New Regulatory Developments: How to Avoid the SEC's Common Compliance Deficiencies and Respond to Examiners

Cynthia Aragon is the Chief Compliance Officer at Altegris. Altegris manages both Private Funds and Public Funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Its subsidiaries include a registered investment advisor, a broker/dealer and a commodity pool operator. Cynthia has over 15 years of compliance experience, including in retail brokerage, institutional brokerage, mutual funds, hedge funds, fund of funds, reinsurance, commodity pools and investment banking.

Prior to joining Altegris, Cynthia was Chief Compliance Officer at Agile Fund Solutions, LLC, in Los Angeles, CA, where she provided outsourced CCO functions and built compliance programs for Agile’s investment adviser and fund client base. Prior to Agile, Cynthia held positions with Crabel Capital Management, LLC, in Los Angeles, CA, as Chief Compliance Officer; with WestPark Capital, Inc., in Los Angeles, CA, as Interim Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel; with Fattoc, LLC, in Los Angeles, CA, as Chief Compliance Officer, and with SEB Enskilda, Inc. in New York, NY, as Chief Compliance Officer. Cynthia began her career in compliance as a Field Compliance Supervisor with Ameriprise Financial (Formerly American Express Financial Advisors), in Paramus, NJ.

Cynthia obtained her BA in Political Science from New York University and her Juris Doctor degree from Fordham Law School. Cynthia has been a member of the New York Bar since 1997 and the California Bar since 2011. Cynthia holds Series 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 24, 27, 53, and 66 licenses.

Ms. Shapiro serves as Chief Compliance Officer and Managing Director at ZAIS and is a member of ZAIS’s Management Advisory Committee.

Before joining ZAIS in June of 2013, Ms. Shapiro was Senior Compliance Officer and Compliance Consultant with Millennium Management LLC, CCO of Worldwide Life and Retirement Services with AIG, Inc. and CCO of International Insurance with Prudential Financial, Inc. She previously was an attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its Enforcement Division and practiced law with the firms Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson and Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge (now, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), in Washington, D.C. Ms. Shapiro has served as Chair of the Editorial Board of Business Law Today, a publication of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law and as a member of the Section’s Council, among other bar leadership positions and as a Visiting Professor of Law with the Central University of Finance and Economics Law School in Beijing, China.

Ms. Shapiro received a J.D. from the Washington College of Law at The American University and her B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Michael C. Neus is a Senior Fellow in Residence with the Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement at New York University School of Law. Neus is a frequent author and lecturer on securities, compliance, hedge fund and private equity topics at industry events and for global regulators. From 2005 through 2016, Neus was responsible for all legal, compliance, human resource and administrative matters as Managing Partner and General Counsel of Perry Capital, LLC.

Prior to joining Perry Capital in 2005, Mike was the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at RHG Capital, L.P., Chief General Counsel at Andor Capital Management, L.L.C., and General Counsel of Soros Private Funds Management LLC. Neus began his professional career as an associate at the law firm Coudert Brothers, in both the Singapore and New York offices. Neus is a Senior Fellow of the Regulatory Compliance Association, and was formerly a Director, Chairman of the Investment Advisory Subcommittee, and member of the Executive Committee of the Managed Funds Association.

Mike received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and his B.A. cum laude from the University of Notre Dame.