K2 is Looking for a Communications and Marketing Director

Posted on February 24th 2012, by K2 Global New York Office

K2 seeks a Communications & Marketing Director for the US market who has held management-level responsibilities at financial, information services, management consulting or business-to-business services firms.  The ideal candidate can think strategically but is also hands-on, execution-oriented and operationally savvy. Strong writing skills and comfort with Web content management, e-mail administration, and metrics analytics tools are crucial.  The individual must have event management experience and a strong comfort level in coordinating media and public relations activities.  The position is based in K2’s New York office.

The Director’s responsibilities will range from brand management to sales support and event management, and will include the following:

Creating awareness:

  • Web site maintenance and strategy
  • Media relations
  • Blog production management
  • Corporate promotion, communication tools, newsletters
  • PR campaigns, publicity, sponsorships
  • Creation and adaptation of marketing collateral
  • Creation and execution of e-mail campaigns
  • Social media strategy and execution
  • Event Management
  • Private events
  • External events (speaking opportunities, industry trade conferences, press conferences)

Sales activity planning:

  • Strategic Memberships
  • Mailings
  • Product and service collateral
  • Sales pitch support
  • Corporate Image, visual guidelines, logos, templates, Policy and Procedure Manual
  • Prospect database oversight
  • Mailing list oversight
  • Pipeline and lead generation tracking and reporting
  • Statistics and analysis
  • Interoffice K2 team visit planning

Please send your resume, salary requirements and other relevant details to employment@k2global.net.  Subject of inquiry should be Marcomm NY.

February Newsletter: Building “First to Know” Capabilities

Posted on February 20th 2012, by Matt

Dear Friends,

We’ve already had a busy 2012, with plenty of developments at both K2 and in the industries we focus on. Let’s catch up by discussing some recent news and the evolving regulatory environment; then I’d like to tell you tell you a little bit about the newest members of our team:

The Value of a “First-to-Know” Capability

January brought further scrutiny to the financial sector. Level Global’s Anthony Chiasson was arrested as the most prominent figure in an insider trading scandal that revolved around Dell Computer’s shares. But Diamondback Capital Management, also caught up in the Dell fiasco, signed a non-prosecution agreement with the government mostly because of the efforts the firm made to show it could maintain what we call a “first-to-know” capability.

The U.S. government likes to catch big fish, and is growing more interested in pursuing criminal prosecutions than merely issuing fines. If convicted, Chiasson will be the second major founder and fund manager the US Attorney will have been able to make a case against. More importantly, as my colleague Jason Golub notes in this post on our site, new rules have been proposed to greatly increase the potential penalties for insider trading.

The threat of these new penalties will only increase pressure on lower-level figures to cooperate with the government in gathering evidence on insider or “rogue” trading activities. Now anyone in the business of seeking Alpha has to think long and hard about vetting and supervising employees to protect against such risks. Firms operating broker-dealers, mutual funds, ETFs and any other trading vehicles must now be aware that the government will hold their firms responsible for the conduct of employees.

Believe it or not, there is a bright side to all of this.

At the same time the government is ratcheting up the intensity surrounding insider trading investigations, firms like Diamondback have discovered a good line of defense against the reputation risk these kinds of investigations can entail.

Jason commented on Diamondback’s non-prosecution agreement with the government here.Alone among the several firms that were raided by the FBI or caught up in the Dell-trading investigation, Diamondback remains an active and substantial hedge fund. They lost some of their assets during the difficult period between the raid and settling with the government, but they have been able to put the matter to rest and move on.

Regulators often require a firm to hire a “monitor” which helps prevent criminal prosecution of the enterprise; but it also forces the firm to give up control of some of their business. We recommend that, if you manage a fund, you get out ahead and self-appoint a third party to work with you to implement and test compliance risk controls and procedures.

I detail some of what Diamondback did and what our firm can do for other hedge funds who find themselves in a similar position in this Reuters Opinion piece, How to Avoid the Insider Trading Net. As I note in the piece, the strongest position to be in when dealing with the government is having a “first-to-know” capability. One way we help clients build this capability is by mapping employee relationships and correlating relationship data with outlier trading activity. This work alone will help demonstrate to investigators a good-faith effort to stand against insider trading.

Combining relationship mapping with experienced investigative work will allow any firm to quickly respond to questions before suspicions reach your investors. if you’d like our help in creating a “first-to-know” capability, please let us know.

K2 Global’s Recent Hires

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve had two exceptional talents join our firm, one in London and the other in New York.

Paul de Bendern has had an extensive and illustrious career in journalism, with 16 years at Reuters. He held senior positions in Latin America, North Africa, Turkey, Scandinavia and most recently was in charge of Thomson Reuters’s 100 news staff in India.

Paul has strong on-the-ground experience in the financial, energy & commodities sectors—and he is also adept at political risk coverage. From his posts in New Delhi, Istanbul/Ankara, Algiers, Helsinki, Stockholm and Panama City he has built up an extensive network. His contacts will further broaden the range of expertise that the K2 London office uses to manage and mitigate its clients’ risks.

Thomas Bock has over 18 years of experience serving the financial services industry in the areas of anti-money laundering, regulatory compliance, fraud investigations and risk management. He specializes in Know Your Customer, Customer Due Diligence, Transaction Monitoring, USA PATRIOT Act, Risk Assessments, Enhanced Due Diligence, FCPA and financial fraud investigations.

Throughout his professional career, Tom conducted a series of corporate fraud investigations, created fraud prevention policies, worked with clients’ Compliance, Audit and Legal groups to perform anti-money laundering assessments, training, risk evaluation and investigations, and performed corporate governance reviews and pre-acquisition due diligence compliance assessments. Prior to joining K2 Global, Tom held various managing positions at CIT Group, Ernst & Young, Daylight Forensic & Advisory LLC and KPMG.

I’d be happy to go into further detail about how our growing team can benefit you and your enterprise, so please feel free to get in touch.

Best,

Jeremy Kroll
CEO and Co-Founder
K2 Global Consulting N.A., LLC
www.k2global.net

Diamondback Shows the Value of Cooperation and Due Diligence

Posted on February 1st 2012, by Jason Golub

There’s no doubt that the government’s nonprosecution agreement with Diamondback Capital Management demonstrates the value of a hedge fund’s willingness to pursue a “first-to-know” strategy. Despite having two employees indicted in the Dell insider trading ring, Diamondback was able to keep it’s doors open by disgorging profits, paying a penalty and admitting some wrongdoing. That’s a far cry better than being run out of business:

Here’s Dealbook with the details of the settlement:

Under the terms of its agreements with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the federal government, Diamondback will forfeit $6 million in ill-gotten gains and pay a civil penalty of $3 million.

In a departure from the S.E.C.’s historical practices, Diamondback’s pact with the S.E.C. does not include language that the fund “neither admits nor denies” any wrongdoing in the case.

How did Diamondback do it? They proved to the government that they had done their own investigation, knew the scope of the problem remained with the two indicted employees and were willing to cooperate.

“We believe that the proposed settlement appropriately sanctions the misconduct while giving due credit to Diamondback for its substantial assistance in the government’s investigation and the pending actions against former employees and their co-defendants,” George Canellos, the head of the S.E.C.’s New York office, said in a statement.

Diamondback Avoids Criminal Charges in Insider Trading Case (Dealbook)