The SEC announced that it obtained an asset freeze against an issuer of an EB-5 program investment offering. The issuer is accused of defrauding Chinese investors who sought to attain U.S. residency by investing in his companies through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program. Lofchie Comment: Any firm that touches an EB-5 program should treat it as a high risk. A disproportionate number of fraud violations have occurred in connection with EB-5 programs and the regulators have signaled that they are paying close attention. S ee: Press Release.

The CFTC resolved charges of customer funds segregation violations of CEA of Section 4d(b) ("Dealing by unregistered futures, commission merchants or introducing broker prohibited; duties in handling customer receipts; rules to avoid duplicative regulations") against a trading firm's former vice president for the "misuse" of $562 million in commodity customer-segregated funds. The CFTC stated that the permanent injunction stemmed from a previous CFTC complaint charging that the accused individual had (i) "improperly commingled and misappropriated customer funds to finance its proprietary

FINRA censured and fined a broker-dealer $2 million for net capital deficiencies and related supervisory failures. The net capital deficiencies were the result of failures in communication between risk functions within a firm. The deficiencies occurred on three separate dates in 2014 and ranged from $287 million to $775 million. FINRA found that on three occasions between May 15 and July 1, 2014, the broker-dealer was net-capital-deficient by up to $775 million. FINRA stated that these deficiencies arose "because on each of those dates, the firm had inflows of cash that exceeded the amounts it

The SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations ("OCIE") examined ten branch offices of registered broker-dealers and found "significant deficiencies" in the supervision and control of structured securities products ("SSPs"). The SSPs were issued by affiliates in some cases and unaffiliated third parties in others. The OCIE stated that it "assessed these firms' compliance with suitability and supervision requirements in the Securities Exchange Act" and "evaluated whether the firms effectively supervised and monitored activities and risks associated with sales of SSPs to retail

In an article, titled "Bank Investment Securizations: The New Regulatory Landscape in Brief," the FDIC summarizes Dodd Frank Act requirements for securization investment. The article was published in the new Summer 2015 issue of the FDIC journal Supervisory Insights. The article summarizes the potential effects on capital, and explains how the investment decision process can be structured to help banks comply with these requirementss. See: Supervisory Insights, Vol. 12, No. 1. Related news: FRB and FDIC Provide Joint Feedback on Non-Banks' Resolution Plans (July 28, 2015) ; FRB and FDIC