A cryptocurrency hedge-fund manager who lied about returns on his $90 million fund and siphoned money from its accounts to cover a lavish lifestyle was sentenced to 7½ years in prison Wednesday.
Stefan Qin, 24 years old, pleaded guilty in February to one count of securities fraud after prosecutors said he ran the fund, Virgil Sigma Fund LP, like a Ponzi scheme for three years until its implosion in late 2020. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said many of the more than 100 investors in the fund were scammed.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for 15½ to nearly 20 years in prison, but U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni said at a hearing Wednesday in federal court in New York that those recommendations were draconian.
Mr. Qin’s lawyers had asked for a two-year imprisonment, but Judge Caproni said she needed to give a sentence that dissuaded others from committing similar white-collar crimes. Mr. Qin “frittered away millions of dollars” and wiped out some victims’ savings, she said.
The San Antonio Chapter is providing significantly reduced scholarships to students to attend the IMA Texas Annual Conference on October 1 and 2, 2021. If you register for the conference as a student and would like to be a part of the scholarship opportunity, please email campusoutreach@sanantonio-ima.org to be put on the list as a student participant! There are only 6 scholarship slots left, so be sure to register as soon as possible—there are only 2 weeks until the conference!
Here are the details on how the scholarship works and how to register:
Sign up for the conference by choosing whichever picture aligns best with your chosen attendance by going to our conference website: https://sanantonioima.wixsite.com/imasa2021
You will be under the green Students section. There is no longer an age restriction!
After clicking on whichever date(s) you can attend you will be redirected to the registration site. Click the blue Register Now button on the website and make sure that you are registering for the right day(s)! If you are an IMA Member already, sign in with your account information. If you are new, click on the Register Now! green button in the New Users box to the right of your screen.
After registering, make sure you receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive one within a few days, please reach out and we can double check everything went through appropriately. Email campusoutreach@sanantonio-ima.org to be put on the list to receive the refund!
Attend the conference! Once you attend the conference as one of our student scholarship recipients, we will give you a check.
If you attend on only Friday – we will give you a check bringing your total cost down to only $30.
If you attend on only Saturday – we will give you a check bringing your total cost down to only $15.
If you attend on both days – we will give you a check bringing your total cost down to only $40.
If you would like to stay at the conference hotel – Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa:
IMPORTANT: email campusoutreach@sanantonio-ima.org once you register to claim a scholarship spot! There are only 6 remaining so be sure to register soon.
Classical music is in remission everywhere, the love of classical music has not passed onto the current generation. The irony of this to me is that the town spent $190 M re doing the Tobin Center but not a dime to make sure the symphony and ballet could perform there
I don't want to suggest a hopeless mission but volunteering to study the problem might be an interesting accounting project. My dissertation topic was fund raising and I have never had the opportunity to put it to use.
Might be an interesting way for a student group to show community involvement, and there might be a published paper potential
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ACCT 5308 Ethics will write a socionomic themed paper in our contest with Univ of Delaware and William and Mary.
Here are a few ideas for paper topics.
Frothy Valuations'
In Monday's WSJ Andy Kessler suggests the market is failing a breathalyzer test. Airbomb is worth more than Marriott.
Tesla is worth more than the five big auto companies. The list goes on and on, a classic example of FOMO Fear of Missing Out and there is
no other alternative for investing. This is typical group think at market tops, herding abounds.
A Dearth of Babies
Many economies have now fallen below the population replacement of 2.1 babies per family. This means populations are shrinking. the problem is especially acute in Japan and Russia, the latter down from 165 M in 1989 to maybe 135 M now. But nowhere is it as bad as Latvia and Lithuania, see page A 10 in today's journal. In rural Dagda, the high school is closed. There are no sit down restaurants. National population has fallen from 2.7 M in 1990 to 1.9M today, and most of the loss is younger people moving to Ireland and better paying locales. Demographic decline is near impossible to reverse, can it be down. Latvia disliked the influx of Russians during the Cold War, an attempt to make it more Russian. So they dislike the idea of the country being less Latvian.
China Open Your Books
SEC Chair Gensler calls on China to audit its auditors
SARBOX requires the PCAOB to examine the work of external auditors, annual reports are issued by the PCAOB. So far Chiina has refused an outside look at its auditors. Gensler is warning they will be kicked off US Exchanges unless they comply. Chinese accounting practices have been under suspicion for years. See Luckin. It is finally coming to a head. Does China think their strategy will work? HEre is a socio cultural clash to be sure.
A SPAC Public Company to Trade Private Companies
Page B 9
Forge Global trades private firm shares online. It is merging with an SPAC Motive Capital to beome pubic with a $2 B valuation .An SPAC is a Special Purpose Acquisition Company. SPACs raise money to buy something, except the investor does not know what. This sort of whimsy was first seen in the Tulipmania of 1636. Now it is back big time. Do investors even know what they are buying?
Reputations Wax and Wane in Bull and Bear Markets
I will outline the rise and fall of Bill Cosby measured against the Dow Jones Average, he and Steve Wynne are the two biggest surprises to me
A socio theme is that famous personalities often lose their luster in bear markets.
Market Scams
The Archegos Swiss Bank was conned by Bill Hwang – Goldman and Morgan got out first with minor damage, not Archegos
The Theranos scam is now on trial. Elizabeth Holmes fooled some of the high profile individuals in America as well as Walgreens, now she claims an abuse defense blaming an ex boyfriend for her lack of judgment. This can be compared to tulipmania, south sea bubble, dot.com, sub prime mtge
Skyscraper Theory
Big projects are planned amid market highs, then in the downside of the project the project opens to a terrible market
In 1928 the iconic Tower Life Building was to be the first of a complex of offices, shops, and apartment/condo living.
The Majestic Theater was the largest in Texas, an atmospheric theater.
Both openned in the summer of 1929, whoops
Marion McNay planned her 10,000 sf home in what is now Alamo Heights and it opened in 1931
It happened again in 1968 with HemisFair the 250th anniversary of the founding of SA
Now Graham Weston plans all sorts of new buildings in downtown SA, he is moving the Plaza Club, Frost Bank Tower, Centro
UTSA is expanding its downtown presence. Will this be an echol of the four new universities that openned in year 2000 at the very top of the 1982-2000 bull market, none have lived up to expectations, UNT Dallas, A & M Central Texas, MITC Round Rock, TAMUSA
AIDS and COVID
Is Fauci making the same mistake with COVID that he did with AIDS
there never was a vaccine for AIDS, is there one for COVID
or is the better idea to treat patients so they can live with it
An Ill wind blows energy costs
also in today's WSJ, the wind has gone slack on the North Sea. EU countries depending on wind power are now seeing the price of conventional energy soaring
As social mood has grown to embrace solar and wind, and electric cars which will depend on solar and wind, is that a one way ticket to disaster?
EU countries are now discovering the danger of a lack of alternatives
The recent floods in Louisiana are causing many to re think, what if I had to drive an electric car thru high water
If I had an electric car how would I re charge it with all the power lines down? Point being that total reliance on electric vehicles could make a disaster just that much worse.
My take is that electric makes sense in small light vehicle like a Kawasaki Mule powered by an electric motor using numerous lawnmower batteries, most of my errands are within two miles of my home
Higher Ed Alternatives
Higher Ed administrators still believe the demand for Higher Ed is inelastic, it will stay strong regardless of cost or how much faster cost outpaces reward on graduation
see sept 11 post on professorelam EY cuts cost of MPA
Also see coding schools, apprenticeships, more young men reject colllege, lower cost CC alternatives
Here is an excerpt from the news on AOC's debut at a MET Opera Gala
Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is well-known for making powerful statements with her political speeches but she's just got everyone talking through the medium of fashion, at her first ever Met Gala appearance.
At an event attended by the likes of Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and a load of generally extremely financially wealthy people, AOC seized her moment to make totally clear where she still stands on closing the gap between the ultra-rich and the working class people of America.
AOC's interpretation of the theme "America: A Lexicon of Fashion" was a stunning floor-length white gown by Brother Vellies, which was simple and classic from the front, and from the back was emblazoned with "TAX THE RICH" in huge red writing. In case people missed her not-subtle-at-all message, AOC's bag also read “Tax The Rich”.
Anyone who follows AOC's political career will likely have been aware of her stance on this issue before the Met Gala. She's previously been vocal about increasing tax for the highest earners, suggesting those who make above $10m may need to be taxed up to 70% because "As you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more."
So, her dress was true to form and it's fair to say the people of Twitter were living for the look.
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The tickets to any arts event, the opera, ballet, art museum, symphony, do not support the endeavor. It requires serious external fund raising. And folks on food stamps do not provide that support. Taking money away from the well to do for her latest vote buying schemes only makes it more difficult for the arts to exists. And clearly she and Joe Biden do not grasp that this means more money (the money she wants) will be spent on attorneys and cpas to prevent the tax grab.
The professional chapter is hosting a virtual career workshop. Have you wanted to know more about audit or tax? Did you know there are more options available than audit or tax? Well, this event is just for you. Come explore with us!
Tuesday, October 5th (4:00-7:00 Vista Room)- MEET THE FIRMS
Come network with local firms. Possible internships and full-time positions are available so bring your resume!
If you would like more information or to RSVP, head over to JagSync!
The Securities and Exchange Commission may need to prohibit trading in about 270 China-related companies by early 2024. The reason can be traced to the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals.
Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, mandating inspections of public companies’ auditors by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. More than 50 foreign jurisdictions allow the board to “audit the auditors.” Two do not: China and Hong Kong.
Congress acted last year to fill this gap by unanimously passing the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. The law prohibits trading in an issuer’s stock if a foreign jurisdiction prevents our oversight board from inspecting the company’s audit firm for three consecutive years. The SEC has taken all the required steps to implement this law, and the oversight board is on track to finalize its relevant rulemaking before the end of the year. The three-year clock began ticking in 2021.
Now it’s up to Beijing to let the oversight board in so we can ensure the relevant audits are up to U.S. standards. Early next year I expect we will announce which companies, if any, used an auditor that didn’t open its workpapers to U.S. overseers. If these companies use an audit firm in a noncompliant jurisdiction for two more years consecutively, their shares will be prohibited from trading in our capital markets beginning in 2024.
Quick reminder: There is NOT an IMA SA chapter meeting this week - Thursday, Sept 16th– nor will we meet Thursday, October 21st. We WILL be back Thursday, November 18th (meeting in person and virtually.)
Instead, please plan to attend 1 or both days of the Texas Annual Conference (hosted by your chapter!) on Friday, October 1st (8 hours) and Saturday, October 2nd (4 hours) at the scenicHyatt Hill Country Resort across from SeaWorld. This event is open to non members as well. This is a family-friendly event. Feel free to have them stay overnight with you to enjoy the venue while we hear from great speakers.
I'm attaching the event brochure as well as the presentation / speaker schedule.
We have had great response from IMA members and friends and have only a few slots left.
If you have already registered, thank you! We appreciate it. Invite a friend.
If you haven't yet registered, you can still register before the price goes up at midnight Central Time on Saturday, Sept 18that the event website: https://sanantonioima.wixsite.com/imasa2021.
You have until Wednesday, September 15th(or until the rooms are all gone), to take advantage of the heavily discounted guest room rates. Select the Location tab at the top right of the event website and click the link to Hyatt.
If you have questions, contact reply to this message.
Professor Elam 