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Philip Moustakis B. G., Opalesque Geneva:

In 2016, private equity firm Ares Management invested in a company and appointed one of its employees to that company's board - as private equity firms do. But it became a problem when the employee was allowed to continue to be part of the trading decision process at Ares, and Ares' compliance was not adequate enough to ensure fair play.

Aris has recently agreed to pay $1m to settle SEC charges that it had "failed to implement and enforce policies and procedures designed to prevent the misuse of material non-public information" (MNPI).

Ares invested several hundred million dollars in a public company through a loan and equity investment that allowed Ares to appoint a senior employee to the company's board, says the SEC. Ares's compliance policies failed to account for the special circumstances presented by having an employee serve on the portfolio company's board while that employee continued to participate in trading decisions regarding the portfolio company.

According to the order, Ares obtained potential material nonpublic information about the company, including through Ares's representative on the company's board, relating to changes in senior management, adjustments to the company's hedging strategy, and decisions with respect to the company's assets, debt, and interest payments. After receiving this information, Are......................

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