Break from the Grind May 21, 2015

A Little Friday File Fun

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In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, incumbent Councilwoman Barbara Daly Danko defeated her opponent, Caroline Mitchell, 5,575 to 4,015, for a seat on the Allegheny County Council. However, Daly Danko died from cancer May 6. “It was a sympathy vote for Daly Danko,” said Nancy Mills, chair of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, according to Reuters. Jared Barker, the county council’s chief clerk and director of legislative services, said the council is expected to appoint someone in the next month to fill Daly Danko’s seat until November, when voters will pick someone to fill the remainder of her term.

In Sarasota, Florida, a woman awoke one morning to find a strange man asleep on the couch in her living room. She asked what he was doing there and threatened to call police. The man apologized and left. According to the Associated Press, the woman then noticed her wallet, driver’s license, credit and debit cards and some checks were missing from a table in the living room. She called police, who were able to arrest the man a short time later.

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In Camas, Washington, police were called to a lake when someone saw an SUV cruising around with a large tiger on its roof. When an officer arrived, he found the tiger was stuffed. The driver said he saw another car dump some trash and the tiger and thought it would be a fun joke to put it on the roof of his car. According to the Associated Press, the driver said he and the officer traded jokes and photos and the officer left.

In Levittown, Pennsylvania, a man and his wife were holding a Sweet 16 birthday party for his stepdaughter with about 40 guests. He said the party was ruined when apparent human waste fell from the sky. “Out of nowhere, from the sky, comes a bunch of fe.ces, lands on her,” the man told WTXF-TV. A canopy was the main target of the dump, but it landed on the birthday girl and some guests. The birthday girl’s sister used a smartphone app to discover there were three airplanes in the sky near the party at the time of the incident, according to UPI. The Federal Aviation Administration said the incident is being investigated.

Remember phone booths? This will make you feel old.

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An excessive popcorn popper.

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How to prevent running-shoe blisters, or ‘what the extra hole in your sneakers is for.’

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Compliance May 21, 2015

Advisers Charged with Defrauding Atlanta Pension Funds

The agency says an advisory firm steered the funds to investments that did not comply with state law.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced fraud charges against an Atlanta-based investment advisory firm and two executives accused of selling unsuitable investments to pension funds for the city’s police and firefighters, transit workers and other employees.

The SEC’s Enforcement Division alleges that Gray Financial Group, its founder and president Laurence O. Gray, and its co-CEO Robert C. Hubbard IV breached their fiduciary duty by steering these public pension fund clients to invest in an alternative investment fund offered by the firm, despite knowing the investments did not comply with state law. Georgia law allows most public pension funds in the state to purchase alternative investment funds, but the investments are subject to certain restrictions that Gray Financial Group’s fund allegedly failed to meet.

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In an order instituting an administrative proceeding, the SEC’s Enforcement Division alleges that Gray Financial Group has collected more than $1.7 million in fees from the pension fund clients as a result of the improper investments.

According to the order, Gray Financial Group recommended investments in its fund called GrayCo Alternative Partners II LP to the city of Atlanta’s Firefighters’ Pension Fund, General Employees’ Pension Fund, and Police Officers’ Pension Fund, as well as the MARTA/ATU Local 732 Employees Retirement Plan.

The SEC alleges the investments violated Georgia law in the following ways:

  • A Georgia public pension fund’s investment is limited to no more than 20% of the capital in an alternative fund. Two of the pension funds’ investments surpassed that limit.
  • The law requires at least four other investors in an alternative fund at the time of a Georgia public pension fund’s investment. There were fewer than four other investors in GrayCo Alternative Partners II LP at the time of these investments.
  • There must be at least $100 million in assets in an alternative fund at the time a Georgia public pension fund invests. GrayCo Alternative Partners II LP has never reached that amount.

The SEC’s Enforcement Division further alleges that Gray Financial Group and Gray made material misrepresentations to at least one client when asked specifically about the investments’ compliance with the law. They also misrepresented the number and identity of prior investors in the fund.

The matter will be scheduled for a public hearing before an administrative law judge for proceedings to adjudicate the Enforcement Division’s allegations and determine what, if any, remedial actions are appropriate.

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