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SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

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Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#71

Post by paulddraper »

CalChris wrote: post #67
backuptape8 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the page's title: > The Actual Mike is not quite the virtual Gatsby Jay Gatsby was a criminal. Of course he says he's "not quite the virtual Gatsby." But he's still essentially likening himself to a fictional criminal.

Jay Gatsby was a criminal. That's gray. It's hinted and perhaps likely that he was a bootlegger. As that was legal before prohibition and after, it's hard for me to morally judge him a criminal what with his character never having been charged and convicted of any crime.

But legally...he was a criminal (probably).

Just like people who drove 80mph were criminals during the Emergency Highway Energy Conversation Act, but they weren't before or after that.

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#72

Post by CalChris »

paulddraper wrote: post #71
CalChris wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jay Gatsby was a criminal. That's gray. It's hinted and perhaps likely that he was a bootlegger. As that was legal before prohibition and after, it's hard for me to morally judge him a criminal what with his character never having been charged and convicted of any crime.

But legally...he was a criminal (probably). Just like people who drove 80mph were criminals during the Emergency Highway Energy Conversation Act, but they weren't before or after that.

No, legally people who are convicted of crimes are criminals.

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#73

Post by oh_sigh »

jwc1 wrote: post #70
oh_sigh wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I also never understood why Al Capone has such a bad stigma when he was really just a run of the mill tax evader.

I think there's a great deal of evidence to suggest Capone was more than a run of the mill tax evader even though all they nailed him for was tax evasion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone#Saint_Valentine's_Da... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Outfit#Al_Capone's_emp...

I was referring to this part of the post:

> his character never having been charged and convicted of any crime.

Or is the idea that if you are charged for shoplifting it is okay to spread the idea that you are a murderer?

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#74

Post by dlgeek »

miguelmota wrote: post #45
jboggan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article is about the whistleblower/commenter above. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-09/he-blew-t...

> Rothenberg’s staff included frat brothers from Stanford, and he was known for buying luxury boxes at concerts and high-profile sporting events, sponsoring auto racing, supplying virtual-reality headsets at parties he threw for minor celebrities, organizing puppy-petting parties, even renting out San Francisco’s AT&T Park, where the Giants play. How much do puppy-petting parties cost?

Hell, if you do it right, I bet you could work with a local shelter to get it for just about free, if you're a big enough business.

Get them to bring the pets on site (maybe you'd have to pay for transit costs?) for an adoption drive where employees could play with the animals and start the adoption process if they found the right one.

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#75

Post by mikeryan »

CalChris wrote: post #67
backuptape8 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the page's title: > The Actual Mike is not quite the virtual Gatsby Jay Gatsby was a criminal. Of course he says he's "not quite the virtual Gatsby." But he's still essentially likening himself to a fictional criminal.

Jay Gatsby was a criminal. That's gray. It's hinted and perhaps likely that he was a bootlegger. As that was legal before prohibition and after, it's hard for me to morally judge him a criminal what with his character never having been charged and convicted of any crime.

Bootlegging, by definition, is illegal.

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#76

Post by JumpCrisscross »

backuptape8 wrote: post #65
tlrobinson wrote: post #50

The "0 lawsuits filed" stat on his website now seems a bit foreshadowing 150 Investments Made 175 Limited Partners 5 Years of Experience 0 Lawsuits Filed http://mikerothenberg.com/ Maybe he can post a "Days since last SEC action" sign in the office.

From the page's title: > The Actual Mike is not quite the virtual Gatsby Jay Gatsby was a criminal. Of course he says he's "not quite the virtual Gatsby." But he's still essentially likening himself to a fictional criminal.

> he's still essentially likening himself to a fictional criminal

And Steve Jobs likened himself to a pirate (along with half my grade school).

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#77

Post by qeternity »

wmf wrote: post #32
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #2

"Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, Rothenberg and Rothenberg Ventures agreed to settle the charges. The settlement is subject to approval by the federal district court for the Northern District of California which would determine the amount of disgorgement and civil money penalties. Rothenberg also agreed to be barred from the brokerage and investment advisory business with a right…

blowing investors' money on lavish staff events, which is a dick move but not necessarily illegal I'm not an expert on this topic, but if a limited partner agrees to something like "2 and 20" fees doesn't that imply that the other 98% of the money is to be invested and not used for expenses? 2% management fee on $64M assets is only $1.2M which is pretty small considering the size of staff they had. It's less bad if t…

Many funds have "chargeable" expenses like research and travel. These come directly out of the fund and not the management fee.

Source: former hedge fund trader

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#78

Post by ceejayoz »

Freestyler_3 wrote: post #37
ProAm wrote: post #3

7 million sounds like a drop to settle for, plus likely a small fine.

"Rothenberg also agreed to be barred from the brokerage and investment advisory business with a right to reapply after five years. An SEC order imposing the bar will be instituted following court approval of the settlement." How much does that cost?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Blodget would seem to indicate it doesn't necessarily cost at all.

Re: SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme

#79

Post by mikekchar »

news_to_me wrote: post #22
pwaai wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah I've pretty much given up on the justice system. if you have money regardless of how you obtained it, the law always favor those with capital for the most part. Unless you try to fight back against government's monopoly on violence....drug traffiking being a major competition, it makes sense why harsh sentences are handed out for drug dealers while white collar criminals that inflict damage to millions of people…

> yeah I've pretty much given up on the justice system. I just hate this mentality. Listen, I know things have been rough and defeatism is a natural way to feel in that context. But "giving up" is one of the ways things end up like this. Don't give up. Fight for justice.

There are a lot of times where there is nothing you can do. Fighting in the face of certain defeat is also a poor decision. As much as I understand your dislike of defeatism, there is a similar danger of being aimlessly angry and flailing about in a haphazard manner -- which I think it just as prevalent as defeatism. One of the reasons we actually choose corrupt officials to govern us in the first place is because they successfully rally our anger against something and promise to fight for our cause.

When there is nothing you can do, you must wait and look for an opportunity. It's not so much the giving up on fighting that's the problem, it's the giving up on hope. Improvements come slowly and are the result of much patient work.

Having said that, I hate waiting as much as the next person. :-(

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