Dienstag, 30. April 2013

CrowdCheck Second Annual Conference


On April 8, 2013, CrowdCheck hosted our Second Annual Crowdfunding Conference.  The conference title was "Fraud and Red Tape: Risks to the Potential of Securities Crowdfunding".  We spent some time working on the title in order to highlight that there are two competing risks to the future of securities crowdfunding in the United States—extensive fraud and regulatory red tape.  The SEC has to find the right balance between these concerns, which is not easy to do.

Securities fraud is a very real concern.  As we have said before, securities fraud is not just for the sinister scammers.  Overly optimistic statements that don’t adequately explain the underlying assumptions could bring on the wrath of regulators and investors who believe they were misled by a company's offering materials.  If too many securities issuers make misleading or inaccurate statements, investors will simply stay away because they will not be able to make informed investment decisions.  And if there are no investors, there is no crowdfunding. 

The other side of the coin is that the SEC cannot require that the crowdfunding disclosure process look like a full-scale IPO.  Too much cost and effort will cause companies to stay away from the crowdfunding to begin with.  Just as with investors, if there are no companies, there is no crowdfunding. Read it all



Introduction





Keynote By Sen. Mark Warner







Panel One: Defining The Threat






Panel Two: Response Without Overreach







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