the basis of information, gained during his employment, that the store's sales were "performing better than planned (although not as well as the previous year on a comparable-store-sales basis)". Lofchie Comment: Why did the SEC put in the parenthetical about sales being down on a comparable-store basis? Perhaps to show that the news received by the employee was not uniformly positive and thus the fact that the employee had to exercise judgment as to whether the news was, on the whole, good or bad did not prevent