SEC Charges Personal Driver of a Hedge Fund Manager for Posing as an Investment Professional

SEC Charges New York Man with Defrauding Clients by Posing as a Professional Money Manager

On December 5, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Shahin Ahmed, the personal driver of a hedge fund manager for posing as an investment professional to convince three investors to let him manage their money, resulting in their combined losses of over $1 million.

The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges that from at least March 2020 to February 2022, Ahmed persuaded prospective clients that he had experience as a professional money manager at a hedge fund when, in fact, he was employed as the personal driver for a hedge fund manager, without any of the education or professional experience he claimed to have. As set forth in the complaint, Ahmed led at least one client to believe his funds would be expertly invested by the hedge fund manager for whom he drove, and presented the client with a fake investment opportunity and false reports of high returns. As alleged, Ahmed further induced that individual and a married couple to give him access to their own brokerage accounts to trade securities in those accounts. Ahmed allegedly guaranteed risk-free investment, while fraudulently collecting fees from his clients. The complaint further alleges that, contrary to his promised guarantee, Ahmed never repaid any of the trading losses that he caused.

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda Reflects on Career in Fireside Chat

Currently in his second term as SEC Commissioner, Uyeda first joined the agency in 2006 as counsel to then-Commissioner Paul Atkins. That early position also had Uyeda working closely with Hester Peirce, who was also counsel to Atkins.

It’s “a bit weird” that 20 years after they all met, they’re still “doing the same thing,” Uyeda joked. Both Uyeda and Peirce now serve as SEC commissioners, with Uyeda being the first Asian-Pacific American to serve in such a position, and [Atkins] is the agency’s current chairman.

Uyeda’s relationship with Atkins is “very different” than with the previous chairman, Gary Gensler, Uyeda acknowledged.

Uyeda himself also briefly served as acting chairman, during the months that Atkins—appointed to the position by President Donald Trump—was waiting to be confirmed.

Uyeda said that there had been no conversations between the agency and Atkins during that interim period. But after working with Atkins for 20 years, Uyeda had a good idea of what Atkins wanted—it was usually what Uyeda wanted as well, he said.

Texas Space Boom Requires Lots of Lawyers in Boost for Firms

Lawyers are as necessary as rocket fuel for legally complex space ventures, so as launches proliferate in Texas, so does the work for law firms.

he firms are helping private companies license satellites, execute contracts to fly in low-Earth orbit and resolve intellectual property disputes tied to cosmic endeavors. They have built space law practices to handle the work, and some expect to grow them in coming years. […]

The modern space era requires private lawyers for regulatory compliance and licensing, contracts for manufacturing satellites, launch-service agreements, and securing funds for financing projects, said Diane Howard, who teaches a course on space law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.

Arthur Andersen Ex-Partners Seek to Raise $176 Million in IPO

Andersen Group Inc., the US arm of the professional services firm that succeeded the shuttered accounting giant Arthur Andersen, is seeking to raise $176 million in an initial public offering.

The company plans to market 11 million shares for $14 to $16 each, according to its filing Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

At the top of that range, Andersen would have a market value of around $1.75 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing.

The San Francisco-based company had net income of $65.7 million on revenue of $668.3 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with net income of $144.5 million on revenue of $589.2 million for the same period a year earlier.

The consultancy was founded by former Arthur Andersen partners following that firm’s collapse, the website shows. The current firm was launched under a different name in 2002 and adopted the Andersen brand in 2014 following encouraging market research, according to a letter from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Vorsatz in the filing.

“I told a long-time friend that ‘this was a no brainer’,” he wrote.

SEC Division of Examinations Releases its List of What’s Hot & What’s Not for 2026

Consistent with recent years, early this fiscal year the SEC’s Division of Examinations (the “Examinations”) has released its 2026 examination priorities (“Priorities”). The Priorities signal a more engagement-oriented program consistent with one of Chairman Atkins’ mantras, framing regulatory oversight and compliance as a two-way conversation—not a “gotcha” exercise. In the prologue, Examinations leadership: (1) promises to share observations and deepen outreach with registrants and SROs, and to harmonize its work with that of the Commission’s various policy divisions and (2) underscores its plan for deploying limited resources to the highest risk areas for investors and market integrity. The second issue is a perennial one for the SEC but is particularly acute following the significant reduction in headcount the SEC has experienced in the past nine months. Notwithstanding agency changes, in our experience, the work of Exams has generally continued to proceed apace. […]

A takeaway: Examination’s priorities for this year seem to include almost everything. That means its risk-based approach will be put to the test. If Examinations follows the same approach as Enforcement, then we may see less of a focus on the numbers—i.e., how many exams are conducted—and more focus on substantive exams of risk-identified priorities. For registrants, this may mean “deeper dive” exams rather than many “desk exams.